Do you use Google Gemini? If so, you may have noticed that this AI chatbot tries to gather as much information about you as possible to provide you with better answers. But the question is, how much personal information does a chatbot need?
Gemini can read your search history, shared files, photos, videos, voice recordings, and even data from your Gmail and Drive. This data is used to train its AI model. Even if you're not using Gemini directly, this AI model is collecting your data through other Google products. Although Google offers some privacy control options, they can be a bit difficult to find and understand.
If you want to use Gemini but don't want it to record everything you say, you can change these 7 settings in Gemini:
1. Prevent search data from AI training: Google is now using images, audio, or documents you upload to the search bar for AI training. To stop this, go to the 'My Activity' settings, select 'Search Services History,' and uncheck the 'Save media' box.
2. Keep old chats from being used for training : Gemini learns from your conversations. The only way to stop this is to turn off your 'Gemini Activity'. Go to the 'Gemini Apps Activity' page and turn off the 'Keep activity' setting. Note that this will prevent you from seeing your old chats again.
3. Manually delete sensitive chats: If you don't want to delete your entire history, you can delete only specific chats. You can manually delete a single chat, or all chats from a specific time period, by going to the 'Activity Page.' You can also choose to auto-delete for 3, 18, or 36 months.
4. Turn off Gemini Live's voice recording: Gemini Live saves your voice recordings by default. To stop this, go to the Activity page and uncheck the "Improve Google services with your audio..." setting.
5. Remove access from Google Drive and Gmail : Gemini can read your Gmail, Google Drive, and Calendar data. If you don't want this, go to Settings > Personal Intelligence > Connected Apps and disconnect any apps you don't want Gemini to access.
6. Turn off the 'Memory' feature : Gemni's "Memory" feature remembers your likes and dislikes to provide you with better responses. If you don't want this, go to Personal Intelligence and turn off the Memory feature.
7. Use Temporary Chat: Use Temporary Chat if you need to share sensitive or private information. Conversations in this mode are not saved in the chat history, are not used for AI training, and are only saved for 72 hours.
Google offers several privacy controls, but choosing the right settings is the user's responsibility. If you want AI to use your personal information as little as possible, be sure to review these settings.