Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub

Gemini abides by your organization’s existing controls and data handling practices. Gemini accesses customer data in order to provide personalized responses, such as summarizing a document in Google Docs or analyzing data in a Google Sheet.

Data stored by the customer through use of Google Workspace services is considered customer data as defined by the Cloud Data Processing Addendum (CDPA) and, as such, is governed by the data processing terms set out in the CDPA. Google only accesses and processes customer data in accordance with customer instruction as set out in the CDPA.

You can find more information about how we process user prompts in The life of a prompt: Demystifying Gemini. Below is a depiction of the workflow of a user prompt.

Gemini for Workspace does not save prompts or responses. The prompts that a user enters when interacting with Gemini for Workspace are not used beyond the context of the user session. The data disappears after your Gemini session ends, as we explain in The life of a prompt: Demystifying Gemini.

The Gemini app saves your Gemini apps activity (such as your prompts and responses) to Your Gemini Apps Activity for up to 18 months. Your chats and uploaded files won't be reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise be used to train generative AI models. Admins have the ability to turn on and off access to the Gemini app for their organization and will soon be able to manage Gemini Apps activity duration in an upcoming release. Check back for updates.

When Google Workspace business, education, and public sector customers use Gemini features, they get the same robust data protection and security standards that come with all Google Workspace services:

• Your interactions with Gemini stay within your organization. Gemini does not share your data outside your organization without your permission. 
• Gemini brings the same enterprise-grade security as the rest of Google Workspace, automatically applying your organization’s existing controls and data handling practices. 
• Your content is not used for any other customers. None of your content is used for generative AI model training outside of your domain without permission.

You can learn more here: 

• How we're protecting your Google Workspace data in the era of generative AI
• Boosting productivity and creativity with Duet AI in Google Workspace while keeping your organization’s data private

The strict data access control model for Gemini does not allow for inputs or session content to leak across user boundaries. The model is structured to only present data from a session to that individual user. Thus, information is not only kept private within an organization, it is also kept private between users within an organization subject to the built-in Workspace access control for shared files. Client-side encryption (CSE) can restrict Gemini’s access to sensitive data, because no Google system or Google employee have the technical means to access CSE content, so it can be leveraged to accomplish the same goal.

The prompts that a user enters when interacting with features available in Gemini are not used beyond the context of the user trust boundary. Prompt content is not used for training generative AI models outside of your domain without your permission.

The content entered in Gemini prompts stays within your organization. Additionally, for supported Workspace editions, existing DLP control will continue to apply to generated output from Gemini that is inserted into Workspace services covered by DLP (for example emails, shared Drive files, and Docs). Ultimately no content is shared unless a user in your organization explicitly does so.

No. User prompts are considered customer data under the Cloud Data Processing Addendum. Workspace does not use customer data for training models without customer’s prior permission or instruction. This commitment is outlined in the ‘Training Restriction’ section of the Google Workspace Service Specific Terms.

At Google, we take our contractual commitments to customers very seriously. Customers can count on Google to handle customer data in line with the agreement, including our commitments (1) to process customer data according to customer instructions under the agreement, and (2) not to use customer data to train or fine-tune any of Google’s generative artificial intelligence models supporting the Google Workspace Generative AI Services without our customer’s prior permission or instruction.

But they aren’t just words. To ensure we continually meet these high standards, independent auditors validate our practices against international standards and best practices. We’ve attained some of the most comprehensive set of safety, privacy and security certifications and attestations for Gemini from internationally recognized regulatory and compliance bodies, such as SOC 1/2/3, ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001, 27701, 27017, 27018, and 42001 - the world's first international standard for Artificial Intelligence Management Systems (AIMS). Gemini has FedRAMP High authorization and can also help you meet HIPAA compliance. 

Google's foundational language models are trained primarily on publicly available, crawlable data from the internet. We give publishers control over how their sites are used with Google-Extended, which web publishers can use to manage whether their sites help improve Gemini Apps and Vertex AI generative APIs.

• Gemini for Workspace: When you enter a prompt in the Gemini for Workspace side panel, it will search for relevant content within your organization that you have access to such as specific emails, relevant presentations and docs and generate a response grounded in this information. In most cases following this, you will have the option to Retry with Google Search . When you use this option, Gemini for Workspace leverages Google Search to improve the quality of its responses by accessing factual information and relevant sources. The data transmitted to Google Search is processed in strict compliance with Workspace's security measures and data privacy commitments.

• Gemini app: Gemini is grounded in Google’s understanding of authoritative information, and is trained to generate responses that are relevant to the context of your prompt and in line with what you’re looking for. It also relies on external sources such as Google Search, and/or one of its several extensions, and recently uploaded files (Gemini Advanced only) to generate its responses. Given a prompt, Gemini strives to retrieve the most pertinent information from these external sources (e.g., Google Search) and represent them accurately in its response.

  To further mitigate against the risk of hallucinations you can use the Double check response feature, which uses Google Search to find content that helps you assess Gemini’s responses, and gives you links to sources to help you corroborate the information you get from Gemini. As with all Workspace core services, the data transmitted to Google Search is processed in strict compliance with Workspace's security measures and data privacy commitments.

Gemini uses a collection of models from Google’s rich repository. With these models, Gemini can help you write, visualize, organize, and connect more meaningfully. Read more about it on the Workspace Blog.

Yes. Access to the Gemini app as a core service is turned on by default, except for primary and secondary Google Workspace for Education institutions. Google Workspace for Education K12 customers must enable the Gemini app for their users. Learn how to turn the Gemini app on or off for users.

Additionally, for supported Workspace editions, admins can enable or disable Gemini features and the side panel in the following Workspace services: 

• Gmail
• Drive
• Docs
• Meet
• Chat

Learn how to manage access to Gemini features in Workspace services

Providing in-product feedback is entirely voluntary. If users choose to submit feedback while using Gemini features, they can provide the following data:

• The user’s rating for Gemini suggestions (thumbs up / thumbs down)
• The issue found by the user, selected from a set of pre-defined options such as “offensive / unsafe” or “not factually correct” (Gemini for Workspace only) 
• Any additional feedback the user may want to provide via the open text box (Gemini for Workspace only) 
• Generated output, only if the checkbox to share generated output is explicitly selected by the user (Gemini for Workspace only) 

Feedback is used to improve generative AI products and services in accordance with the Google Cloud Privacy Notice, but it is not used to train any of the generative AI models that support Google Workspace Generative AI Services. The feedback may be used in the following ways:

• Aggregate analysis: To track overall user satisfaction and identify trends to inform future improvements and prioritization
• Fix bugs: To identify and resolve issues quickly
• Fight policy violations: To improve Gemini safety features that are designed to help prevent the generation of harmful or offensive content

Feedback data may be retained for up to 18 months.

For qualifying editions, admins can see audit logs for activity triggered by Gemini accessing  content from Drive (see details at Adding audit logs for Gemini for Google Workspace activity). Over time we will be adding Gemini audit logs across more Workspace applications. Check back for future updates on the Google Workspace Updates blog.

Given the global nature of Google Workspace services, Gemini optimizes processing of customer data within facilities located closest to the user. However Gemini does not perform processing of a prompt or response in a customer defined region. We provide information about the locations of Google’s facilities as well as our subprocessors’ facilities.

Once a response from Gemini has been accepted by the user and pasted into a document or email, customers with qualifying editions can choose to use the Data Regions feature to select a region (such as Europe) to store their covered customer data at rest. This feature currently applies to the Google Workspace Core Services and data set out at Data covered by data regions (which is reflected in the “Data Regions” Section of the Google Workspace Service Specific Terms).

Refer to our Cloud Data Processing Addendum, Workspace Services Summary, Service Specific Terms, and Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy.

Google has a long-standing commitment to global privacy compliance, and generative AI services are no different.

Gemini has attained SOC 1/2/3, ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001, 27701, 27017, 27018, and 42001 certifications. Gemini has FedRAMP High authorization. Additionally, Gemini supports compliance with COPPA and FERPA.

With these certifications, Gemini has one of the most comprehensive set of safety, privacy and security certifications internationally recognized by regulatory and compliance bodies.

The achievement of ISO/IEC 42001, the world's first international standard for Artificial Intelligence Management Systems (AIMS), certifies that Gemini has been developed, deployed, and maintained responsibly with appropriate ethical considerations, data governance, and transparency. No other generative AI offering for productivity and collaboration has met this level of recognition, showing that Gemini is the first in the industry ready to support businesses and public sector organizations while benefiting all users.

Gemini can support HIPAA workloads. The HIPAA Included Functionality and the Google Workspace and Cloud Identity HIPAA implementation guide have been updated to reflect the inclusion of Gemini.

Gemini in Workspace apps and the Gemini app have FedRAMP High authorization. Learn more on the Google Cloud Blog.

Google is committed to developing and deploying AI boldly and responsibly with our European partners. For more information on how we are preparing for AI Act compliance, see our article Navigating the EU AI Act: Google Cloud's proactive approach.

Gemini follows the same privacy and security principles across all of the Workspace applications. You can find the details in our privacy and security support pages.

We published this Privacy Hub to provide our customers, especially those in the public sector, with Gemini specific content for their required assessments. Refer to our DPIA Resource Center for guidance around the DPIA process itself.

The Gemini Workspace extension allows you to connect the Gemini app with your Google Workspace apps and services to improve your productivity and streamline your workflows. When you connect Google Workspace, you can ask Gemini Apps to:

• Summarize, get quick answers, and find information from apps and services like Gmail, Docs, and Drive
• Add and retrieve your tasks from Google Tasks
• Create and retrieve notes and lists from Google Keep
• Create and manage your events in Google Calendar

Your use of Gemini with the Workspace Extension is governed by your organization’s Workspace agreement, including the Cloud Data Processing Addendum. Your chats and uploaded files in Gemini app won’t be reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise used to train generative AI models without your permission.

Important: Your use of any other extension with the Gemini app will be governed by different terms and are not subject to this article.

Yes. Admins have the ability to control whether people in your organization can access the Workspace extension in the Gemini app. You can find more details at Turn Workspace extensions in Gemini on or off (Beta). 

Users have the ability to enable and disable the Workspace extension. You can find more details at Use extensions in Gemini Apps with a work or school Google Account. Also as mentioned above, users have control over their smart feature settings, including allowing the Gemini app to access Workspace data via the Workspace extension. You can learn more about these user controls at Turn on Google Workspace smart features in Gmail.

The Gemini app is now a core Workspace service for most Google Workplace editions subject to your organization’s Workspace agreement, including the Cloud Data Processing Addendum. When Google Workspace business, education, and public sector customers use the Gemini app, they get the same robust data protection and security standards that come with all Google Workspace services. Your chats and uploaded files won't be reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise used to train generative AI models outside of your domain without your permission.

If you turn on Gemini with added data protection, Google Workspace for Education users must be at least 13 years old (or the applicable age in your country) to access the Gemini app. Certain features of the Gemini app, such as generating images, may be restricted for Google Workspace for Education users designated as under 18.

As a core Workspace service, NotebookLM is subject to your organization’s Workspace agreement, including the Cloud Data Processing Addendum and gets the same robust data protection and security standards that come with all Google Workspace services. In addition, your uploads, queries and the model's responses in NotebookLM will not be reviewed by human reviewers, and will not be used to train generative AI models.

When users upload sources from Drive, NotebookLM creates a new copy of each file. This new file is stored with the user's NotebookLM data, not in their Drive. Your organization's file sharing and data region settings do not apply to data in NotebookLM.

Yes, admins can turn NotebookLM on or off. This setting also allows Admins to turn NotebookLM or NotebookLM Plus ON for their entire organization or only for a subset of users in a specific organization unit or group.

NotebookLM is currently not integrated with Workspace DLP. However you can use Information Rights Management (disable download, copy, or print) to prevent Drive files from being uploaded into NotebookLM.  

Yes, admins can use CAA with NotebookLM to help protect resources from unauthorized access by restricting access to only those users who are in the appropriate context (such as user's device posture, network traits).

Yes, Admins can export NotebookLM data using the Data Export tool. NotebookLM also supports end-user Takeout. Users can initiate a Takeout request to export their data at takeout.google.com.

No. At this stage NotebookLM does not support ISO, SOC, or FedRAMP compliance and is not covered by the Google Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for HIPAA compliance. We plan to work toward these compliance certifications and will share more updates in 2025.