Gemini Apps Privacy Hub

Last updated: March 21, 2024

Gemini Apps Privacy Notice
Terms of Service
Privacy questions

Gemini Apps Privacy Notice

Last updated: February 8, 2024

Your data and Gemini Apps

This notice and our Privacy Policy describe how Google handles your data when you interact with our Gemini Apps. “Gemini Apps” refers to our conversational AI service for consumers in apps that reference this notice.

Gemini Apps are provided by Google LLC (referred to as Google).

Google collects your Gemini Apps conversations, related product usage information, info about your location, and your feedback. Google uses this data, consistent with our Privacy Policy, to provide, improve, and develop Google products and services and machine learning technologies, including Google’s enterprise products such as Google Cloud.

If you are 18 or older, or under 18 and turn Gemini Apps Activity on, then by default Google stores your Gemini Apps activity with your Google Account for up to 18 months, which you can change to 3 or 36 months in your Gemini Apps Activity setting. Info about your location, including the general area from your device, IP address, or Home or Work addresses in your Google Account, is also stored with your Gemini Apps activity. Learn more at g.co/privacypolicy/location.

To help with quality and improve our products (such as generative machine-learning models that power Gemini Apps), human reviewers read, annotate, and process your Gemini Apps conversations. We take steps to protect your privacy as part of this process. This includes disconnecting your conversations with Gemini Apps from your Google Account before reviewers see or annotate them. Please don’t enter confidential information in your conversations or any data you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our products, services, and machine-learning technologies.

Configuring your settings

Visit your Google Account to access settings and tools that let you safeguard your data and protect your privacy.

If you want to use Gemini Apps without saving your conversations to your Google Account, you can turn off your Gemini Apps Activity. You can review your prompts or delete your conversations from your Gemini Apps Activity at myactivity.google.com/product/gemini.

Conversations that have been reviewed or annotated by human reviewers (and related data like your language, device type, location info, or feedback) are not deleted when you delete your Gemini Apps activity because they are kept separately and are not connected to your Google Account. Instead, they are retained for up to three years.

Even when Gemini Apps Activity is off, your conversations will be saved with your account for up to 72 hours. This lets Google provide the service and process any feedback. This activity won’t appear in your Gemini Apps Activity. Learn more.

If you turn off this setting or delete your Gemini Apps activity, other settings, like Web & App Activity or Location History, may continue to save location and other data as part of your use of other Google services. In addition, when you integrate and use Gemini Apps with other Google services, they will save and use your data to provide and improve their services, consistent with their policies and the Google Privacy Policy. If you use Gemini Apps to interact with third-party services, they will process your data according to their own privacy policies.

You can request the removal of content under our policies or applicable laws. You can also export your information.

See the Gemini Apps FAQ and Gemini Apps Privacy Hub to learn more.

Switching from Google Assistant to Gemini as your mobile assistant

You can switch from Google Assistant to Gemini as your mobile assistant in specific locations. When that happens:

Google also collects, and uses consistent with our Privacy Policy, context info necessary to understand and respond to you (such as contacts, alarms, events, installed apps, smart home device names, notifications, playlists).
Gemini can help you with calls or texts like Google Assistant did before.
- If you are 18 or older and used Google Assistant for calling or texting in the 90 days before switching, any saved Google Assistant communications request history (for example, “Send a WhatsApp message to Sasha”) will be imported from your Web & App Activity to your Gemini Apps Activity. If your Assistant Personal Results setting is turned on, this data will be used to improve your experience with Gemini, such as picking the right contact or messaging app. You can always turn off Personal Results.
Some features in Gemini are powered by Google Assistant, like “Hey Google” and Voice Match. You can adjust the settings that support these features in your Gemini mobile app settings. Learn more.
Gemini may activate when you didn’t intend it to, for example, if there’s a noise that sounds like “Hey Google.” If this happens and Gemini responds, it will be treated the same as an intended activation and according to your settings.

Things to know

Gemini Apps are an experimental technology and may sometimes give inaccurate or inappropriate information that doesn’t represent Google’s views.
Don’t rely on responses from Gemini Apps as medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice.
Your feedback will help make Gemini Apps better.
Google processes your voice and audio data if you speak to Gemini Apps, but by default, this info is not saved to Google servers.

Terms of Service

You agree that your use of Gemini Apps is subject to the Google Terms of Service and the Generative AI Additional Terms of Service.

If you’re a Korea-based consumer, you also agree that your use of Gemini Apps is subject to the Korean Location Terms of Service.

Privacy questions

Last updated: March 21, 2024

What are Gemini Apps?

The Gemini Apps referred to in the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice and the Gemini Apps Privacy Hub include:

The Gemini web app at gemini.google.com
The Gemini mobile apps, which include:
- The Gemini app, including as your mobile assistant, on Android in specific locations
- The Gemini tab in the Google app on iOS in specific locations
Gemini in the Google Messages app in specific locations

How can I object to the processing of my data or ask for inaccurate data in Gemini Apps’ responses to be corrected?

LLM experiences (Gemini Apps included) can hallucinate and present inaccurate information as factual.

Under certain privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU, you may have the right to:

Object to the processing of your personal data, or
Ask for inaccurate personal data in Gemini Apps’ responses to be corrected.

To exercise these rights, you can create a request in our Help Center.

You can also create a request directly in Gemini Apps. Below the Gemini app’s response, select More Report legal issue.

Create a request

Additional resources

To learn more about how to exercise your rights related to data we’ve collected, read the Google Privacy Policy and the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice.

What are Google’s legal bases of processing Gemini Apps data under European Union (EU) or United Kingdom (UK) data protection law?

If European Union (EU) or United Kingdom (UK) data protection law applies to the processing of your information, please read the below carefully.

When you use Gemini Apps, Google processes your information for the purposes, and on the legal grounds, described below.

When we refer to “your Gemini Apps information” below we mean all of the following: (i) your Gemini Apps conversations and related product usage information (which includes your location information); and (ii) your feedback.

Google’s legal bases are:

Performance of a contract. We process your Gemini Apps information, and any of your other information you give Gemini Apps permission to process when you integrate Gemini Apps with another service, so that we can provide and maintain the Gemini Apps service you have requested under the Google Terms of Service and the Generative AI Additional Terms of Service. For example, we process your Gemini Apps information to respond to your queries, and to provide various Gemini Apps features and functionalities such as code generation.
Google and third parties' legitimate interests with appropriate safeguards to protect your privacy.
- We process information from publicly accessible sources and your Gemini Apps information so that we can provide, maintain, improve, and develop Google products, services, and machine learning technologies.
  - Processing this information for this purpose is necessary for the legitimate interests of Google and our users in:
    - Providing, maintaining, and improving our services to meet the needs of our users (such as using conversations to fine-tune models and improve Gemini Apps' responses for safety and accuracy).
    - Developing new products and features that are useful for our users (such as learning how to route requests to new large language models best suited to answer a particular question or training new models to handle these requests).
    - Understanding how people use our services to ensure and improve the performance of our services (such as generating metrics to understand how users are using Gemini Apps to better tailor user experience).
    - Customizing our services to provide users with a better experience (such as using your location information and your past conversations so Gemini Apps provide a more relevant answer).
- We also process your Gemini Apps information so that we can maintain the functionality, safety and reliability of Gemini Apps, including by detecting, preventing, and responding to fraud, abuse, security risks, and technical issues that could affect Google, our users, or the public.
  - Processing this information for this purpose is necessary for the legitimate interests of Google, our users, and the public in:
    - Detecting, preventing, or otherwise addressing fraud, abuse, security, or technical issues with our services (such as fixing bugs and troubleshooting failures).
    - Protecting against harm to the rights, property, or safety of Google, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law (such as updating safety classifiers and model filters).
    - Performing research that improves our services for our users and benefits the public.
    - Enforcing legal claims, including investigation of potential violations of applicable terms of service (such as reviewing suspicious activity and interactions flagged as problematic).
  - Processing this information for this purpose is also necessary for the legitimate interests of Google and our commercial partners in fulfilling obligations to our partners like developers and rights holders (such as honoring removal requests from intellectual property rights holders).
- To respond to your request, for example to summarize an email from a named contact, we process personal data about others that you've given Gemini Apps (such as when you integrate Gemini Apps with another service like Google Workspace).
Legal obligations. We’ll also process your Gemini Apps information to meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request (such as if we get a legal request for information from a governmental authority).
Your consent. As Gemini Apps develop, we may ask for your consent to process your information for specific purposes. Where we rely on your consent to process information, you will have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

What data is collected? How is it used?

What data is collected

When you interact with Gemini Apps, Google collects your:

Conversations
Location
Feedback
Usage information

When Gemini is your mobile assistant, Google processes additional information to understand and respond to you and give you hands-free help.

For more details, read the Google Privacy Policy and the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice.

How Google uses this data

This data helps us provide, improve, and develop Google products, services, and machine-learning technologies, like those that power Gemini Apps. For more details, read the Google Privacy Policy and the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice.

Here are a few examples:

Gemini Apps use your past conversations, location, and related info to generate a response.
We review your feedback and use it to help make Gemini Apps safer. We also use it to help reduce common problems with large language models.

You can learn about how we keep your data private, safe, and secure in Google’s privacy principles.

How to control your location data

You can change your location settings anytime. Learn more about location info and how Google uses it.

Do you use my Gemini Apps conversations to show me ads?

Your Gemini Apps conversations are not being used to show you ads. If this changes, we will clearly communicate it to you.

To learn about how we keep our users’ data private, safe, and secure, read our Privacy and Security Principles.

Who has access to my Gemini Apps conversations?

We take your privacy seriously, and we do not sell your personal information to anyone. To help Gemini improve while protecting your privacy, we select a subset of conversations and use automated tools to help remove user identifying information (such as email addresses and phone numbers). These sample conversations are reviewed by trained reviewers and kept for up to three years, separately from your Google Account. Read the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice to learn more.

How you can control what’s shared with reviewers

If you turn off Gemini Apps Activity, future conversations won’t be sent for human review or used to improve our generative machine-learning models.

Don’t enter confidential information in your Gemini Apps conversations or any data you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our products, services, and machine-learning technologies.

Can I access and delete my data from my Google Account?

Yes, you can find a link to Your Gemini Apps Activity in Gemini Apps, where you can manage and delete your data.

You can also delete a chat from your pinned and recent chats. When you do this, it also deletes the related activity from Your Gemini Apps Activity. Learn more about managing chats.

About your Gemini Apps Activity control

When Gemini Apps Activity is on, Google stores your Gemini Apps activity (such as your prompts, responses, and feedback) in your Google Account.

Even when Gemini Apps Activity is off, your conversations will be saved with your account for up to 72 hours to allow us to provide the service and process any feedback.

This activity will not show up in your Gemini Apps Activity.

How to control & manage your Gemini Apps activity

In Your Gemini Apps Activity, you can at any time:

Turn off Gemini Apps Activity
Review your prompts
Delete your Gemini Apps activity
Change auto-delete settings

Learn more about Gemini Apps Activity.

You can also export your information, as explained in the Google Privacy Policy and the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice.

Why is human review of my Gemini Apps conversations, feedback, and related data required?

How human review helps improve models

Google uses conversations (as well as feedback and related data) from Gemini Apps users to improve Google products (such as the generative machine-learning models that power Gemini Apps), so we can make them safer, more helpful, and work better for all users. Human review is a necessary step of the model improvement process. Through their review, rating, and rewrites, humans help enable quality improvements of generative machine-learning models like the ones that power Gemini Apps.

How we protect your privacy in this process

We take a number of precautions to protect your privacy during this human review process:

Conversations (as well as feedback and related data like your language, device type, or location info) that reviewers see and annotate are not associated with any user accounts.
We pick a random sample for such human review, and only a portion of all Gemini Apps conversations are reviewed.

How the process works

Our trained reviewers look at conversations to assess if Gemini Apps’ responses are low-quality, inaccurate, or harmful.
From there, trained evaluators suggest higher-quality responses.
These are then used to create a better dataset for generative machine-learning models to learn from so our models can produce improved responses in the future.

How long is reviewed data retained

Gemini Apps conversations that have been reviewed by human reviewers (as well as feedback and related data like your language, device type, or location info) are not deleted when you delete your Gemini Apps activity because they are kept separately and are not connected to your Google Account. Instead, they are retained for up to 3 years.

How you can control what’s shared with reviewers

If you turn off Gemini Apps Activity, future conversations won’t be sent for human review or used to improve our generative machine-learning models.

Don’t enter anything you wouldn’t want a human reviewer to see or Google to use. For example, don’t enter info you consider confidential or data you don’t want to be used to improve Google products, services, and machine-learning technologies.

Learn more about how to turn off, manage, and delete your Gemini Apps activity at any time. Also, you can control Google’s storage of Gemini Apps activity in My Activity at any time.

Why does Google retain my conversations after I turn off Gemini Apps Activity and what does Google do with this data?

Google needs these conversations to respond to you and as context for your feedback to help maintain and improve Gemini Apps, and provide all users a safer and better quality experience.

Here are more details about conversations stored with your account even after you turn off Gemini Apps Activity:

Before you give feedback in Gemini Apps

If Gemini Apps Activity is off, Google retains your conversations with your account for up to 72 hours. This activity won’t appear in your Gemini Apps Activity and is used to:
- Respond to your conversation contextually. For this purpose, Gemini Apps use only 24 hours of data.
- Maintain the safety and security of Gemini Apps and improve Gemini Apps. For this purpose, Google needs the 72-hour retention period to help ensure that data from its backend processes is available in case of a potential failure in its systems.
If you turn off Gemini Apps Activity, Google does not use your new conversations stored with your account to improve its generative machine learning technologies, unless you submit feedback about a conversation.

After you give feedback in Gemini Apps

If you decide to send feedback to Google, Google’s systems collect the following information:

Your feedback.
Any content you include.
Context that can help us better understand your feedback. This includes the last 24 hours of available conversation data, such as what you recently asked Gemini Apps and what Gemini Apps said back.

How feedback is used

The feedback, associated conversations, and related data are:

Reviewed by specially trained teams. Human review is necessary to help identify, address, and report potential problems raised in feedback. In some cases, this is required by law.
Used consistent with the Google Privacy Policy. Google uses this data to provide, improve, and develop Google products, services, and machine-learning technologies. This is explained in more detail in our Privacy Policy.
- For example, we use this data to make Gemini Apps safer. It helps us detect and avoid unsafe requests or responses in the future.
Retained for up to 3 years. Reviewed feedback, associated conversations, and related data are retained for up to 3 years, disconnected from your Google Account.

Learn how to send feedback or report a problem with Gemini Apps.

What does it mean that Gemini is experimental?

Gemini Apps (previously Bard) are powered by large language models, as explained in this overview of Bard by James Manyika (Google’s SVP, Technology and Society). Like most large language models (LLMs), the models powering Gemini Apps were pre-trained on a variety of data from publicly available sources.

How LLMs work

With pre-training, LLMs find patterns in language and use them to predict the next probable word or words in a sequence. However, if an LLM picks only the most probable next word, responses would be less creative. That’s why LLMs are often given some flexibility. They can pick from a range of reasonable and slightly less probable words to generate more interesting responses.

Why responses aren’t always accurate

LLMs can at times perform well on factual prompts and seem like they’re looking up information, but they're not information databases or retrieval systems. When you query a database, you can expect the same exact response each time. But, when you give the same prompt to an LLM, you won’t necessarily get the same response every time or the actual information that the LLM was trained on. This is because LLMs are trained to predict the next most probable word, not get information.

This is also an important factor in why LLMs can generate plausible-sounding but inaccurate responses about people and other topics. This isn’t ideal when factuality matters, but it’s potentially useful for generating creative or unexpected responses.

Why Gemini Apps are experimental

Gemini Apps are part of our long-term, ongoing effort to develop LLMs responsibly. Throughout the course of this work, we discovered and discussed several limitations associated with LLMs, including five areas we continue to work on:

Accuracy: Gemini Apps’ responses about people and other topics might be inaccurate, especially when asked about complex or factual issues.
Bias: Gemini Apps’ responses might reflect biases or perspectives about people or other topics present in its training data.
Persona: Gemini Apps’ responses might suggest it as having personal opinions or feelings.
False positives and false negatives: Gemini Apps might not respond to some appropriate prompts and provide inappropriate responses to others.
Vulnerability to adversarial prompting: users will find ways to stress test Gemini Apps further. For example, they may prompt Gemini Apps to hallucinate and provide inaccurate information about people and other topics.

We focused on addressing these areas before launching Gemini Apps. And with the broader field, we continue to research solutions. We at Google are committed to working to improve over time. Learn more.

Location information

What location information do Gemini Apps collect, why, and how is it used?

Location data is always collected if you use Gemini Apps so that they can provide you with a response that is relevant to your query. For example, to respond to prompts like "What's the weather?", Gemini Apps need to know your location.

Where Gemini Apps get location data & how its used

The source of the location data Gemini Apps collect varies. By default, Gemini Apps use the general area from your IP address or the Home or Work addresses in your Google Account to give relevant responses to prompts like “What’s the weather?”

With your permission, Gemini Apps also process precise location data from your device to provide more relevant responses. For example, Gemini Apps can use your precise location to more accurately respond to prompts like “where is the closest coffee shop to me?”

Google also uses your location data, including your precise location data, for the purposes and based on the legal grounds described in the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice. Learn more about location data at g.co/privacypolicy/location.

How precise location data is shared

If available, Gemini Apps may share your precise location data with another Google service, like Google Maps, to fulfill your request. The Google service that gets your location data uses it consistent with the Google Privacy Policy.

How location data is stored

Precise location is not stored in your Gemini Apps Activity.
Location data that Gemini Apps process is coarsened to a general area before it’s stored with your Gemini Apps Activity. A general area is larger than 3 sq kilometers, and has at least 1000 users so that the general area of your prompt does not identify you, helping to protect your privacy. This means that a general area is typically much larger than 3 sq kilometers outside of cities.

How to control & manage your data

At any time, you can:

Change your location settings. Learn how to manage your location.
Manage location permissions for your Gemini mobile app by changing device location settings for the Google app (which hosts Gemini). Learn how to manage device location settings.
Review and delete your Gemini Apps activity. Learn how to manage your Gemini Apps activity.

How do I know if Gemini Apps have access to and are using my precise location?

Gemini web app

The Gemini web app shows user-interface elements at the bottom of the Menu that offer continuous transparency about location data processed by the app.

To check if gemini.google.com is accessing and using your precise location:

Go to gemini.google.com.
At the top left, tap Menu .
At the bottom of the menu, check the dot next to the location.
- If the dot is blue, gemini.google.com has access to and is using your precise location.
- If the dot is gray, gemini.google.com isn’t using your precise location.

Gemini mobile app (on Android)

Gemini is hosted by the Google app, even if you download the Gemini app . To check if Gemini is accessing and using your precise location:

On your Android device, open the Settings app.
Tap Location App location permissions.
Tap Google .
Check whether “Use precise location” is on .
- If it’s on , Gemini and other services in the Google app (like Search) can access and use your precise location.
- If it’s off , Gemini and other services in the Google app (like Search) cannot access and use your precise location.
Choose location access for the app: Allow all the time, Allow only while using the app, Ask every time, or Don’t allow.

Gemini mobile app (on iOS)

To check if Gemini in the Google app is accessing and using your precise location:

On your iPhone, open the Settings app.
Tap Privacy & Security Location Services.
Tap Google .
Check whether “Precise Location” is on .
- If it’s on , Gemini and other services in the Google app (like Search) can access and use your precise location.
- If it’s off , Gemini and other services in the Google app (like Search) are not using your precise location.
Choose location access for the app: Always, While Using the App, Ask Next Time Or When I Share, or Never.

Gemini in Google Messages

Gemini in Google Messages does not have access to your precise location.

Learn more about your location and how to manage it.

Uploaded files

How do I review and control my uploaded images?

You can review your uploaded images in your pinned and recent chats in Gemini Apps. You can delete your prompts, which also deletes any images you upload in those prompts, in your Gemini Apps Activity.

How does Google work with my uploaded images?

How images in prompts work

When you add an image to your prompt, Gemini Apps use Google Lens technology to understand what's in the image. For example, Google Lens might interpret an image's pixels as a cat jumping. Gemini Apps add this information to your prompt to understand your request better. Google uses this information just like any other prompt, as explained in the Gemini Apps Privacy Notice.

How we limit use of your actual images

At this time, we don't use the actual images you upload or their pixels to improve our machine-learning technologies, unless they're included in feedback. If you submit feedback on a Gemini App response, the last image uploaded in the same conversation before that response is included as part of your feedback, unless you opt out. Google uses this data like all other feedback you provide. Learn more about how Google uses your feedback.

We'll continue to work with images to provide new features and improve our services. If we change how we use or handle your images, we'll be transparent.

Generated images

Important:

Image generation in Gemini Apps is available in most countries, except in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, and the UK. It’s only available for English prompts.
For now, this feature isn’t available to users under 18.

How do I review and control my generated images?

You can review your generated images in your pinned chats, recent chats, and Gemini Apps Activity. You can delete your prompts, which also deletes any images generated in those prompt responses, in your Gemini Apps Activity.

How does Google work with my generated images?

Google uses this data, consistent with our Gemini Apps Privacy Notice, to provide, improve, and develop Google products and services and machine learning technologies.

When you submit feedback on responses from Gemini Apps, Google uses this data like all other feedback you provide. Learn more about how Google uses your feedback.

Extensions

What happens with my data when I use Gemini Extensions?

Important: For now, extensions are available in English, Japanese, and Korean only.

Gemini Extensions are Google services that work with Gemini Apps. They can better help you get things done with Gemini Apps.

What data is shared

To respond to you, Gemini Apps share the following data with extensions that are on:

Information from your conversation
Preferences such as language and device type
Location information

How shared data is used

Information that’s shared with other Google services is used consistent with the Google Privacy Policy to:

Fulfill your request
Maintain Google’s technologies that power Gemini Apps’ integrations with extensions, such as APIs
Improve those services to better respond to you and other Google users

How shared data is deleted

Google services automatically delete this shared information when it’s no longer necessary for the purposes listed above, as explained in How Google retains data it collects. If you delete the relevant conversation from your Gemini Apps Activity, it doesn’t delete the shared information from the other services.