Google has been sued, accused of using its Gemini AI assistant to illegally track the private communications of Gmail, Chat, and Meet users. The plaintiffs allege that in October, Google “secretly” enabled Gemini for all of those apps, collecting private data “without the knowledge or consent of the users,” Bloomberg reported on November 12.
According to the class action lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California, Gmail, Chat, and Meet users previously had the option to turn on the AI features themselves. But in October, the lawsuit alleges, Google forcibly enabled Gemini for everyone, hiding the option to turn it off deep in the privacy settings.
The plaintiffs allege that unless a user discovers and deactivates the tool, Google uses Gemini to “access and exploit the entire recorded history of users’ private communications, including virtually every email and attachment sent and received in their Gmail accounts.”
The lawsuit alleges that Google is violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). This 1967 law prohibits the secret eavesdropping and recording of private conversations without the consent of all parties involved.