Google Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Gemini AI's Alleged Privacy Violations

Google sued over its Gemini AI allegedly spying on users

Google is facing fresh backlash over privacy concerns -- this time involving Gemini, its AI assistant, and new settings the company rolled out last month. A proposed class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California and first reported by Bloomberg, accuses the company of unlawfully turning on Gemini across Gmail, Google Chat, and Meet, effectively allowing its AI to monitor and analyze users' private messages and attachments. The complaint alleges that Google activated Gemini by default in October of this year without alerting users or asking for consent. While Google provides an option to turn off the tool, the suit says such action requires digging through layers of privacy settings that most users never see. Per Bloomberg, Google hasn't yet commented on the filing. But the company has previously marketed Gemini as a seemingly opt-in feature. If the case moves forward, it could test how existing privacy laws -- written many decades before LLMs came to market -- apply to modern AI assistants and apps. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the company's AI ambitions are clearly aimed at keeping pace with rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, and Microsoft. Gemini began as Google's experimental chatbot Bard, launched in early 2023 on the heels of OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company has also drawn scrutiny and legal action over user privacy in the E.U., separate from more headline-grabbing antitrust concerns, and European regulators continuing to scrutinize how its ad-tracking and analytics systems make use of customers' information. None of this, however, has functioned to dent Alphabet's profits in any clear way. The company reported $100 billion in net profit in 2024, up over 30% from the previous year.

Google accused in suit of using Gemini AI tool to snoop on users

Google faces a lawsuit alleging its Gemini AI unlawfully tracked private user communications. The complaint claims Gemini was secretly activated for Gmail, Chat, and Meet, collecting data without consent. Users must actively disable the AI to prevent access to their entire communication history. This action reportedly violates California privacy laws prohibiting surreptitious recording of confidential communications. Google was accused in a lawsuit of using its Gemini AI assistant to unlawfully track the private communications of users of its Gmail, instant messaging and videoconference programs. In the past, users of Gmail, Chat and Meet were given the option to turn on Google's artificial intelligence program. But in October, the Alphabet Inc. unit "secretly" turned on Gemini for all those applications, enabling it to collect private data "without the users' knowledge or consent," according to the complaint filed late Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California. While the company allows users to turn off Gemini, they need to dig into Google's privacy settings to deactivate the AI tool, according to the proposed class-action suit. Unless they take that step, Google uses Gemini to "access and exploit the entire recorded history of its users' private communications, including literally every email and attachment sent and received in their Gmail accounts," according to the complaint. The suit alleges that Google is violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act, a 1967 law that prohibits surreptitious wiretapping and recording of confidential communications without the consent of all parties involved. Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. The case is Thele v. Google LLC, 25-cv-09704, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose.)