Google Auto‑Opts Users, Retains Data After Opt‑Out
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- Google automatically opts users into data collection or uses prompts that make accidental opt‑in easy.
- Google uses collected user data to train its own models and other models it wishes to develop.
- Google retains user data even after a user opts out, so opting out has no effect on data already held.
- Confidential compute is offered as a privacy‑focused alternative, though it runs slower and users may need extensions to save Gemini chats locally.
- Waydroid camera crashes the entire stack, according to a user seeking a fix.
Why it matters: Privacy‑conscious users lose control over their Gemini chat data, while Google gains a broader training dataset across its AI models, potentially undermining user trust and prompting calls for stronger opt‑out mechanisms, tighter data‑use policies, and regulatory scrutiny of its data practices.
