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Incident 743: Gemini AI Allegedly Reads Google Drive Files Without Explicit User Consent

Description: Kevin Bankston, a privacy activist, claims that Google's Gemini AI scans private Google Drive PDFs without explicit user consent. Bankston reports that after using Gemini on one document, the AI continues to access similar files automatically. Google disputes these claims, stating that Gemini requires proactive user activation and operates within privacy-preserving settings.

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Alleged: Google developed an AI system deployed by Google and Gemini, which harmed Kevin Bankston , Google users and Google Drive users.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
743
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2024-07-16
Editors
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

2.1. Compromise of privacy by obtaining, leaking or correctly inferring sensitive information

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Privacy & Security

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Google's Gemini AI caught scanning Google Drive hosted PDF files without permission — user complains feature can't be disabledIncident Occurrence
Google's Gemini AI caught scanning Google Drive hosted PDF files without permission — user complains feature can't be disabled

Google's Gemini AI caught scanning Google Drive hosted PDF files without permission — user complains feature can't be disabled

tomshardware.com

Google's Gemini AI caught scanning Google Drive hosted PDF files without permission — user complains feature can't be disabled
tomshardware.com · 2024

As part of the wider tech industry's wider push for AI, whether we want it or not, it seems that Google's Gemini AI service may now reading private Drive documents without express user permission, per a report from privacy activist and curr…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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