Stop Gemini from tracking you

First things first, if you do not want Google’s Gemini to track everything you’re doing on your phone, you need to turn Gemini off in the Android settings or uninstall Gemini. If Gemini is not installed on your phone and not integrated with your Android system, it will not be automatically installed after July 7th. However, some phones may get a system update that replaces the old Google Assistant feature with Gemini. It is not yet known on which phones this will happen, but it’s very likely, so you need to watch out for changes when you update your Android. iPhones and iPads are not affected by this Google update, but in the future Apple wants to allow an integration of Gemini via Siri.

Disable Gemini on Android

Do not allow Gemini to have access to your apps like WhatsApp by disabling Gemini’s app connections.

Disable the Gemini app

1. Go to Settings > Apps
2. Disable Gemini app

This disables Gemini completely. If you only want to stop Gemini from accessing other apps on your phone, you can take the following steps.

Steps to disable Gemini app connections:

1. Open the Gemini app from your Android device
2. Click on your profile in the top right corner
3. Open Apps
4. Click to toggle off each app extension

If you’d like to use Gemini but without it storing your prompts in My Activity and using it to “provide, improve, develop, and personalize” Google products and AI models, you will need to go to your Android settings and turn off Gemini Apps Activity. Even with this setting turned off, it’s important to note that Google will still store your activity with Gemini for up to 72 hours. According to Google, it implements this temporary storage of your data for security, safety, and user feedback.

Steps to turn off Gemini App Activity:

1. Open the Gemini app from your Android device
2. Click on your profile in the top right corner
3. Go to Gemini Apps Activity
4. Here you can turn the activity off

Deinstall Gemini

Alternatively, you can uninstall Gemini from your Android using dev tools on a desktop PC. To deinstall Gemini (or previously Bard), the ID is: com.google.android.apps.bard

It is a bit complicated to completely deinstall Gemini, and it should only be done by someone who knows a thing or two about Android. You can read up on how to uninstall Android apps here.

Depending on the phone you have, you might also be able to install a different Android system like LineageOS or e/OS/, which are more privacy-friendly, compared to Google’s Android. You can read more on European alternatives to US Big Tech here. On Google Pixel phones you can install GrapheneOS, which is best in class for privacy.

When you do not use Google’s Android but alternatives, the risk of shady updates like this one is close to zero.

What does this Gemini update mean for your privacy?

Screenshots of the recent email notification Google sent to Android users updating them on the new Gemini update.

Simply put: this new update will override your previous settings, and Gemini AI will have access to your Phone, your Messages, your WhatsApp, and your Utilities to “help you”.

This is how a users on Hacker News phrased it:

“To summarize, Google will override your privacy settings, and allow Gemini to read Messages and WhatsApp texts even if you had disabled it. And Gemini does not run locally, meaning your private, encrypted communication is sent to Google. This all happens automatically, unless you caught Google’s email in time, bothered to read it (we all have plenty of time to keep up with updates from all the corporate entities we have relationships with, don’t we?), and took action to prevent it. If I sold Google some data cables, and months later sent them an email “btw in 5 business days your cables will start sending all the data going through them to me, even though you specifically told me not to enable this feature, unless you re-disable it”, I would go to jail for hacking.”

Understandably, people are outraged about this latest update by Google. So let’s take a closer look at what happened.

Google has recently started sending notification emails to Android users informing them of a new Gemini update. In the email, it wrote, “Gemini will soon be able to help you use your Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off”.

This email’s vague wording and lack of important detail as to what the update actually means has left many confused and concerned for their privacy – including us!

So, what will this update do? Before this update, if you had gone into your Android settings and turned Gemini Apps Activity off, this setting distinguished what Gemini could remember and use for Google products and AI models, then you would have limited Google access for deeper AI integrations on your phone. So Gemini wasn’t able to run tasks like placing calls and sending texts due to its lack of access. But soon this is changing, and it seems that your past settings and preferences will not apply anymore.

From July 7th, Gemini can access Messages, Phone, WhatsApp and Utilities on Android – no matter if you had previously turned activity tracking on or off. And no, there was no informed consent from you, the user. Instead, Google is making the choice for you, a similar tactic Google used when allowing Gemini into your Gmail.

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Why this is a problem

Google’s email was vague, confusing, and didn’t offer steps on how to turn off Gemini functionalities.

The email that Google sent to its users has left many confused because of the vague wording. In the email it first says, Gemini will have access “whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off” but further on it says, “If you don’t want to use these features, you can turn them off in the Apps setting page” followed by, “If you have already turned these features off, they will remain off”. So, which is it?

In this email notification, Google doesn’t name the settings users should look for in the Apps Setting Page, it doesn’t give any clear steps for how to easily turn the feature off, and it did not ask users to opt in.

Even if Gemini App Activity is off, Gemini will still get access to these tools on your mobile phone. So how would the user know which feature setting this applies to and how they can stop this?

Auto-opt in = Tech profit

Google’s update via email highlights a bigger and worrying trend: Big Techs quietly update their terms of use, roll out new features and use opt in systems, without well informing users or asking for explicit consent – all for their own benefit and profits.

Unfortunately, we see this over and over again. Like when LinkedIn quietly decided for its users that their data is used for AI training, or when Meta introduced Meta AI into WhatsApp also without asking users to opt in and without them being able to deactivate the AI bot. And now there’s going to be ads in WhatsApp as well.

You might be wondering why tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta quietly update their terms of use and use opt in by default systems, when they also claim loudly that they care about user privacy and giving the user full control of their data. Well, possibly this is just “privacy washing”; a trend that is now being followed by “sovereign washing”.

If the people who used popular tech services knew the truth about how their data is used against them – for example, to bombard them with targeted ads, to train AI -, and how companies monetize off their data, most would not opt in.

In the case of this quiet opt-in system and lack of detail in the email notification sent to Android users, many who get it will not read it, and not be aware of what the updated default settings actually mean for their data and their privacy. If you ever wondered what defaults do, just look at the dominance of Google search which is mainly based on being the default in most browsers. But fortunately, in the EU regulation is cracking down on this; for example, iOS users now get the chance to actively choose their preferred browser - at least if they live in Europe.

Transparency and explicit consent

While some may think this is a win for user privacy, as now Android users can use Gemini integrations with Gemini App Activity turned off (previously it would only work when turned on), at Tuta we see still see this as a cause for privacy concern.

This Gemini update highlights the need that tech companies must be stopped from quietly opting users into new features. Google – and others - must be more transparent with what the changes made actually mean for users’ data, and how they affect user privacy.

Users must be given a real chance to understand what apps like Google’s Gemini are quietly doing behind the scenes on their personal mobile devices.

At Tuta, we are generally against AI in email – one because it will not fix the flood of unnecessary emails, and two, AI email writers are harmful for your privacy.