Google warning: Do not divulge confidential info or personal data when using Gemini

Last week, Google changed the name of its generative AI chatbot Bard to Gemini which is now available to Android users as an app in the Google Play Store. Those using iOS can find Gemini in the Google app at the very top of the app in the center of the screen. There is a rectangular box with the Gemini logo that you can tap on to open it.

You might want to be careful about the questions you ask Gemini to respond to. A support document posted by Google (via TechCrunch) reveals that some conversations you have with Gemini are examined by trained human reviewers although the reviewers do not see users' email addresses and phone numbers. This is done to improve the service, according to Google. Conversations and prompts can be deleted from the Gemini Apps Activity screen (more on that below).

Users can also turn off Gemini Apps Activity to stop the collection of conversations but even when it is disabled, Gemini conversations continue to be saved for up to 72 hours to "maintain the safety and security of Gemini apps and improve Gemini apps."

Because conversations and prompts are kept for up to three years by Google, the company says, "Please don’t enter confidential information in your conversations or any data you wouldn't want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our products, services, and machine learning technologies."

To turn off Gemini Apps Activity, go to your mobile or desktop browser and head to myactivity.google.com. There, you can also delete past queries you made of Bard and Gemini and toggle off Gemini Apps Activity.

In case you were wondering why Google has humans review Gemini conversations, the company says, "Google uses conversations (as well as feedback and related data) from Gemini Apps users to improve Google products (such as the generative machine-learning models that power Gemini Apps), so we can make them safer, more helpful, and work better for all users."

Google adds that "Human review is a necessary step of the model improvement process. Through their review, rating, and rewrites, humans help enable quality improvements of generative machine-learning models like the ones that power Gemini Apps."