Google has been hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing it of using its artificial intelligence assistant, Gemini, to illegally intercept and monitor private user communications across its Gmail, Chat, and Meet platforms, Bloomberg reported. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a California federal court, alleges that Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., “secretly” activated Gemini’s access to its communication services in October, enabling data collection “without users’ knowledge or consent.”
According to the complaint, Google initially made the use of Gemini optional but later integrated it by default, requiring users to navigate complex privacy settings to opt out. Unless users take explicit steps to disable the assistant, the lawsuit claims, Gemini can access “the entire recorded history of users’ private communications,” including every email, attachment, and message shared through Gmail. The suit further alleges that such actions violate the California Invasion of Privacy Act, a 1967 law prohibiting the secret interception or recording of confidential communications without consent from all parties.
Gemini, developed by Google’s DeepMind unit and launched in 2023, is a family of multimodal AI models capable of processing text, code, audio, and video. It is available in several versions — “Ultra” for complex tasks, “Pro” for general use, and “Nano” for on-device applications. Despite its advanced capabilities, Gemini has faced scrutiny over privacy and security concerns. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that hackers from more than 20 countries had used the AI system to gather information for cyberattacks, raising fears about the misuse of generative AI tools.
The lawsuit adds to Google’s mounting legal challenges over privacy practices. In September, the company agreed to pay $425.7 million to settle a separate class-action case that accused it of collecting user data from third-party applications even when tracking features were disabled. While a jury found Google in violation of privacy laws, it stopped short of ruling that the company breached the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
The latest allegations against Google highlight growing tensions between technological innovation and user privacy. As Gemini continues to expand across Google’s ecosystem, the case could set a major precedent for how AI assistants handle personal data and the extent to which tech giants must obtain explicit consent from their users.
