Google's Gemini AI caught scanning Google Drive hosted PDF files without permission — user complains feature can't be disabled (www.tomshardware.com)
from minnix@lemux.minnix.dev to privacy@lemmy.ml on 15 Jul 2024 18:32
https://lemux.minnix.dev/post/408378

#privacy

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helenslunch@feddit.nl on 15 Jul 2024 18:50 next collapse

What do you mean “caught”? Google Drive has always been a data farm.

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 15 Jul 2024 19:07 next collapse

But it’s still probably illegal

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 15 Jul 2024 20:44 collapse

Illegal how?

GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 15 Jul 2024 21:41 collapse

Not allowed by the ToS and the privacy policy

wuphysics87@lemmy.ml on 16 Jul 2024 00:05 collapse

Wouldn’t it be though? No one reads ToS. Most people probably owe google their kidney, their first born child, and their soul. So far as I know, which is admittedly very little, there is nothing that says a company can’t read everything you write if you agree to let them.

Quill7513@slrpnk.net on 15 Jul 2024 19:42 collapse

Yes. Now its documented that Google is violating their terms of service. I’m sure their lawyers will point to the clause that says they can change the terms of service at any time without warning

drwho@beehaw.org on 15 Jul 2024 18:50 next collapse

Surprising nobody.

hotpot8toe@lemmy.world on 15 Jul 2024 19:38 next collapse

For the people who didn’t read the article. Read this TLDR: When you open a Google Doc. A Gemini sidebar appears, so you can ask questions about the document. Here, it summarized a document without the user asking.

The article title makes it seem like they are using your files to train AI which no proof exists for that(yet)

sunzu@kbin.run on 15 Jul 2024 19:41 next collapse

Thank you for the service!

I see your point re training, but aint the entire point why they want peasants using their models is to train them more?

eRac@lemmings.world on 15 Jul 2024 22:05 collapse

Generative AI doesn’t get any training in use. The explosion in public AI offerings falls into three categories:

  1. Saves the company labor by replacing support staff
  2. Used to entice users by offering features competitors lack (or as catch-up after competitors have added it for this reason)
  3. Because AI is the current hot thing that gets investors excited

To make a good model you need two things:

  1. Clean data that is tagged in a way that allows you to grade model performance
  2. Lots of it

User data might meet need 2, but it fails at need 1. Running random data through neural networks to make it more exploitable (more accurate interest extraction, etc) makes sense, but training on that data doesn’t.

This is clearly demonstrated by Google’s search AI, which learned lots of useful info from Reddit but also learned absurd lies with the same weight. Not just overtuned-for-confidence lies, straight up glue-the-cheese-on lies.

sunzu@kbin.run on 15 Jul 2024 22:07 collapse

Thank you for explaining this.

Ok so what is ChatGPT angle here providing this services for "free"

What do they get out of it? or is this just a google play to get you in the door, then data mine?

GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml on 15 Jul 2024 23:08 next collapse

Probably market dominance

eRac@lemmings.world on 16 Jul 2024 15:23 collapse

They have two avenues to make money:

  1. Sell commercial services such as customer support bots. They get customers thanks to the massive buzz their free services generated.
  2. Milking investors, the real way to make money.
GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml on 15 Jul 2024 19:43 collapse

At least the data is sent to Gemini servers. This alone can be illegal but I’m not sure. What I’m more sure about is that they do use the data to train the models.

poVoq@slrpnk.net on 15 Jul 2024 21:07 collapse

Since it is Google Docs, the data is already on Google servers. But yeah, it doesn’t exactly instill confidence into the confidentiality of documents on Google Docs.

HelixDab2@lemm.ee on 15 Jul 2024 19:56 next collapse

…Why would you post unencrypted personal information onto the cloud in the first place?

thefartographer@lemm.ee on 15 Jul 2024 20:12 collapse

!RemindMe in two hours to give my doctor my new SSN after my last one got stolen: 644-11-9217

HelixDab2@lemm.ee on 15 Jul 2024 20:18 collapse

There’s a certain level of due-diligence that you can use when you’re moving personal information around on the cloud. Hospitals have a legal obligation to keep your medical records secure; Google does not.

thefartographer@lemm.ee on 15 Jul 2024 20:23 collapse

Yes, I wanted to one-up your disbelief by pretending I use random text boxes to store personal information.

Maybe one of these days I’ll make a joke that’s funny instead of confusing…

HelixDab2@lemm.ee on 15 Jul 2024 20:38 collapse

If it makes you feel better, I’m mildly autistic, so I tend to see things a bit more literally than most.

thefartographer@lemm.ee on 15 Jul 2024 20:53 collapse

This whole exchange made me feel better. Thank you for being you

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 15 Jul 2024 19:57 next collapse

*shocked pikachu*

1984@lemmy.today on 15 Jul 2024 22:19 next collapse

Oh silly mistake.

Laughing all the way to the bank.

plumpfella@lemm.ee on 15 Jul 2024 23:38 next collapse

this reminded me of the Google takeout I requested last week so I could switch to self hosting 👍

Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org on 15 Jul 2024 23:40 next collapse

Google told me they really care about my privacy, tho.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 16 Jul 2024 00:22 next collapse

“Caught”

Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works on 16 Jul 2024 01:05 collapse

This is why anything you upload to the cloud should be encrypted. Or just, yenno, don’t use the cloud