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points by jamienk 4 days ago | 0 comments

I didn't realize the Gemini makes it so that saving chats in your sidebar = sharing chats with Google for AI training. They obfuscate this with their dark-pattern "Gemini Apps Activity"

> Keep activity

> Keeping your activity lets you pick up chats where you left off anytime and helps improve Google services, including AI models. When this setting is off, Google still saves chats for 72 hours to respond to you and help keep Gemini safe.

[–] pritambarhate 4 days ago

Yes, we were seriously considering giving Gemini subscriptions to everyone at work. But when we came across this setting, we dropped that plan and went to Anthropic instead.

[–] thebytefairy 3 days ago

Enterprise agreements are not the same as consumer accounts like this.

[–] sheepscreek 4 days ago

Yep, this is one of the the darkest patterns that I've seen in a Google product. No paid tier can help you get rid of it.

The only way out is to stop being a 'consumer', and opt for a business account.

[–] pluc 3 days ago

"The only way out" is not encourage a company that tries to fuck you over maybe. If you're trying to find ways to still give them your money it is not a way out. That's the addiction talking mate.

[–] ZnerflBerp 4 days ago

I'm surprised they even feel a need to trick you. They have access to the data and more than enough motivation.

[–] ipsum2 4 days ago

Gemini is the worst at this - its impossible to opt out if you use AI Studio.

[–] NoahZuniga 4 days ago

I thought that if you used an api key data wasn't trained on in AI studio

[–] lacoolj 4 days ago

Yeah dude, I had to explain this to my mom and sister this past weekend

One of the darkest patterns on top of the most childish behaviors a company can have.

You don't want to share your data with us? Well, I guess you don't want it either then, so now no one gets it.

[–] warkdarrior 4 days ago

Why should they waste their storage on your data, if it does not benefit them?

[–] gewetensleegte 3 days ago

That's not really what's going on though.

The same behaviour happens when you turn off "Location History", Google Maps stops showing the last few searches in its search box. That's literally a matter of local storage that's available in any decent GUI library.

It's really stupid but it's the only reason why I keep Location History turned on. I don't really want Google to keep my Location History, but when I'm on the road, it's super inconvenient to have to type full address over and over again.

I wonder if with the reverse engineering LLMs allow us, I could patch Google Maps to behave like a normal program with a normal search input field.

[–] k0dyn 4 days ago

'cuz I'm paying them for that storage?

As in, Google's AI plans explicitly specify the amount of storage you're buying.

No, that doesn't apply to free usage - but that old adage about "If the product is free, are you sure you're not the product?" applies.

[–] lacoolj 4 days ago

Lol well I pay for it for one thing

[–] shostack 4 days ago

Is that the same thing that let's them use it for ads targeting and measurement like connected apps with the android assistant switch they did? I basically have stopped using it.

[–] mapontosevenths 4 days ago

Does this apply to corporate accounts as well?