Gemini Now Tracks Everything You Do — Turning Off History Is The Only Escape

BGR reports that Google is using Gemini data for a lot more than just showing you ads — they’re linking historical chat data to track your behavior, and the opt-out that used to exist for model training is basically gone unless you turn off chat history entirely.

I used to have Gemini on my phone as a quick assistant for simple things like summarising articles or checking facts, but after reading the privacy policy updates quietly rolled out, I’ve pulled it. The choice now is: let Google harvest everything you type to improve their models and build a behaviour profile, or cripple the assistant by disabling history. That’s not a real choice.

The product isn’t the assistant. The product is your data, and the assistant is the honey trap. I get that free services need to make money, but this goes beyond showing ads. It’s cross-chat linking, it’s policy language so broad it covers “personalizing services” and “measuring performance,” and the only button that stops it also degrades the tool you’re actually trying to use.

I’ve moved to using local models for anything I want to keep private, and Claude’s paid tier for the rest — at least their model training policy is clear that they don’t use your inputs to train unless you’re on a free plan or explicitly consent. For everyday search, I stopped using Google’s AI overviews months ago. This is just another reason that line is the right one.

If you’re still using Gemini, turn off chat history now. You’ll lose some personalisation, but you’ll keep your data from being packaged into a permanent behavioural profile that Google can use for anything they decide later. The defaults are designed to get you to give it up, and the fine print makes sure you don’t know what you’re giving.