In a digital privacy bombshell, Google has been sued over its Gemini AI, accused of secretly tracking millions of users’ private emails, chats, and video calls without their knowledge or consent. The proposed class action lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a California federal court, claims the tech giant quietly activated its AI assistant Gemini by default last month—turning users into unwitting participants in an expansive data surveillance experiment.
The case, led by Illinois resident Thomas Thele, focuses on an alleged October 10 policy shift that removed users’ choice to manually enable the AI. According to the lawsuit, Gemini was automatically switched on across Google’s most widely used communication tools—Gmail, Chat, and Meet—effectively granting the AI access to users’ private messages and attachments unless they took deliberate action to opt out.
“Despite users never giving Google informed consent to track and store their private communications, Google does just that,” Thele alleged, claiming the company’s conduct was both deceptive and outrageous.
