AI and privacy
Gemini has variants with different rules. For each: training on input, human review, retention periods, agreements and where your data is processed.
That depends on the variant. The Gemini app on a personal Google account is not designed for business data: conversations may be used for training and read by humans, and there is no data processing agreement. Gemini within a suitable Google Workspace edition falls under the business agreement, without training outside your domain. What you share remains your own choice.
Searching for Gemini finds one name for very different services. This article's answers come from Google's own documentation, consulted on 13 October 2026. Those pages change often: check them before deciding. This is an explanation, not legal advice.
“Is Gemini safe?” has no answer until you know which account someone is signed in with. The same employee can open Gemini twice on the same laptop, once with a personal account and once with a work account, and operate under different rules each time.
Gemini is the name of Google's AI models and the products running on them. Four forms matter for an organisation.
There is also Gemini Notebook, called NotebookLM until July 2026. That product has its own rules and article: NotebookLM and the GDPR.
According to the Gemini Apps Privacy Hub, Google Ireland Limited provides the Gemini app in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. That page supplements Google's general privacy policy and lists the lawful bases on which Google itself processes data. It contains no data processing agreement. For work and school accounts, it refers to a separate page because different terms may apply.
On a personal account, one setting determines most things: Keep Activity, retaining your activity in Gemini apps.
If Keep Activity is on, the Privacy Hub says Google uses your activity to provide, develop and improve services, expressly including training generative AI models. Your activity includes shared files and photos. According to the activity help page, the setting is enabled by default for people aged 18 or older.
If you turn Keep Activity off, Google says new conversations are not used to train models unless you submit feedback. A paid consumer subscription changes nothing, according to the Privacy Hub: the page mentions subscription only as recorded data.
Google writes that some conversations are read by human reviewers to improve services and keep them safe. These include people working for service providers. According to Google, conversations are disconnected from your account before going to those service providers.
Two Privacy Hub statements matter for business use. Reviewed conversations are retained for up to three years and are not removed when you delete activity. And Google itself asks you not to enter confidential information you would not want a reviewer to see.
This is the position as at October 2026. For an organisation, the main point is that it cannot see or enforce these settings. You do not know what a colleague has configured on a personal account.
For a Workspace account, Google looks at your organisation's edition. This is the difference most often missed in practice.
According to the Gemini app administration page, the app is a core service in most editions, including Business, Enterprise and Frontline editions and non-profit and education editions. For those users, content is not reviewed by humans or used without permission to train generative AI models outside their domain.
The same page describes the other group: users with a work account without a qualifying edition. Google's general terms and Gemini Apps privacy statement apply to them. Their conversations may be reviewed by humans, and Google advises administrators to tell these users not to enter confidential or sensitive information. A work address in the corner of the screen is therefore insufficient. Check in the admin console which edition and setting apply to which group.
The Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub says the Gemini app as a core service falls under your organisation's Workspace agreement, including the Cloud Data Processing Addendum. That addendum is the data processing agreement required by Article 28 GDPR. Google is the processor and the customer the controller. Under the addendum, Google processes only to provide, secure and monitor services and on customer instructions, and reports customer data incidents without undue delay.
The addendum is long and also covers sub-processors, transfers and checks. Read those sections yourself. Find what to consider in Data processing agreement with an AI provider.
An assistant finding everything you can access also finds overshared content. See AI assistants and SharePoint.
For personal accounts, Google offers no region choice. Workspace has a data regions feature allowing an administrator to choose the United States, European Union or no preference.
According to the overview of data covered by data regions, Gemini app and Gemini in Workspace prompts and answers are included, with an important distinction (as at October 2026):
Choosing a region answers where data is located. It does not answer whether a transfer to a country outside the EEA occurs or which safeguard supports it. Chapter V GDPR regulates this in Articles 44 to 49, and Google's addendum has a separate section. Record what applies to your edition in your register, rather than what appears on a product page.
| Variant | Training on input | Human review | Retention period | Agreement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini app, personal account (free or paid) | Yes while Keep Activity is on; enabled by default for adults aged 18 or older | Some conversations; reviewed conversations up to three years | Default 18 months, configurable; 72 hours when setting is off | Google's general terms and privacy policy, no data processing agreement |
| Gemini app, work account without qualifying edition | As for a personal account | Possible | As for a personal account | Google's general terms and Gemini Apps privacy statement |
| Gemini app, Workspace with Gemini as core service | Not outside your domain without permission | No | Default 18 months; administrator chooses 3, 18 or 36 months or off | Workspace agreement with Cloud Data Processing Addendum |
| Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Drive and Meet | Not outside your domain without permission | No | 90 days to indefinite, determined by administrator | Workspace agreement with Cloud Data Processing Addendum |
| Gemini API, paid or from the EEA | Prompts and answers not for product improvement | Not mentioned for paid services | Logged for a limited period, without a stated number of days | API terms with a processing addendum |
As at October 2026, based on Google's documentation. The API row comes from the Gemini API additional terms. These say unpaid services use input for product improvement and may have humans read it, but paid-service rules apply to all services for users in the EEA, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Education has been researched more than business, and its findings are informative outside that sector too.
SURF's Google Workspace page describes the sequence. In June 2021, SURF reported that the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens saw too many privacy risks in Google Workspace for education. An agreement with Google on measures followed in July 2021. In July 2023, SURF wrote that the 2021 risks had been sufficiently addressed and institutions must continue taking measures themselves to use the suite safely.
Those statements concern Workspace for education and predate Gemini's broad introduction. They therefore say nothing about AI features.
SIVON, the school board cooperative, writes in its AI frequently asked questions that it is conducting a DPIA on Google Gemini as part of Workspace for Education in 2026. No outcome could be found on 13 October 2026. No published SURF or central government Gemini investigation was found for this article either. The Workspace Privacy Hub also excludes Gemini for education, which has separate pages. Read what schools should do in AI in education.
The lesson for every organisation: another party's investigation does not replace your own assessment. Read whether you need a DPIA yourself and how to approach it in DPIA for AI tools.
Which subscription may you use for business? compares Gemini with other providers' subscriptions.
Even the best edition changes nothing about one thing: anything entered into a chat window or attached goes to the provider in full. PrivaSearch addresses that step. Personal data in documents is detected within PrivaSearch and replaced with consistent pseudonyms, and a colleague checks the result before a document becomes searchable. Read how in How PrivaSearch works.
Searching can happen entirely within PrivaSearch: a question is answered with passages and source references, per project and only for those with access. Semantic search uses a European AI provider, and only pseudonymised, reviewed text. Processing and storage take place in EU data centres. Find the principles on Hosting in the EU and the parties involved in the sub-processor overview.
Anyone wanting an AI assistant to help search can use a connection. This works with Claude, ChatGPT Business and Mistral Vibe (formerly Le Chat). The assistant receives only released, pseudonymised passages rather than original files. The page on AI chatbots and the GDPR explains what reaches the assistant provider through such a connection.
Pseudonymisation is not anonymisation. For your organisation, the data remains personal data. The lawful basis, DPIA and assessment of your situation remain your responsibility and your data protection officer's.
Want to see a question about a client file answered without the file being sent? Book a demo.
No product resolves an organisation's GDPR obligations. With Gemini, much depends on the variant. On a personal account, Google may use conversations for training and have humans review them, and there is no data processing agreement. A suitable Google Workspace edition has the business agreement. You still arrange the lawful basis, employee arrangements and assessment of your own situation yourself.
On a personal account, yes, while Keep Activity is enabled. Google says it is enabled by default for people aged 18 or older. Turning it off prevents new conversations being used for training unless you submit feedback. For Workspace with Gemini as a core service, Google says content is not used for training outside your domain without permission. As at October 2026.
That can happen on a personal account. Google writes that some conversations are read by human reviewers, disconnected from your account, and reviewed conversations are retained for up to three years. They do not disappear when you delete activity. For Workspace editions with Gemini as a core service, Google says content is not reviewed by humans. Check your organisation's edition.
For a personal account, 18 months by default. You can change this to 3 or 36 months, or disable automatic deletion. With activity retention off, conversations remain for up to 72 hours. In Workspace, the administrator chooses: default 18 months, with 3 and 36 months as alternatives. This is the position as at October 2026.
Only if your organisation has configured it. In a suitable Workspace edition, Gemini is a core service under the business agreement. Without such an edition, Google says its general terms and Gemini Apps privacy statement apply, and conversations may be reviewed by humans. Ask your administrator which situation applies before entering anything confidential.
A personal account offers no region choice. In Workspace, an administrator can choose the European Union using data regions. For Gemini prompts and answers, many editions cover storage only. Processing during use is covered only in the advanced variant. Logs and temporarily stored content are excluded. Check what applies to your edition.
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We show it with fictitious client files from your sector: upload, detection, review, search and the connection with your AI assistant. Afterwards you'll know exactly what your team can use safely.
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