Google Grants New Powers to Gemini

In a move that has sparked widespread controversy, Google began rolling out a new update to its smart assistant Gemini on July 7, allowing it to interact directly with popular apps like WhatsApp—even without some privacy settings being enabled.

The update enables Gemini to execute commands within third-party apps and automatically send messages, making the user experience smoother. However, it also raises serious concerns about user privacy.

While Google assures that the assistant does not read messages or images, the support page notes that human reviewers may access conversations to improve service quality—a practice that many tech experts see as a potential threat to data privacy.

The bigger concern is that disabling these features isn’t clearly explained or accessible to the average user, which could lead to data being used without full awareness or consent.

To prevent this, users are advised to manually adjust settings by following these steps:

Go to Settings > Apps > Gemini > Disable Permissions

Turn off app extensions within Gemini

Completely disable Gemini Apps Activity tracking

It’s also worth noting that Google temporarily retains input commands for up to 72 hours for security and performance review purposes.