You're not alone: This email from Google's Gemini team is concerning

Laughs in eu

Well I guess I’m glad I moved over to apple. But I guess the enshitification of all our phones is coming soon.

IMO, when Google lost most public support, it really started going downhill because the people who wanted to profit the business as much as possible became more determinant than those that were still trying to throttle the company due to ethical considerations. When a company gets criticized for everything it does, its decline increases significantly. Add to that it exists under the US government and how that has completely fallen to corruption.

Can't you just delete Gemini with Canta?

I swear all of this was predicted to happen by open source advocates of the 80s and they'd be called alarmists/whatever and then 30 years later you had Snowden leaks and all the surveillance bills and now Microsoft, Google, and Apple are all advertisement companies mining data through the software and devices they sell

The best people can do is just keep using and advocating for Linux adoption. Try out degoogled Android or a more traditional Linux phone device. Need more users and funding to get the software kinks worked out. They're not as good as the high end Android and Apple stuff, but it's a process

Maybe this gives me a false sense of security but I bought the adguard pro on social stack (I think...). I just turn all of the connections off on gemini, meta and Bixby. Like this

I've been Android and Windows user for pretty much all of my life. Vehemently anti Apple because of the company and I've thought the products are trash. I've been 100% Linux for over a year and a half, and if this Gemini stuff comes through, I will not have an android phone either. I have a Pixel and my old still functional Pixel. I need to try installing grapheneOS or something else and trial it to see if it will work for me.

If Linux isn't an option for me in the future for whatever reason, I will be purchasing a Mac. I will never have a Windows machine for the rest of my life if I have any say in the matter, work being the obvious and uncontrollable exception. The fact that I'm even entertaining the idea of owning an iPhone or a Mac is really telling about how far Android and Windows and enshitified.

At least so far Samsung is letting me disable Gemini, as I try to do to any bloatware I don't want running in the background.

I don't have Gemini loaded to my phone and I have Google assistant voice command disabled

But a few days ago I was having a conversation with my son next to me on the couch with my phone sitting on the arm of the couch.

When I asked him a question, gemini answered with a prompt on the screen I have never seen before and haven't since.

It still creeps me out

I looked up what the prompt for gemini is supposed to lol like and this looked nothing like that. It looked more like a popup dialogue box from a browser but the only browser I use is opera and it is set as default

Dear tech bros,

We, the people, don't want to use your AI shit. Please stop shoving it down our throats. Thank you.

Sincerely,

-The people

Linux has become good enough to replace desktop operating systems.

Now, we are back at square one. I’ll be the first to inaccurately declare, “This will be the year of the Linux phone.”

If this happens, can we please all make a protest or petition with the FCC?

Saying "You're not alone" is supposed to be a wholesome thing to show someone that you care. Instead, it's AI companies squeezing as much data out of customers and injecting as much AI into everything they can.

Society really took a wrong turn didn't it?

In the absence of being able to switch to Graphene (Don't own a pixel), I've done everything I can to replace Google Apps with FOSS alternatives, and disabled Google Assistant on my device entirely.

I know none of that will stop a determined Google eventually fucking with me, but at least I'm trying.

I'm so damned tired of the modern corporate world.

"We spent a lot of money on this, so you're going to have it."

I agree it would be concerning if I allowed Gemini access to my phone. Fuck that. This shit is exactly why I am on GrapheneOS.

Remember when Google+ was the future?

Pretty sure I disabled Gemini as one of the first things I did when I got my phone. But, yes when I read that, to me it did seem like a serious overreach for something that was going to be "on by default" for most users.

Laughs in GrapheneOS

“Google is making it easier for Google to pry into your personal data.”

“Water is making it easier for water to make you wet.”

Pls break Google up. Kthx

Apple has been seriously underperforming on their AI strategy.

Really makes it easy to keep using their devices.

I guess my next phone is going to run NixOS.

This has got to be a prank.

So there's an opt-out.

The article seems concerned that the email announcing this doesn't include a specific path to the opt-out right in the email (which is a weird concern, considering the email provides two links to... presumably that information)?

I'm not sure what this means, either, but it seems the "whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off" line is saying that you can still have Gemini send texts for you even if you disable Google storing your apps usage server-side? I don't use Gemini as an assistant, so I'm not sure, but looking at the Gemini settings menu on my Android phone that's what it seems to map to.

Just... Disable it. You can switch to the old assistant.

I've not received any mails or notifications. Though I don't use Gemini at all. Or Google Assistant. Or any assistant.

this can be great for a disabled person i guess, i wonder if it works locally in a degoogled way

Too bad we can't get a Linux OS.

So is Gemini on there as an app? It isn't listed as such on my phone

What about LineageOS?

My guess is the problematic parts here aren't open source so they should never show up in Lineage OS?

is gemini on all androids? i remember there once was something called bixby, now when i accidentally hold the home button for too long it tells me to enable "circle". i've disabled all of those "smart" features but fuck knows what is going to get automatically installed in an update next week

so this has got me looking at alternative OSs, but it's all a bit confusing. which one is most mature and would still let me run android apps (I want my bank apps and stuff like that) but is also somewhat de-googled? I appreciate any advice

im using OP12R and uses google, but i dont if it has gemini as integrated in it as a pixel does?

My wife has been trying to get me to switch to Apple since Ive had a Droid X years ago. I've been on android since. It is time to switch. Probably a lateral move, but Google has gone to absolute shit.

It's conforting that I wasn't the only one who found this concerning. But anyways I don't have Google (the app; I do have some other Google services installed) or Gemini installed.

So it's still Your device not Gemini device. I'll wait couple of years.

I don't feel very concerned... That's kind of the point of the service.

Good that there's an opt-out.

edit: I dug around for it. They seem to mean the literal "Apps" settings page and not the "Settings" page. Every individual app that Gemini is capable of connecting to has a switch there. In Gemini, press your profile picture, then apps. In there you can both access the activity setting and decide which apps Gemini has access to.

thats what you get when using software from US corpo. all your reasons to have apple and google are fake. convenience and laziness are the reason we use them. i mean if you use whatsapp youre a subhuman why care about gemini. thats the path to idiocracy.