šØGoogle GEMS Privacy Warning
Privacy Warning for Entrepreneurs Using Googleās New Super Gems (Opal) If youāre excited about Googleās new āSuper Gemsā and Opal (and I for one am), hit the brakes for a second - especially if you run a business or handle client data. Hereās what most people are missing: Opal is not covered by the Gemini Apps privacy protections you may think youāre relying on. Google explicitly states that Opal is ānot a part of Gemini Apps,ā that your Opal data ādoes not appear in your Gemini Apps Activity,ā and that it is not controlled by Geminiās Workspace-connected app settings. The dedicated Gemini Apps Privacy Notice does not apply to Opal; instead, your Opal data is governed only by the general Google Privacy Policy.[1][2][3] For entrepreneurs, that means all the safer defaults and admin controls you might be counting on inside Workspace/Gemini do not protect what you do inside Opal. Opal asks for extremely broad access to your Google Drive. When you accept, youāre giving Opal permission to āsee and download all your Google Drive filesā and to ācreate, edit, and deleteā the specific files you use with the experience. Full-Drive scope like this typically allows an app to read every document, sheet, and file in your Drive, including items shared with you by others.[4][5][1] If your main Google account contains client docs, strategy decks, financials, SOPs, or anything sensitive, youāre effectively opening the door for this experimental system to see all of it. Anyone with access to certain Opal-powered apps can access the saved data in those apps. Googleās own documentation explains that for user-created āCanvasā style mini-apps, the app creator can see the data you input and can store it where they choose (for example, in Firebase or other storage), and that āanyone with the public link can also view and edit data saved with the app.ā[2][6] So if youāre using a public or shared Opal app to process client info, sales data, or internal workflows, understand this: