By Robert Burnson, Bloomberg News

Google was accused in a lawsuit of using its Gemini AI assistant to unlawfully track the private communications of users of its Gmail, instant messaging and videoconference programs.

In the past, users of Gmail, Chat and Meet were given the option to turn on Google’s artificial intelligence program. But in October, the Alphabet Inc. unit “secretly” turned on Gemini for all those applications, enabling it to collect private data “without the users’ knowledge or consent,” according to the complaint filed late Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California.

While the company allows users to turn off Gemini, they need to dig into Google’s privacy settings to deactivate the AI tool, according to the proposed class-action suit. Unless they take that step, Google uses Gemini to “access and exploit the entire recorded history of its users’ private communications, including literally every email and attachment sent and received in their Gmail accounts,” according to the complaint.

The suit alleges that Google is violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act, a 1967 law that prohibits surreptitious wiretapping and recording of confidential communications without the consent of all parties involved.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

The case is Thele v. Google LLC, 25-cv-09704, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose.)