When Google started its operations in the late 1990s, it set out to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Despite continual, and sometimes secretive, iteration, the clause remains intact in its mission statement. With the AI boom, Google wants to make information accessible without any significant effort, and is extending these principles beyond web search. Last month, it extended the same altruistic virtues to Google Drive, where you now see AI overview-style summaries for your folders. With this change, Google’s AI will look through your folders, any directories within them, the files stored in them, and even the contents of those files, so you can find whatever you’re looking for immediately.
These “smart” features in Google Drive are available to all paying Gemini subscribers and Workspace users. Google says it saves time and helps you discover files buried under several layers of folders. But I’m deeply unsettled by Google raking through my files — especially without my explicit consent — and the only solution I feel I have now is to stop trusting Google with anything private.
