Google Gemini Now Uses Your Search History – Should You Worry? | Image Source: blog.google
March 13, 2025 – Google is stepping up its AI game with a major update to its Gemini assistant, introducing a new feature called ’Gemini with Customization.’ This experimental opt-in feature allows the AI wizard to access the Google search history of users to provide more appropriate answers. The technology giant places it as a way to make AI more personal and relevant, but it also raises important privacy concerns.
How does Gemini work with Customization?
Google AI’s new functionality is based on its Flash Gemini 2.0 thought model, an experimental version designed to analyze context more effectively. Users who choose can allow Gemini to refer to their previous Google searches when developing the answers. The idea is that if you looked for specific topics before, Gemini can use this information to provide better answers. However, Google points out that the search history will only be accessible when your AI determines that it could improve the response.
To enable this function, users must activate it manually via the Gemini application configuration. More specifically, you must select the “Customization (experimental)” option from the drop-down menu of the template. Once activated, the AI will begin to integrate the search history into its responses, which will allow it to better understand previous research, trends and preferences.
Which Gemini applications will be integrated?
In addition to Google Search’s history, the company announced its intention to extend Gemini’s customization capabilities to other services, including Google Photos and YouTube. This means that Gemini will soon be able to take the context of a user’s past photo loads or video history to generate more personalized recommendations and answers.
In addition, AI’s assistant becomes more deeply integrated with other Google applications such as Calendar, Notes and Tasks. This expansion suggests that Google is trying to make Gemini a personal all-in-one assistant, similar to Apple’s vision with Apple Intelligence. However, Apple’s implementation remains in its early stages, while Google AI customization already works.
Concerns about confidentiality and user control
The ability of an artificial intelligence assistant to access a user’s search history naturally raises privacy concerns. According to Google, the company has built multiple guarantees to ensure that users remain in control of their data. A key aspect is that Gemini will always display a clear flag indicating when you use the search history for answers. In addition, users can disconnect their Gemini history at any time.
Google also allows users to manually change their search history, which means they can delete specific queries to which they do not want Gemini to refer. Importantly, the function is totally opt-in, so users must actively activate it rather than be enabled by default.
Who can access Gemini with customization?
Now, the custom Gemini feature is only available for Gemini and Gemini Advanced subscribers. It is accessible on the web and gradually extends to mobile users. However, there are limits: Google Workspace and Education account holders, as well as users under the age of 18, cannot use this feature.
This deployment strategy suggests that Google is cautious about how it introduces AI-based customization, probably to prevent regulatory review. The technology industry has been under increasing pressure to improve transparency in the development of the CEW, particularly with regard to user data management.
Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking gets a major upgrade
Beyond customization, Google also announced improvements to its Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking model. The update offers greater efficiency, reasoning capacity and a longer contextual window. For example, Gemini Advanced users can now benefit from a 1 million-ton contextual window, allowing AI to process large amounts of information to solve complex issues.
The company has also improved its “deep research” function, which acts as an AI research assistant. This improvement allows Gemini to synthesize more sophisticated information, generate detailed reports on several pages and provide real-time information about his thinking process.
How does this compare to other artificial intelligence assistants?
Google’s movement to customize AI interactions puts him ahead of Apple in the race of AI participants. Apple Intelligence, which Apple imagines as a customized system, still lacks deep integration with the daily activities of users. Apple Intelligence’s current features are limited to writing ChatGPT tools, report summaries and integration.
Meanwhile, other AI competitors, such as OpenAI ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, are also exploring ways to customize AI experiences. However, Google has a significant advantage: its deep integration with Search, Photos and YouTube provides a lot of contextual data that competitors lack.
Final Thoughts: Should you use Gemini with Customization?
For users who want a more intuitive and context-conscious IA assistant, Gemini with Customization offers an exciting look in the future of AI. The ability to extract from past research and integrate into several applications could make interactions with AI more smooth and natural. However, privacy remains a major concern, and users should carefully consider whether they are comfortable sharing their research history with an AI system.
In the end, Google gives users the option. If you appreciate AI’s comfort about privacy concerns, the functionality could be incredibly useful. But if you worry about how many data AI systems should access, keeping Gemini customization out could be the safest bet.
