What you need to know
- Google has updated its privacy policy to better protect your data when using the Duet AI side panel in Workspace apps like Gmail, Docs, and more.
- Your emails, documents, and spreadsheets will not be seen by human reviewers or used for product improvement unless they have been aggregated and/or pseudonymized.
- Google will keep Workspace Labs data for 18 months, and up to four years if it's been reviewed by humans.
Google is making Workspace even smarter with a new AI sidekick called Duet AI, a side panel meant to help you with all sorts of tasks.
Duet AI is already a bit of a know-it-all, but the new side panel is supposed to make it even more helpful. You can access it from the new icon next to your profile avatar in Workspace web apps, and it'll open a chat window where you can ask Duet to summarize emails and documents or even create presentations for you (via 9to5Google).
As Google prepares to test its new Duet AI side panel, it's updated its privacy policy to make sure your data is safe. These changes are meant to clarify how Google will handle your data when Duet AI starts doing more stuff.
Google says that your emails, documents, and spreadsheets won't be seen by human reviewers unless they're combined with other data and made anonymous. So don't include anything personal in your prompts.
The company also detailed the types of data it collects to help improve its Workspace Labs features. The data that Google gathers for Workspace Labs includes user prompts, user input (like highlighted text), Google-selected input (your documents and emails), and edits to prompts.
Google also keeps Workspace Labs data separate from your Google account for 18 months. If a human reviewer looks at or makes changes to the data, Google may keep it for up to four years.
Nonetheless, Google lets you leave the Workspace Labs program, although you might not be able to get back in once you opt out.
Duet AI made its debut at Google's I/O developer conference earlier this year, billed as a helpful collaborator for all your Google apps. With its imminent rollout across Workspace apps, Google is throwing down the gauntlet to Microsoft Copilot.
