Joe Maring / Android Authority
Any burgeoning new technology is almost always met with criticisms — some justified, and others not so much. Lately, Google’s Gemini has been the focus of such critiques.
Last month, Gemini was under the microscope for an email that suggested it would soon gain a worrying level of access to your other Android apps. However, Google quickly reassured users that they were still in control of their data. Now, the Gemini Android app has come under fire for how it accesses your phone’s permissions.
On Tuesday afternoon, X users @ablenessy (who is a developer at the Elon Musk-owned xAI), posted the above warning, sounding alarm bells that the Gemini Android app has full access to permissions like your camera, microphone, and location without the ability to remove/deny any of them. On the surface, it sounds like a privacy nightmare.
But in reality, this simply isn’t accurate. The fact is that you can disable any permissions you don’t want Gemini to access — you just have to look somewhere else to find them.
How to disable Gemini permissions on your Android phone
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
While it is true that the Google Gemini app doesn’t show any removable permissions in Android’s settings, this is because the Gemini “app” is really just a shortcut to access Gemini on Android; the actual Gemini functionality is baked into the Google app.
As such, to remove any permissions you’d rather Gemini not have, here’s what you need to do: Open the Settings app on your Android phone.
on your Android phone. Tap Apps .
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