For users with personal Google accounts, a paid subscription to Gemini does not automatically exempt chat data from being used to train Google's generative AI models. According to Google's support documentation, Gemini app activity is utilized to improve services and train models as long as the 'Keep Activity' setting remains enabled. This means that even for paying customers, chat transcripts are treated as training data unless the user takes specific steps to opt out.
The mechanism for this data usage involves both automated systems and human oversight. Google notes that a subset of chats are reviewed by human reviewers to improve machine-learning technologies. A critical caveat in these terms is that chats reviewed by humans are not deleted even if a user deletes their activity; instead, these specific transcripts are retained for up to three years. Because of this, Google explicitly warns users against entering confidential information that they would not want a reviewer to see or the company to use for service improvements.
Users seeking to prevent their data from being used for training must turn off the 'Keep Activity' setting in their Gemini preferences. However, this creates a functional trade-off: disabling this setting results in the loss of chat history after 72 hours. This creates a dilemma for users who want privacy but also require persistent memory of their conversations. While the provided sources focus on personal accounts, it remains unclear from this data whether these same training policies apply to Google Workspace or Enterprise accounts, which typically have different data handling agreements.