Private AI For All: Our End-To-End Approach to AI Privacy on Android

Posted by Dave Kleidermacher, VP Engineering, Android Security and Privacy, and Giles Hogben, Senior Director, Privacy Engineering, Android

Your smartphone holds a lot of your personal information to help you get things done every day. On Android, we are seamlessly integrating the latest artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, like Gemini as a trusted assistant – capable of handling life's essential tasks. As such, ensuring your privacy and security on Android is paramount. As a pioneer in responsible AI and cutting-edge privacy technologies like Private Compute Core and federated learning, we made sure our approach to the assistant experience with Gemini on Android is aligned with our existing Secure AI framework, AI Principles and Privacy Principles.

We’ve always safeguarded your data with an integrated stack of world-class secure infrastructure and technology, delivering end-to-end protection in a way that only Google can. From privacy on-device when handling sensitive data to the world’s best cloud infrastructure, here are six key ways we keep your information private and protected.

• We don’t hand off to a third-party AI provider.

  Gemini Apps can help you with complex, personal tasks from creating workout routines to helping you get started on a resume. And it does the hard work for you all within Google's ecosystem. The core processing is done by Gemini within Google's secure cloud infrastructure and there are no handoffs to third-party chatbots or AI providers that you may not know or trust.

• On-device AI privacy for sensitive tasks, even when offline.

  For some AI features, like Summarize in Recorder on Pixel, that benefit from additional data privacy or processing efficiency, we utilize on-device AI. Gemini Nano, the first multimodal model designed to run on mobile devices, delivers on-device AI processing for some of your most sensitive tasks without relying on cloud connectivity. You can enjoy features like summarizing text even when you’re offline.

• World-class cloud infrastructure that is secure by default, private by design.

  For AI tasks that use data already in the cloud or have complex demands that require more processing power than what’s possible on-device, we use Google’s highly secure cloud infrastructure. Backed by Google’s world-class security and privacy infrastructure and processes, these data centers benefit from the same robust defenses that have kept Google products safe for billions of users for more than 20 years. So you can ask Gemini to find details in your lease agreement saved in your Google Drive and that data is protected by advanced monitoring against unauthorized access or misuse. We also enforce strict software supply chain controls to ensure that only approved and verified code runs in our cloud environment.

• Control how you interact with Gemini Apps.

  We've designed the Gemini Apps experience with careful consideration for how you access it and control it. You can review and choose the Gemini experiences you want – when and where they’re needed most. And at any time, you can review your Gemini Apps chats, pin them, or delete them. Android also gives you control over how apps such as Gemini respond when your device is locked.

• Pioneering new privacy technologies.

  We’re always working to develop new ways to keep your data even more private and secure. We continue to innovate in advancing privacy-preserving technologies, like sealed computing technology, which can be used to process sensitive workloads for enhanced privacy in a secure cloud enclave. Sealed computing ensures no one, including Google, can access the data. It can be thought of as extending the user’s device and its security boundaries into our cloud infrastructure, providing a virtual smartphone in the sky.

• A new level of transparency.
  
  Transparency is in Android’s open-source DNA. Android binary transparency already allows anyone to verify the operating system code against a transparency log to ensure it hasn't been tampered with, much like matching fingerprint biometrics to confirm someone's identity. Binary transparency is extended in sealed computing environments to include reproducible builds. This ensures anyone can rebuild the trusted firmware base and verify that the resulting binaries match what is remotely attested as running in production and published in public transparency logs.

Our Commitment to Safeguarding Your Data

Just like with all Google products, we believe you should be able to enjoy the benefits of Android without having to worry about security and privacy. That's why we invest so much in building world-class protections into our products and services from the start. We look forward to continuing to make AI helpful and intuitive, allowing you to focus on what matters most, while we take care of safeguarding your data.

Keep a lookout for more information about our end-to-end approach to AI privacy in an upcoming whitepaper.