In short
Chrome silently downloads a ~4GB Gemini Nano file known as weights.bin to eligible units with no opt-in immediate, and robotically re-downloads it if deleted.
Chrome’s “AI Mode” button within the deal with bar routes queries to Google’s cloud servers—the native 4GB mannequin would not energy it.
Privateness researcher Alexander Hanff argues the conduct violates the EU ePrivacy Directive.
Verify your Chrome consumer information folder. There is a respectable probability a 4GB AI mannequin is sitting there—one you by no means agreed to put in. The file is named weights.bin, buried in a folder named OptGuideOnDeviceModel. It is the burden file for Gemini Nano, Google’s on-device language mannequin.
Delete it and Chrome downloads it once more.
Privateness researcher Alexander Hanff uncovered the conduct whereas working an automatic audit on a recent Chrome profile. Utilizing macOS kernel filesystem logs, he traced Chrome making a temp listing, flattening mannequin elements, and inserting the completed file on disk. The entire course of took roughly quarter-hour. No notification. No immediate. The profile had acquired zero human enter at any level.
The identical sample has been confirmed on Home windows 11, Apple Silicon Macs, and Ubuntu. Customers who’ve been discovering unexplained storage spikes for over a yr now have a reputation for the wrongdoer.
What it really does
Gemini Nano powers Chrome’s on-device AI options: Issues like “Assist me write an electronic mail,” rip-off detection, sensible paste, web page summarization, and AI-assisted tab grouping. On Home windows, the file lands at %LOCALAPPDATApercentGoogleChromeUser DataOptGuideOnDeviceModelweights.bin. On Mac and Linux, it is the equal Chrome profile listing.
Deleting the folder supplies no everlasting aid. Chrome restores it on the following restart except you disable the characteristic—through chrome://flags, the On-device AI toggle in Settings > System, or on Home windows, a registry edit setting OptimizationGuideModelDownloading to disabled.
Chrome not too long ago added a outstanding “AI Mode” tablet within the deal with bar. An affordable consumer seeing that button—with a 4GB native mannequin already on their disk—would assume their queries keep on-device. They do not. AI Mode routes each question to Google’s cloud servers. The native Gemini Nano mannequin would not energy it in any respect.
You are paying the storage and bandwidth price for a characteristic you are not really utilizing privately.
Is it authorized or “authorized”?
Hanff argues Google is violating EU privateness regulation. His case facilities on Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive—the identical clause behind cookie consent banners—which requires “prior, freely-given, particular, knowledgeable, and unambiguous consent” earlier than storing something on a consumer’s machine. He additionally cites GDPR Articles 5(1) and 25, overlaying transparency and privateness by design.
He additionally drew a direct line to a case he printed two weeks earlier: Anthropic’s Claude Desktop silently pre-authorized browser automation throughout roughly three million consumer machines with out express consent. It’s the identical sample, he argued, however at a a lot smaller scale.
Nonetheless, Google has been sneaking Gemini Nano in Chrome for some time. Individuals simply didn’t discover. “To supply an enhanced browser expertise, Chrome makes use of on-device AI fashions to assist energy internet and browser options,” Google says in its Help Web site. “Chrome could obtain on-device Generative AI fashions within the background, so options that depend on these on-device fashions keep prepared to be used. For those who delete on-device AI fashions, solely options that depend on them shall be unavailable.”
“In February, we started rolling out the power for customers to simply flip off and take away the mannequin immediately in Chrome settings. As soon as disabled the mannequin will now not obtain or replace.” the corporate informed Android Authority.
The corporate famous the mannequin auto-deletes if storage runs low. What Google did not deal with is why customers weren’t requested first.
Google’s personal Chrome developer documentation tells third-party builders it is “greatest observe to alert the consumer to the time required to carry out these downloads.” Google did not comply with its personal recommendation this time.
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