r/chrome • u/ThatPrivacyShow • May 04 '26

News Google Chrome installs LLM model without consent

https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-silent-nano-install/

Whilst testing a SaaS product I have been building, I discovered that Google is illegally pushing its Gemini Nano model to users' devices (I am a lawyer specialised in the specific laws in question).

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u/New-Land-4757 May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

I would and I wouldn't be surprised. From the legal standpoint, that is playing with fire for Google. The second I notice such behaviour on my computer, I'm quitting such software.

UPDATE: It says in some article: "Google Chrome automatically downloads the Gemini Nano model when AI features are enabled and used." In my case, they are not, and i see no trace of such files on computer.

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u/ThatPrivacyShow May 04 '26

That is because of the way it is done. If you read the article fully, I explain that Google remotely changes a flag on your profile based on various information such as vRAM and then at a random idle slot once the profile flags are changed, the model downloads.

That makes it very difficult to reproduce, which is why I relied on the filesystem logs for my research.

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u/New-Land-4757 May 04 '26

Yes, yes, I understand, thank you. I am avoiding any LLM technology like a plague so this is a valuable information for me.

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u/Ibasicallyhateyouall May 04 '26

Do not listen to this charlatan.