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Welcome to the AI Hustle podcast. I'm your host, Jayden Schafer, joined of course with Jamie McCauley. Today we are talking about one of the biggest names in AI and some concerns and a absolutely crazy story about how much data Google has on you, why that can make its AI model, Gemini a lot better than other models, but also some areas of concern that people are worried about. And I think when we're talking about Google and Gemini, it's impossible to miss the entire fact that maybe Google search, and when I say Google search, maybe that's just the Gemini AI responses are going to get better because of how much data they are now collected on you through these different AI mediums, because they have access to all of these different tools like your docs and your Gmail and your YouTube history, that as AI is getting more infused into things, they're sort of consolidating a lot more of your data in a way that maybe wasn't happening before. So if you want to have your business rank inside of the new Gemini search results, though, I think a really important thing to do is, is to be able to figure out how to do that. Jamie and I recorded an entire video on how to get your business or service ranked inside of Gemini search results or chat GPT search results. If you want to get access to that, it's on our school community, an exclusive community where we post one video every single week breaking down how we're making money with AI tools. There's a link in the description to the AI hustle school community. It's 19amonth. We have a Black Friday Cyber Monday discount going on right now. The price will go up a lot in the future, but for now, if you lock in that price, it'll never be raised on you. So if you want to get access to that, link is in the description. Jamie, tell us about. You're saying you're recently reading up on an absolutely mind blowing story about just how much data Google is currently collecting on us. We'll talk about how this can make it better and why this is concerning, but tell us about the story.
B
Yeah, so there's this guy I follow on Instagram, he's big into just trying out different AI things, AI image generation, video generation, things like that. And he did an experiment. He uploaded a picture of his face and his name and inside of nano banana 2. So all he did is upload those two things and said, please generate an ID for me, like a, like a fake ID. And so it guessed his nationality, his age, color of his official Albanian government ID without me specifying any of it. Let me, let me emphasize, I. It knew I'm Albanian without me telling it. It added the official watermark. Too crazy. I believe Nano Banana searches Google to pull all information, all this information, and it used to it through Enhancer as an API provider. So there's no way for it to know anything about me. We're stepping into an era where AI is recognizing. It's profiling, it's connecting dots that most of us never gave permission to connect, wondering where we go from here. So I just think that's a crazy story about how.
A
Oh, my gosh.
B
Yeah. I mean, what are your thoughts on that, Jaden?
A
That's absolutely amazing. I mean, you can imagine how that. How that would happen. The AI is just like, oh, I have to generate an image. Well, I. How do I make the ID look realistic? Oh, let me just search up all the information about that person and pull it all together. I mean, the image of the ID there looks super, super realistic. Also looks like a debit card. I don't know if Albanian IDs actually have a chip like that embedded like a credit card or maybe that was just a funny thing with Nano Banana. I mean, it pulled all the information. And so I think this illustrates the point, which is that Google is collecting and Gemini is collecting and has access to way more data about you than you know. And, you know, the question is like, oh, well, how did it know his. You know, his birthday, for example? Well, I mean, technically you. And I'm not saying this is where you. They get the data from, but like, you've given your birthday to Google when you sign up for like, any of the Google services, Gmail, YouTube, like, anything else. So technically it could be there. Maybe they went and found it on a website or a forum or blog or like, somewhere else. But regardless, Google and Gemini either can get access to or have access already to so much of your personal data. The finding out that he was Albanian, I think is really crazy. But to be fair, like, you can look at a picture and probably these AI image models could do a pretty good job of determining what your nationality was to some degree. Right. Like, I think for myself, I went to school in Hawaii and at Hawaii growing up, or, sorry, Hawaii when I was going to school, there was like tons of different nationalities. Basically, it's a school I went to byu, Hawaii. And they. It's a school that has. It's like all of Asia Pacific. It. It brings like, islanders from the South Pacific and like, all sorts of places to, to one place. And I'm sure I don'. People can get mad at me all, all they want for this. When I first got there, it was very difficult for me to identify between different nationalities of like, of Asian culture. Asian people, right? So like Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Mongolian, like for me it was very difficult. I hadn't been grown up around a lot of them and they, to me, I just thought they all looked roughly the same. By the end of my school, I could just walk up to someone and look at them and just, just by looking at them be like, oh, they're definitely Japanese, they're definitely Korean, they're definitely from Mongolia or China or Taiwan. And so I think what's interesting here is the a, like we have the capability obviously of doing that to some degree, but the AI is way more capable than us. Right. It sees millions of pictures of people. It can just, I mean, obviously you can have some crazy exception where I go and move to China and my wife and I have some, you know, a child in China that is technically Chinese but like looks just like me. And it's not going to find that. Right. There's crazy exceptions, but I think for the most part it could tell a lot about you through facial recognition. It can pull a lot of this data about you, and I think it's way more advanced than any human. So it is, it is an interesting point when it comes to data collection and being able to target people, sell them things, know what types of things that they're interested in buying. It's got a lot of data and that is, that is a pretty valuable resource, but also a little bit scary.
B
Yeah, I mean, I think there's definitely usefulness to this, especially when you do ask it a question, it can take into account all of the things it knows about you and give you an answer that's, you know, catered to exactly who you are, which can be very helpful in some cases. But where it gets scary is if you think about Google and all the different that it knows about you, like if it's connected to Gemini, is now connected to your Gmail, your calendar, your drive. I just bought a new TV that has Google TV on it. It's a Google smart tv. So I'm sure you know what TV shows I watch, you know what TV shows my kids watch. There's a ton of information that's, if you think about it, it's kind of scary. And so, yeah. Is this going to be a privacy concern moving forward or is it already. Is it too late? I Mean, what are your thoughts, Jaden?
A
Okay, so there's a recent podcast interview on the Limitless Pod, and Robbie Stein, who's the VP of product for Google Search, was talking about this kind of AI trend and he was saying that the, that Google's AI tends to get more questions that are advice seeking for users that are looking for recommendations. And because of those types of questions, they're more likely to benefit from. Like, like Google can give a better response if they have more data about you, right? If you're asking for recommendation, you know, like, let's say I'm like, hey, what are the best things to do in Honolulu? Because I'm here today, it could give me a way better response. If it's like, what's my age? What kinds of things am I interested in? Do I have kids with me? Like, all of that's going to play into the best things to do because there's a hundred things to do. If it's going to give me recommendations, I want to make them personalized. So because of that they want to make, they want to get as much data as they can and make more personalized. Here's a quote that Robby was or was was saying about this. He says, we think there's a huge opportunity for our eye, for our AI to know you better and then be uniquely helpful because of that knowledge. And one of the things we talk about at Google Developer Conference IO was how AI can get a better understanding of you through connected services like Gmail. So he goes on to outline this a little bit, but it, I mean, it makes a lot of sense from Google's perspective. Their product does get better the more personalized it becomes, but in order to be more personalized, they have to get a lot more personal data on you. And they do that. Now the interesting thing that he has, I mean, I don't want to say admitted like it's a secret because he's publicly talking about it. I'm, I think it's kind of obvious that Google, like, hey, look, we want to give you a better, a better, a better experience. This is how we're doing it. They are pulling data from your Gmail, from your docs, from your YouTube, from your history, like anywhere they can get it. It's kind of interesting because I feel like in the past there was this kind of feeling and I don't know if it was real or not. Maybe Google was just putting off, like putting on errors, or whatever, but they were like, don't worry, you're, you know, like, we have ads inside of Gmail, but we don't actually read your emails to serve you ads or it's like it's an automated system and I don't know, like they had all these things where they tried to make you feel like your, your Gmail wasn't being like read by somebody. Because I remember, I remember that Microsoft had this big marketing campaign maybe like 15 years ago, which was called don't get Screw Gold. And it was like saying that Google is taking all your data through your Gmail and you should use Hotmail instead if you didn't want to get screw Gold. Because the big Gmail man was like reading all. It was like this guy and he was like opening your mail and like reading it and stuff Anyways. So they've always had like that kind of like bad brand perception that they're fighting against. And so it feels like we've now come to a point where they have fully embraced the fact that they do have access to all of your data and it makes their, their results better for their AI model. And so it's, they're just like, yeah, we're building a giant consolidated puddle of all of your data, database of all your data and it's going to give you great results. Some people love that. But like you mentioned, some people are concerned about that. I guess. Where do you fall on that, on that debate, Jamie?
B
I mean, it's definitely a concern. I mean, I think at this point for me it's. But what's interesting is I feel like when it comes to like knowing about you, I feel like, and admittedly I don't use Gemini that much, but I feel like Chat GBT does a better job personalizing responses to me with what it knows about me than, than Google does at this point. But maybe that'll change in the future. But you would think with Google having these capabilities that they would try to work in the personalization more. But I just feel like they don't that much. Would you agree or disagree?
A
Yeah, I think I'd agree with you there. And I will say one thing that is interest, interesting talking about all of this is that, that recently some people were saying basically that it's definitely more useful. You know, they said this, that is, it is a very much the vision of building something that can be really knowledgeable for you specifically. But of course, yeah, there, there is the risk that all of your data gets pulled into that. Is Google going to leak your data? I think that's less likely. But does Google, I don't know, share it with the government or share it with parties you wouldn't want. Like, there's definitely. There's definitely possibilities there. And some people embrace giving all their data to the government, and some people don't love that. I, for one, don't like the feeling. But I also think it's, like, too late and there's nothing I can really do. Also, I'm pretty sure, like, every government agency has a profile on me anyways. I was recently talking to someone I know that was like, they have a job in the government, and I've known them my whole life. And they were telling me that when they had to apply for their job, they had to give a list of, like, basically anyone they've known their entire life growing up, what their middle name was, what their address was. Like. So I apologize. I have given your address to the FBI at your middle name. I'm like, oh, cool. But, like, do you know what I mean? There's nothing I can do about it. It's just. It's all out of. I don't know. In my opinion, it's all out of our hands. The FBI's already got a file on me, so, you know, whatever. I'm sure they probably have it on all of you that are listening as well, so don't feel too smug either. One thing that I will say that's interesting, Google does let you control the apps that Gemini uses to make its AI more knowledgeable about you. Specifically, you go to the connected apps section in Gemini's settings and you can turn off, you know, access to Gmail, for example, where Gemini is pulling from Gmail. At this point, I've given up on my AI overlords. But if you, like many people I do know, take privacy and security very seriously, this is something I'd recommend doing. Or just don't use Gemini or Gmail, probably, if you really cared about your privacy a lot. At the end of the day, the results are getting better, but it is taking more of your. More of your data and sucking it into Google's hive mind, which is, you know, a little bit. A little bit concerning, perhaps. And maybe some people are like, well, I love Google. It's a great company, but it's like, okay, but there's like a hundred of these other AI companies that might all be trying to do it as well. So hope you trust all of them. You know what I mean?
B
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a rating or review wherever you're listening. We really appreciate those and they help us reach more people. Be sure to check out the AI Hustle School community. If you want to learn how to grow your business or just make money on the side using AI, we'd love to have you be a part of that. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.
Podcast: AI Hustle: Make Money from AI and ChatGPT, Midjourney, NVIDIA, Anthropic, OpenAI
Hosts: Jaeden Schafer and Jamie McCauley
Date: December 11, 2025
Episode Theme: The extent of Google's data collection, its impact on the capabilities of Gemini (Google’s AI model), and the privacy concerns this raises for individuals and entrepreneurs.
This episode dives deep into Google's AI strategy, particularly Gemini, and explores how Google’s vast access to user data—from Gmail to YouTube history—sets its AI apart. Jaeden and Jamie discuss not only how this massive data pool can supercharge personalization and recommendations, but also the sweeping privacy concerns that arise, supported by a recent real-world example and public statements from Google.
"It guessed his nationality, his age, color of his official Albanian government ID without me specifying any of it... It knew I'm Albanian without me telling it."
"Oh my gosh." (Jaeden, 02:37)
"AI is way more capable than us. Right. It sees millions of pictures of people...I think for the most part it could tell a lot about you through facial recognition. It can pull a lot of this data about you, and I think it's way more advanced than any human."
"We think there's a huge opportunity for our AI to know you better and then be uniquely helpful because of that knowledge...AI can get a better understanding of you through connected services like Gmail."
"Is Google going to leak your data? I think that's less likely. But does Google, I don't know, share it with the government or share it with parties you wouldn't want. There's definitely possibilities there...I, for one, don't like the feeling. But I also think it's, like, too late and there's nothing I can really do."
"At this point, I've given up on my AI overlords. But if you...take privacy and security very seriously, this is something I’d recommend doing. Or just don’t use Gemini or Gmail, probably, if you really cared about your privacy a lot."
"We're stepping into an era where AI is recognizing. It's profiling, it's connecting dots that most of us never gave permission to connect, wondering where we go from here." (01:58)
"I think what's interesting here is that...the AI is way more capable than us. Right. It sees millions of pictures of people." (04:32)
"We think there's a huge opportunity for our AI to know you better and then be uniquely helpful because of that knowledge." (Jaeden quoting Robbie Stein, 06:54)
"In my opinion, it's all out of our hands. The FBI's already got a file on me, so, you know, whatever." (10:45)
The hosts maintain a lively and relatable tone—equal parts fascinated and unnerved. They urge listeners, especially entrepreneurs, to get smart about how AI-driven search works, but never lose sight of the very real privacy tradeoffs. Despite acknowledging the usefulness of AI-powered personalization, both Jaeden and Jamie end on a note of resigned pragmatism: privacy may already be lost, but users can still tweak controls for some peace of mind.
For entrepreneurs, technologists, or anyone curious about the real-world impact of AI data collection, this episode serves as both a wake-up call and a practical guide to navigating the AI-powered future.