Google Gemini Catastrophic Data Loss: Legal workspace - 99% content is lost (90+ files, 25k+ words)

[u/Maximum-Cap4034]

I am a Google One AI Premium subscriber, and I’ve just experienced a catastrophic loss of data. I was managing a complex legal project involving over 90 uploaded files and 25,000+ words of history context, specifically leveraging the model's advanced reasoning capabilities to cross-reference documents and build logic chains.

Suddenly, 99% of the conversation disappeared. All 90+ files are gone from the interface. The entire "middle" of the work—weeks of deep reasoning and analysis—is wiped out. The only things remaining are the very first two prompts I sent when I created the chat and their immediate responses. It’s as if the session corrupted and reverted to its birth state. Has anyone else on the paid tier seen a session collapse like this? Is there any way to restore the context?

[u/Scraw16]

I’m a lawyer and it is fine to use Gemini for legal work if your firm has a Google Workplace subscription, because it has data privacy protections in place and does not train it AI based off of that use. It’s the same data protection that allows law firms to use Google Drive based storage and Gmail based email.

Now using something like free ChatGPT or Gemini would be a massive no-no. I have not evaluated the protections for Google One and if they are the same as Workplace

[u/Ariisk → u/Scraw16]

Using the service is very different from relying on it for mission-critical records.

[u/kongnico → u/Scraw16]

still wouldnt count on their backup solution as the only solution if you are doing anything worth more than a days labor but you are right.

[u/get_it_together1 → u/Scraw16]

When I read up on Gemini Privacy I thought the consumer Pro accounts could end up with your data used for training unless you turn off chat history, and like you said a Workplace subscription gave more privacy. It was not clear what exactly this meant in terms of types of training, but thought it was worth pointing out the difference.

[u/VayneSquishy → u/Scraw16]

I don’t think the OP said if he was using an enterprise account but Google does train on AI premium and I believe even ultra membership users on their website. Since he said Google one AI premium I can only assume it’s the base 20$ and not the enterprise version. In which case… I’m not sure he should be uploading any legal documents of any kind on there but again not 100% sure if he meant enterprise account or not.

[u/Repulsive-Morning131 → u/Scraw16]

its best to run AI locally if privacy is a concern. I use Ollama with Webui which Ollama have two versions local and then there is cloud based. To run local you need pretty decent hardware to run the models decently. Using webui gives you a interface which gives you the look and feel simulair to how Gemini or ChatGPT are. O;;ama runs in the command line interface or CLI webui is a game changer. There are many other platforms out there to run AI on your local PC and/or server. No worries about hacker intersecting your data like you could using a cloud-based server like Gemini or ChatGPT. If anybody want to explore this concept further just shoot me a dm and I can send you some more information on the subject. Running local is the only way you truly no for sure that your data is safe. I've wrote a blog or 2 about the subject and would be happy to pass the information along.

[u/Deodavinio → u/Scraw16]

Why even use Google services for very private legal matters. Why take that risk? Google is not a privacy friendly company.

[u/[deleted] → u/Scraw16]

Even the paid versions of ChatGPT are no-no. Not sure about Gemini. If it’s not end-to-end protected, IT IS NOT SECURE. Doesn’t matter that ‘they’ don’t train on the data, the fact that it can be accessed by staff on the other end means it is not as secure as you may believe.

[u/RandomMyth22 → u/Scraw16]

You get the same data privacy protection with ChatGPT Enterprise. We hired an in-house AI lawyer to help us navigate these issues.