Gemini in Google Workspace · Lesson 2 of 7

What Gemini can see, and an oversharing check

20 minutes. Know exactly what Gemini can and can't read, then make sure your files are only open to the right people.

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The first question every owner asks about Gemini is a good one: "Can it read everything?"

The short answer is no. Gemini reads what you can read. Not more. That one rule explains almost everything in this lesson, and it's also why the second half of the lesson is a check of your Google Drive sharing.

Google's privacy page for Workspace puts it plainly: Gemini "only retrieves relevant content in Workspace that the user has access to." If you don't have permission to open a document or an email, Gemini won't use it.

Inside that limit, depending on where you ask:

• In Gmail, Gemini can use the emails in your inbox, events on your primary Google Calendar, and Drive files, to give you more relevant answers. Google's Gmail help says so directly.
• In Docs, Gemini can pull from your Drive files, your Gmail and the web when you ask it to.
• In Drive, Gemini can search and summarize the files you can open.
• In the Gemini app, once the Workspace apps connection is on (Lesson 1), you type @ and pick an app such as Gmail or Drive, and Gemini looks there. Google's help says you need to ask for this in each new conversation.
• Help me write in Gmail goes a step further. Google says it "proactively takes details from your other emails and Drive files" to make a draft sound like you. That's useful. It's also a reason to read every draft before it goes out.

This list comes from Google's help and admin pages. You'll copy it into your Two-Week Habit template in Lesson 7, so your whole team has it.

• Anything you can't open. Someone else's inbox. A folder that was never shared with you.
• Email and files encrypted with client-side encryption. Google's FAQ says Gemini "is unable to act on" them. (Most small businesses don't use this. If you do, your IT partner set it up.)
• Files locked so you can't download, copy or print them. Google says restrictions like these can keep Gemini from retrieving a file.
• Content Gemini flags as a threat. Google says Gemini tells you, and leaves that content out of its answer.
• Some parts of your Workspace, when you ask from the Gemini app. Google's help lists limits there: it can't read images or comments in Gmail, pictures and videos in Drive, or comments and images in Docs, Sheets and Slides. From the Gemini app it also can't create an email draft or delete email.
• Anything that isn't in Workspace at all. Your phone calls and voicemail, texts on your cell phone, paper files, and the software you run outside Google. If it isn't in your Gmail, Drive or Calendar, Gemini doesn't know it.

One more, which surprises people: the conversation itself in Docs and Sheets doesn't stick around. Google's help says you lose the side panel history when you refresh the page or close and reopen the file. If you like an answer, put it in the document.

Here is what Google says, on its own pages, about work accounts:

• "Workspace does not use customer data for training models without customer's prior permission or instruction."
• For people with a Workspace license using Gemini: "Submissions aren't used to train models and are never reviewed by humans."
• "Your interactions with Gemini stay within your organization."
• Gemini follows your organization's existing controls, such as data region policies and data loss prevention rules, if you have them.

These promises apply to your work account. They're a strong reason to use Gemini signed in with your business account, never a personal one, for anything to do with customers.

Here's the catch with "Gemini reads what you can read." In most small businesses, people can open more than they should.

A payroll sheet shared with "anyone with the link" three years ago. A folder of customer contracts shared with a former bookkeeper. A Drive folder called "Office" where everything inside inherits the folder's sharing. Before Gemini, those mistakes sat quietly. Nobody went looking.

Gemini doesn't create new access. But it makes existing access much easier to use. Someone types "what did we pay the install crew last month?" and if the payroll sheet is open to them, Gemini may find it. So before your team starts asking Gemini questions about your files, spend 20 minutes making sure the right files are open to the right people.

Open the Drive Oversharing Check template. You're not auditing every file. You're checking the handful that would hurt if the wrong person saw them.

Step 1: List the sensitive files (3 minutes)

Write down the five to ten files or folders that hold the sensitive stuff. At Comfort Zone, Tanya's list was: payroll, employee files, customer contracts, the bank and card statements folder, the pricing and margins sheet, and the owner's notes.

Step 2: Check who has access (8 minutes)

For each one, Google's Drive help gives this path:

• In Drive, right-click the file or folder.
• Click More (the three dots), then File information, then Details.
• A panel shows who owns it and who has access. If you're allowed to make changes, click Manage access.

Write down what you see. Pay special attention to General access. Google's help defines two settings that matter here:

• Anyone with the link: "Anyone who has the link can use your file, without signing in."
• Restricted: "Only people with access can open the file."

Step 3: Fix what's wrong (4 minutes)

If a sensitive file is open to people who shouldn't have it:

• To close a link: open the file, click Share, and under General access click the down arrow, choose Restricted, then Done.
• To remove a person: click Share, find their name, click the down arrow next to it, choose Remove access, then Save.

Remember Google's rule about folders: "Files and folders within a shared folder always inherit its permissions." A private file inside a widely shared folder isn't private. Fix the folder.

If you can't change a file's sharing, you aren't the owner. Write it down and ask the owner or your admin.

> For a bigger cleanup, ask your admin or IT partner to review sharing across the whole company once a year. Today's 20-minute check covers the files that matter most.

• Fill in the Drive Oversharing Check for your five to ten most sensitive files and folders.
• Fix anything you own. List anything you don't, and send it to the owner.
• Read the "What Gemini can't see" list above out loud at your next team huddle. It takes one minute and answers most of the questions people are too shy to ask.

Check it worked

• You can say in one sentence what Gemini can see: what you can open, and nothing more.
• You checked at least five sensitive files or folders, and none is set to "Anyone with the link."
• Anyone who left the company has been removed from the files you own.
• Your team knows to use Gemini signed in with their work account, never a personal one.

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Next: the app where most of your day goes. Gmail.

→ Lesson 3: Gemini in Gmail: summarize, draft, a person sends

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