Google Confirms Chrome AI Can Crawl Your Gmail Inbox For Autofill Data

An October 28 statement from Chrome product manager Amanda Lim confirmed that Google has begun rolling out enhanced autofill functionality, powered by Gemini with Personal Intelligence, that can crawl your Gmail inbox for certain data to use. Currently only available to Chrome users in the U.S., the feature, Lim said, can “automatically suggest information pulled directly from Gmail as you fill out online forms.”

Google Chrome Enhanced Autofill Can Now Use Gmail Messages For Data

The premise is a simple one: if you want to make filling online forms easier, then you need an autofill function. In Google’s post announcing the introduction of the new enhanced autofill function for Chrome users in the U.S., it pointed to the tediousness of switching between Chrome tabs or searching through your Gmail messages to find information such as order numbers, tracking information and flight bookings.

This functionality is in addition to the standard autofill that can already insert credit card data, addresses and passwords, for example. While the ability to let your browser, or rather the AI known as Gemini with Personal Intelligence, grab your booking code for a flight when checking in online directly from your Gmail inbox is an advance or retrograde step, will depend on how much you trust Google. The company recently updated its Gmail privacy policy concerning the use of its AI in serving ads. This now states that while personalized ads aren’t based upon content from Gmail, they are if “you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.”

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Understandably, any new changes involving Gmail and AI trawling are going to ruffle a few privacy concerns, to say the least. “As always, sensitive data is encrypted and you remain in control,” Lim stated.

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