Chrome Silently Installed 4GB Gemini Nano on Hundreds of Millions of Devices, Then Removed Privacy Promise — 621 Points on HN

Reddit / Hacker News·high signal

Google Chrome deployed Gemini Nano to hundreds of millions of devices between April 20-29, 2026, without consent prompts or notifications. In Chrome 148, Google quietly removed the phrase 'without sending your data to Google servers' from the on-device AI settings description, while the AI Mode pill actually sends every query to Google's servers for processing. Security researcher Alexander Hanff argues the behavior may violate EU privacy rules, and the story has reignited debate about Google's on-device AI claims versus cloud-backed reality.