Gemini reputation: what Google's AI says about you
Gemini reputation explained: which Google surfaces speak about you, what Google says they can get wrong, and the routes that exist to report and correct.
Your Gemini reputation is whatever Google's AI says when someone asks about you, and it is not one answer in one place. The Gemini app, AI Overviews and AI Mode on the results page are different Google surfaces with different controls, different reporting buttons and different memory. Treat them as separate audits, and expect the same underlying web pages to feed more than one of them.
Google also runs the search engine, which gives you two levers: snippet controls on your own pages, and a legal removal flow that asks whether a request concerns AI-generated content. It also creates two risks that are easy to miss. A crawler setting meant to limit AI use does not do what many people assume, and the Gemini app keeps a record of your own audit prompts. Both are covered below with Google's own wording.
This guide is limited to what is specific to Gemini and Google's surfaces. Everything said about Google below comes from its own help and developer pages, read for this guide, and is described as those pages state it. Policies change, so check the page before you act on a point.
- Gemini the app, AI Overviews and AI Mode are separate surfaces. Check each one, and write down which one produced each sentence.
- Google's privacy page says Gemini "may produce inaccurate or offensive information (including about people)". Report a specific error, then work on the pages behind it.
- Your own audit chats are stored. Reviewed chats can be kept up to three years even after you delete your activity, so do not paste sensitive detail into a test.
- Google-Extended limits model training and grounding use. Google says it has no effect on inclusion in Search, so it cannot move a page out of an AI Overview.
Source: Google's Gemini Apps Privacy Hub, read for this guide.
Which Google surface is answering you
Sort the surfaces before you test anything, because the fix for one may not touch the others.
The Gemini app is a chat product you open in the app or at gemini.google.com. AI Overviews are blocks at the top of a normal results page. AI Mode is a conversational search experience. A fourth route is indirect: Google says Google-Extended governs whether crawled content may be used for future Gemini models and for grounding, which it describes as providing content from the Google Search index to a model at prompt time. In other words, the search index and the Gemini models are connected by design, which is why a page problem in Search tends to show up in Gemini too.
Related readAI Answers About Job Candidates: Audit and Fix| Surface | Where you see it | Report route | Your lever |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini app | Chat at gemini.google.com or in the app | Bad response button, Report legal issue | Fix source pages, use feedback |
| AI Overviews | Block above web results | Google's legal removal flow | Fix source pages, snippet controls |
| AI Mode | Conversational search | Same legal flow, which names AI Mode | Fix source pages, snippet controls |
| Model training and grounding | Not visible to you | None | Google-Extended in robots.txt |
This guide concentrates on the Gemini app and on what the surfaces have in common.
What Google says Gemini can get wrong about people
Google says it plainly. Its Gemini Apps Privacy Hub states that Gemini "may produce inaccurate or offensive information (including about people)", and that large language model experiences, Gemini Apps included, can hallucinate and present inaccurate information as factual. The general help page for using Gemini Apps adds that Gemini Apps can make mistakes and that users should verify responses.
That wording matters: an error about a person is a recognized failure mode, and a provider that tells users to verify responses is not promising that every sentence will be reviewed.
The same privacy page addresses data protection law. It says that under the GDPR you can ask for inaccurate personal data in Gemini Apps' responses to be corrected, and that you can submit that request in the app by choosing More below a response and then "Report legal issue". Whether a given law applies to you is a question for your own counsel. What the page confirms is that a correction route is documented for people in places where such laws exist, and that the in-app button is the entry point.
In our experience, errors about a name are usually a merge with a similarly named person, an outdated role, a negative page stripped of its context, or a detail that appears on no page you can find. The last type is one where sources cannot help you, which is the reason to log exact wording rather than a paraphrase.
Related readAI answers about doctors and lawyers: what to fixSources in the Gemini app may appear on some answers and not others
Gemini Apps can show links to related sources on some responses. The help page that describes exactly when and how they appear could not be read for this guide, so check it before relying on any detail, and treat the points below as audit practice, not as Google's stated rules.
For an audit, this produces three cases, and each needs a different handling.
The answer has sources. Open every one. Sort them as you would any citation list: your own pages, profiles, press, forums, directories. A wrong sentence usually traces to one or two pages. Fix or outrank those, and test again later.
The answer has no sources. You have nothing to open. Do not conclude that the claim is invented: an answer without links tells you nothing about where it came from. Search for the exact phrase on the open web, check the people-search and directory sites that mirror your details, and note that you could not trace it.
The sources list does not contain the wrong claim. Do not assume the list is a complete record of what the model used. Treat it as a lead, not proof.
Run the audit without leaving a trail you did not intend
This is the point most guides skip, and it is specific to a Google account. Your test prompts are stored. Google's Privacy Hub sets retention rules for Gemini Apps activity, and the ones that matter to an audit are below.
- Activity is auto-deleted after 18 months by default. You can choose 3 months, 36 months or indefinite retention.
- Some chats are reviewed by human reviewers. Google says chats are disconnected from your account before being sent to service providers.
- Reviewed chats are kept for up to three years, even after you delete your activity.
- Temporary chats, and chats with Keep Activity off, are retained with your account for 72 hours.
- Reviewed feedback, associated conversations and related data are retained for up to three years.
The practical rules follow from that. Do not type private detail into a reputation test: a home address, a health matter, the name of a person who accused you, the text of a confidential letter. Ask about your public name and role only. Use a temporary chat or turn Keep Activity off for the test, which Google says shortens retention to 72 hours.
Related readWrong company information in ChatGPT: how to fixWrite down which account you used and whether Keep Activity was on, so that you can repeat the test under the same conditions. A colleague who runs the audit for you needs the same discipline.
Report an answer in the Gemini app, and know what the report carries
Google documents three routes from the Gemini app, and each does a different job.
- Capture the answer firstSave the full text, the exact prompt, the date, the account state and whether links to sources were shown. A report without this is hard to repeat and hard to compare later.
- Rate the responseBelow the response, choose Bad response, pick a reason, and add written feedback. Google says you can select a reason and enter additional feedback, and that a reason helps clarify your rating.
- Use Report legal issue for unlawful contentBelow the response, choose More, then Report legal issue, select the reason and follow the on-screen instructions. It is the route for a legal concern, such as the GDPR correction request above, rather than for a simple disagreement.
- Send general feedback only for product problemsAt gemini.google.com, open Settings and help and choose Send feedback. A screenshot is optional. It is meant for reporting a problem in general, so use the response buttons for one statement.
- Test again on a later dayRun the same prompts in a new chat. Do not judge the report by the chat where you made it.
One detail deserves attention. Google's feedback page says that when you submit feedback, the associated conversation, including your prompts and the app's responses, is added as part of your feedback. The report therefore carries your test chat to Google. That shows the exact output, but it is another reason to keep prompts short and public.
The pages read for this guide state no response time or success rate. Treat a report as a record that you objected, and keep working on the sources.
Google also has its general legal removal flow. It asks whether a request relates to content generated by AI within a Google product, with AI Overviews and AI Mode as the examples, and it lists Gemini among the products you can select for a report. The flow asks for separate reports for separate products. If one wrong statement appears in the Gemini app and in an overview, expect to file for each.
Google-Extended and snippet controls: what they change and what they do not
Site owners often reach for robots.txt when they dislike what an AI says. With Google, there are two separate controls, and mixing them up leads to a wasted month.
Google-Extended is a robots.txt token, not a crawler. Google's crawler documentation says it governs whether crawled content may be used for training future generations of Gemini models, and for grounding, where Google Search index content is given to a model at prompt time. The same page says Google-Extended does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search and is not used as a ranking signal in Search.
Related readGoogle AI Mode reputation: audit what it saysSnippet controls work differently. Google's page on AI features says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that there are no additional technical requirements. To limit what is shown from your pages, it names nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex. It also notes that eligibility does not ensure crawling, indexing or serving.
| Control | What Google says it governs | What it does not do | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google-Extended | Training of future Gemini models and grounding | Does not affect inclusion in Search | May reduce your own pages as a source for Gemini |
| nosnippet or max-snippet | What Search shows from a page, including AI features | Does not remove a page from results | Weaker snippets in classic results too |
| noindex | Keeps a page out of Search | Does not remove copies on other sites | Page loses all search visibility |
These controls apply only to pages you own. If the wrong claim comes from a news site, a directory or a forum, the route is the one for any third-party page: ask the publisher to correct it, use a platform report if rules are broken, or build better accurate pages that outrank it. Blocking your own best pages, such as your professional bio, usually reduces the accurate material available and leaves the damaging page untouched.
Fix the page, not the answer
A correction at the answer level is a request. A correction at the page level changes what is available the next time Google's systems look. Two Google-specific points shape the work.
First, check what Search itself shows for your name before you look at Gemini. Google describes AI Overviews and AI Mode as drawing on pages that are indexed and eligible for a snippet. A wrong claim with a source page in Search results is a page problem. A wrong claim with no page anywhere is more likely a model problem, and your levers are the report routes above.
Second, make one accurate page unmistakable. A short biography on a domain you control, naming your role, location and affiliations, and stating plainly the facts that are wrong elsewhere, gives Google's systems an accurate and indexable statement to retrieve. It does not force Gemini to use it, and no one can honestly promise that it will.
Related readWhat Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant say about youThen update outdated pages you own, ask third parties for specific corrections with evidence, use the legal route where a statement is unlawful, and re-test after a recrawl with the same prompts and account state.
An accurate negative fact is a different case. If a report from a reliable news source says something true about you, no report to Gemini will fix it, and a request to remove accurate public-interest information will fail. In that case the work is context: more accurate material, and your own account of the outcome, in places that Google can index.
A worked scenario, invented, with a realistic timeline
This is an invented scenario with generic parties. A consultant, here called Alex, finds that the Gemini app describes them as the owner of a company that closed, when Alex left that company long ago and now runs a different business. The answer shows source links, which lead to an old directory listing and a two-page profile on a business database.
Alex records the answer, switches Keep Activity off for further tests, and rates the response as bad, choosing a factual reason. The directory and the database are third-party pages, so Alex sends each a correction request with a dated document showing the departure. Alex also updates a bio on a domain Alex owns so that it states the current role and the dates plainly.
| Stage | Action | Usual timing |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Capture the answer, rate it, record settings | Same day |
| Days 2 to 7 | Send correction requests to each source page | Replies often take days to weeks |
| Weeks 2 to 4 | Update owned pages, check they are indexed | Recrawl time varies by site |
| Weeks 4 to 8 | Re-test in new chats on different days | Answers may change after sources do |
| Week 8 onward | If a false claim remains with no source, use the legal route | Google publishes no response time |
These are experience ranges, not promises. In files like this, a change often follows a source change rather than a report, and some answers keep the old claim longer than the pages do. If it persists after the sources are fixed, the dated evidence you gathered is what makes the next step possible.
Related readWhat Microsoft Copilot says about you: check and correctGemini next to the other assistants
Three comparisons are worth one paragraph each, and no more.
ChatGPT is a separate product with its own settings and reporting form, so a good result there tells you nothing about Gemini, and the reverse is also true. Perplexity is built around citations, so its audit is mostly a reading exercise on the citation list, where Gemini's links to sources may or may not appear. Monitoring is a different discipline from a one-off check: to detect change over months you need a fixed set of prompts and a log, and Gemini becomes one row in it.
What is unique to Gemini is the tie to the search index and the Google account. That is where your time is best spent: the report routes in the app, the snippet controls on your pages, and the privacy handling of your own tests.
The next step if a Google AI answer is hurting you now
Capture the answer with its prompt, date and account state, rate it as bad in the app, and list the pages behind it. If you want an experienced second pair of eyes on what Google's AI says about you, our AI search reputation page explains how Reputation Partners reviews it and what a file looks like.
In the next hour, capture the answer and the sources, switch off Keep Activity or use a temporary chat before further tests, and search your name in classic Search to list the pages that could feed a wrong claim. Then decide whether the fix is a correction request, an edit to your own page, a legal report or better accurate content. If the concern is change over time rather than a single error, the monitoring page describes that service.
Questions people ask
Can I ask Google to correct something Gemini says about me?
Google says that under the GDPR you can ask for inaccurate personal data in Gemini Apps' responses to be corrected, and that you can submit the request through the Report legal issue option under More, below a response. For other situations, the Bad response button and the legal removal flow exist. Google does not publish a response time or a promise of outcome for either.
Why does Gemini say different things about me on different days?
Google says Gemini can make mistakes and that responses can be inaccurate. Answers are generated each time, so wording can vary, and the pages behind them can change. This is why one result proves little. Compare several runs on different days, with the same prompts and the same account state, and keep exact wording.
Will blocking Google-Extended remove me from Gemini answers?
No. Google describes Google-Extended as a control over training of future Gemini models and grounding, and says it does not affect inclusion in Search. It applies only to sites you control, so it cannot change what other sites say about you, and blocking it on your own pages may reduce the accurate material available.
Are my test chats private from Google?
No. Google stores Gemini Apps activity, says some chats are reviewed by human reviewers, and keeps reviewed chats for up to three years. It says chats are disconnected from your account before being sent to service providers. Use public details only, and consider a temporary chat, which Google says is kept with your account for 72 hours.
Should I report every wrong answer?
Report the ones that are specific, repeatable and harmful, with the exact wording saved. The pages read here give no review commitment, so effort should follow harm. A wrong middle initial may not justify it. A false claim about your career or a legal matter does.
