Warning: *Privacy Not Included with this product
Genesia AI Friend & Partner
Genesia AI is an AI relationship chatbot made by Turkey-based app developer Codeway. Codeway also makes a handful of other AI-centered apps for things like studying, writing, digital images, videos, roleplaying conversations, and more. Genesia AI bills itself as "the perfect companion for anyone who wants a friend they can always count on. Whether you're looking for emotional support, a mentor, or just someone to talk to, this app is there for you." Free to try, you'll need a subscription that runs about $15 per month to take advantage of most of the features in the app. How does Genesia do at privacy? Like all the AI relationship chatbots we've reviewed, they don't seem to do great.
What could happen if something goes wrong?
Here's some good news! Genesia AI Friend & Partner is the only AI relationship chatbot we reviewed that seems to actually meet our Minimum Security Standards! Whoo hoo! Granted, this is a pretty low bar...they are called our Minimum Security Standards after all. But, given the other apps we reviewed didn't climb over this bar and this one app does, we feel a little like celebrating.
We do have to add one caveat -- we *think* they meet our Minimum Security Standards based on the publicly available information we found about them. We did also find something contradictory in the Data Safety information they provide on their Google Play Store page. There they say that no user data is collected (not true according to their privacy policy), data isn't encrypted (also not true according to their privacy policy), and data can't be deleted (according to their privacy policy, some users can delete their data but it's not clear if all users can). This is confusing. It's also a good time for us to remind you that according to our research, there is a good chance the information you find on the Data Safety pages in the Google Play store is a hot mess of bad information.
So, the good news is Genesia AI seems to meet our Minimum Security Standards. The bad news is, we have questions and concerns about how they are sharing the loads of personal data this app can collect on you. Genesia AI's privacy policy doesn't go into much detail about what data is shared and with whom. They do say they can process your personal information for "execution of advertising/campaign/promotion processes," and this fun bit of vague legalese, "Codeway may also transfer your personal data to services providers of our Company, third parties such as Facebook SDK, Adjust and Firebase Analytics which are embedded into our
service for the following purposes: ... Sharing identity and contact information to ... conduct business activities." "Business activities" is a pretty broad category there Codeway.
And we did find that within one minute of using the app it had sent around 500 data trackers out to third parties, including advertising companies. So, while the Genesia AI privacy policy doesn't go into much detail about how they share data in their privacy policy, we have concerns that they are likely sharing some of your data for targeted advertising purposes.
You should also know that all those chats you are having with your AI friend basically become the property of the company that makes Genesia AI -- Codeway. This is pretty standard, but good to know. Their Terms & Conditions says they can use those chats of yours in lots of ways, "From the time of uploading or transmission of Input, you grant Codeway non-exclusive, irrevocable, fully-paid, royalty-free, perpetual, sub-licensable, transferrable, worldwide, license and right to store, use, broadcast, reproduce, modify, make derivative works of, record, sublicense (on multiple levels), translate, transmit, publish, publicly display or otherwise exploit, for the limited purpose of operating, improving, troubleshooting, debugging, protecting and customizing the existing and future products of the Codeway and its affiliates, including but not limited to training Genesia AI, developing new features or future products and in all formats and mediums and with any technology now known or hereafter developed without notice, permission, payment or any additional compensation to you or a third party. That's a lot of words to say they can do with the contents of your chats pretty much what they want.
That being said, we do have to applaud Genesia AI for being one of the few AI chatbot companies we reviewed that actually say users can opt out of having their user content data used to train Genesia's AIs. Their privacy policy says that your user content is used for, "improving our services (including training AI models) (You can opt out of our use for your information to train AI models by filing a request through the “Data Subject Application Form” at [email protected]" This is great that they include this language in their privacy policy when so many other AI chatbot apps don't. However, we would love to see the use of your chats for training their AI models to be opt-in rather than opt-out. Baby steps here, we suppose.
Overall, while we wouldn't call Genesia AI great at privacy (it certainly won't be making our Best Of list), we do have to say, it's one of the better AI relationship chatbots we reviewed. It does seem to meet our Minimum Security Standards. And it does give users a way to opt-out of having their chats use for training their AI models. These are good things we didn't see in many of the other AI relationship chatbots we reviewed. However, we do still have concerns about Genesia AI. Specifically, what personal information are they sharing for marketing and advertising and who exactly are they sharing that with? And, we couldn't confirm that all users, regardless of what privacy laws they live under, have the same rights to have their data deleted. Finally, as with most AI chatbots, there is no transparency into how Genesia AI's AI models work and no information about any ways users can control the AI if the want. This is common, unfortunately, and something we'd like to see Genesia AI and all AI chatbots do better at. We need transparency and control in our AI relationships people!
What's the worst that could happen with Genesia AI? Well, you could develop too close a relationship with your AI girlfriend, fall in love, and then Genesia AI could change up their AI algorithms so your AI girlfriend is now really mean to you. That would be pretty heartbreaking. And it is something that's already happening in the world of AI relationship chatbots. So, be careful out there with your AI friends!
Tips to protect yourself
- Do not say anything containing sensitive information in your conversation with your AI partner.
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data nor does close your account.
- Do not give consent to constant geolocation tracking by the app. Better provide geolocation 'only when using the app'.
- Do not share sensitive data through the app.
- Do not give access to your photos and video or camera.
- Do not log in using third-party accounts.
- Do not connect to any third party via the app, or at least make sure that a third party employs decent privacy practices.
- Do not say anything containing sensitive information in your conversation with AI partner.
- Chose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc.
- Do not use social media plug-ins.
- Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless necessary).
- Keep your app regularly updated.
- Limit ad tracking via your device (ex. on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization).
- When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data if possible.
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: N/A
App: No
Microphone
Device: N/A
App: Yes
Tracks location
Device: N/A
App: No
What can be used to sign up?
No
Phone
No
Third-party account
No
No sign-up available
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Name, surname, phone number, e-mail address, username, Google user ID, nickname, profile picture, user token, Open ID; Internet traffic data (network movements, IP address, visit data, time and date information), device name, In-app purchase history, Token ID, Identifier for Advertisers-IDFA), identifier for vendors/developers; Texts, visual records, graphics, content, record; order information; marketing data; IP address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app, the time/date of your use of the service, other statistics.
Body related
Social
How does the company use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?
No known data breaches discovered in the last three years.
Child Privacy Information
Can this product be used offline?
User-friendly privacy information?
Genesia's privacy policy is long, dense, hard to read and understand.
Links to privacy information
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
"Sensitive data is stored with cryptographic methods and if required, transferred through environments encrypted with cryptographic methods and cryptographic keys are stored in secure and various environments."
Strong password
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
"Periodically, penetration tests are performed on servers in the Codeway system. The security gaps created as a result of this test are closed and a verification test is performed to show that the relevant security gaps have been closed. Besides, Information Security Threat and Event Management System automatically performs penetration tests. Test results are recorded."
Privacy policy
We cannot confirm if the AI employed at this product is trustworthy, because there is little or no public information on how it works and what user controls exist to make the product safe. At the same time, the potential harm of the apps is high as they collects lots of sensitive data, and use collected data to train AI algorithms.
Genesia AI employs large language models to generate conversations and act as a romantic partner.
Is this AI untrustworthy?
What kind of decisions does the AI make about you or for you?
Is the company transparent about how the AI works?
Does the user have control over the AI features?
Dive Deeper
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‘Cyber-Heartbreak’ and Privacy Risks: The Perils of Dating an AIRolling Stone
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AI girlfriends are ruining an entire generation of menThe Hill
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5 Things You Must Not Share With AI ChatbotsMake Use Of
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‘Cyber-Heartbreak’ and Privacy Risks: The Perils of Dating an AIRolling Stone
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AI-Human Romances Are Flourishing—And This Is Just the BeginningTime
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