Level1Techs Can't Disprove Google's GDPR AI Studio Violation

A user's technical test shows that Google AI Studio's Delete button does not remove backend data, only hides it from the interface, as evidenced by a JSON restoration test where a deleted conversation reappeared after restoring only the pointer file. The user reported the issue to Google's Data Protection Officer and publicly posted evidence, but Google did not respond and instead changed the warning text on the Delete button. The user claims this violates GDPR and is maintaining a compensation claim, threatening legal action if Google does not respond.

Topic summary: In this topic, I present detailed evidence showing that the “Delete” function in Google AI Studio does not delete backend data, but merely hides entries from the user interface. This is not speculation — it is backed by concrete technical proof . The most important evidence is the JSON restoration test , which I personally performed: I deleted the entry, emptied the Google Drive Trash, then restored only the JSON pointer file . The conversation immediately came back , with the same link, session, and context. This proves that deletion never started on the backend , meaning Google continued to store the data. I documented the issue with a video and a detailed post, and then I officially reported the violation to Google’s Data Protection Officer DPO . I also published the report publicly in my posts , and I informed the Google DPO about these posts as well , so there can be no misunderstanding: Google definitely knows about the issue , because they received the email , and they saw the posts : https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/google-ai-studio-s-delete-button-is-misleading/170101 https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/technical-evidence-demonstrating-that-google-ai-studio-s-delete-function-does-not-delete-backend-data/173589 The Gmail‑generated technical delivery confirmation proves that Google received my email. Yet Google did not respond , which is an aggravating factor under the GDPR. After my report, Google did not fix the backend deletion mechanism. Instead, they quietly changed the warning text on the Delete button in the user interface. They even stole the wording from me — this post proves it: https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/google-changed-the-delete-button-to-my-wording-but-real-deletion-still-does-not-exist/169904 This shows that instead of fixing the actual problem, Google chose to modify the UI text, which can be considered concealment from a data protection perspective. Google’s AI Mode and AI Overview features also performed unauthorized profiling of forum users, which is a GDPR Article 4 4 special category of data processing requiring explicit consent . I documented this as well. All evidence has been: - timestamped, - archived Archive.org http://archive.org/ , archive.today, web.archive.org http://web.archive.org/ , - supported with screenshots, - offline exports, - and Google’s own search engine cache. Google automatically indexed and stored all my posts in its own search system. Since Google Search read, processed, and cached every one of my posts, this legally counts as “awareness.” Google cannot claim ignorance of the incident, because their own systems processed and stored the evidence. I officially reported the violation to the Google DPO and stated that under GDPR Article 82, I am maintaining my compensation claim . Since Google failed to respond, I reserve the right to: - initiate civil legal proceedings, - contact the Irish Data Protection Commission, - or pursue any other EU‑level legal remedy. Let me be clear: If Google does not respond to this letter either, this will become a court case. I will exercise my rights and sue the company. This topic is not a simple bug report — it is a comprehensive, evidence‑sealed data protection indictment exposing fundamental flaws in Google AI Studio’s operation, with potentially serious legal consequences within the EU. Why is this proof that Google does not delete prompts? The JSON does not only contain the chat text, but the entire prompt metadata, the ID, the link, the settings, everything the server needs to know which backend content to connect to. It is only a client-side snapshot. The real chat and the real prompt content are on Google’s server, in the backend, on the server side. If I move the JSON to the trash, the chat keeps working. The link is still alive, the server finds the backend data. I don’t need to restore the JSON, it can stay in the trash. The chat still loads, it can be tokenized and continued. With its own original link it comes back and continues normally. In the AI Studio UI the prompt name is not visible at this point because the JSON is in the trash, but the chat still works. Google even wrote this on the button: Move prompt to trash – Are you sure? Your prompt will be permanently deleted after 30 days. They stole this text from me because they wanted to make the story believable, back when they didn’t know I had this file-restore trick. If I manually empty the JSON from the trash, then AI Studio throws an error saying there is no such prompt or it is deleted. This only applies to the UI. The backend data is not deleted, because if I then restore the JSON with the Drive restore tool, it only puts the file back into Drive in its original location, nothing else. The restore tool cannot touch the data in the backend. If Google actually deleted the prompt on the server side, then restoring the JSON would not be able to restore the prompt’s functionality, because the file restore tool cannot access the backend. If the prompt were deleted in the backend, the chat would not come back even if I restore the JSON. This is why it proves that Google does not delete the prompts. This is the post in which I can prove that Google copied my logic from me. The link itself is the evidence: https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/google-changed-the-delete-button-to-my-wording-but-real-deletion-still-does-not-exist/169904 Everything in that thread shows the exact timeline: I published the logic, the definitions, the terminology, the explanation of why “Delete” is not deletion, and the breakdown of how the system only moves the JSON to Trash instead of actually deleting anything. Weeks later, Google silently changed the button to my wording , exactly the way I described it months earlier, while the underlying deletion behavior remained completely broken. The Wayback Machine captures, the timestamps of my posts, the video recordings, the direct‑URL loading behavior, and the UI change during the May 31 outage all prove the same thing: Google did not invent this logic — they copied it from me , after I had already published it. This post is the proof. Google must not try any “cache” or “memory” excuses. My test proves step‑by‑step, in black and white, that there is absolutely no “temporary storage”, no “session window”, and no “cache” operating in the background. The real technical behavior is the following, and it cannot be explained away: 1. The JSON file is the key, the pointer, and the Session ID AI Studio can only identify and locate the conversation on the backend through the JSON file stored in Google Drive . JSON = pointer JSON = backend reference JSON = session identifier 2. Real‑time Drive verification before every prompt open When I click on a prompt, the system does not work from cache. It performs a real‑time check against Google Drive. If the JSON is missing because I deleted it and emptied the trash , AI Studio instantly goes blind and displays: “This prompt does not exist.” 3. The technical collapse of the cache theory If any active server‑side process or cache existed, then right after emptying the trash , the chat should still work without the JSON , because the server would “remember” it. But it does not. It throws an error immediately . AI Studio is fully dependent on the Drive file. 4. The irrefutable evidence When the recovery robot restores the JSON file to Drive, and 10 minutes later the chat resumes exactly where it left off , perfectly and without any corruption, that is a technical checkmate . The recovery robot has no access to any Google AI backend. It only restores a file in cloud storage. If the chat still comes back, that means: Google kept the entire conversation intact in its backend database even after deletion and trash emptying, and the “Delete” button only hides the access chain the pointer from the user. This is not cache. This is deliberate and continuous server‑side data retention even after deletion.