https://youtu.be/LBQfNbPCxQw
Google AI Studio’s “Delete” button is misleading.
Here is what actually happened during my test: I created a prompt, deleted it, emptied the Google Drive Trash, and the JSON file was completely gone. Then I used Google’s official recovery tool. The prompt reappeared, and the model immediately continued the chat with full context.
This proves that Google does not delete the server‑side chat. The deletion only removes the JSON file, which is just the UI entry. The server‑side conversation, session, and context remain untouched.
If Google truly deleted the chat on the server, the session would be gone, the context would be gone, the model could not continue the conversation, and restoring the JSON would not bring anything back. The fact that the model continued instantly after recovery shows that the server‑side data was never deleted.
The “Delete” button in AI Studio only deletes the UI metadata, not the actual chat. The server‑side data is kept even after the user initiates deletion, and Google’s own recovery tool exposes this behavior.
This is not just a transparency issue. Keeping server‑side data after a user requests deletion violates the GDPR right to erasure (Article 17). The user is told the data will be deleted, yet it is retained. This also raises further GDPR concerns, including data minimization, purpose limitation, and lawful processing, because the provider keeps data without a valid legal basis once the user has requested deletion.
I know you changed the button based on sentences you copied from my posts. And I have also proven that your backend keeps the data even after emptying the trash, which means you are illegally retaining user data.
Google AI Studio’s “Delete” Button Is Not Real Deletion — This Is Illegal Data Retention in the EU
I have proven that Google AI Studio does not delete user data, even when the interface claims it does. This is not a UI bug. This is undisclosed backend behavior and illegal data retention under EU law. When you press Delete, Google only removes the local JSON file from the client side. The server-side session, context, and conversation data remain fully intact. Even after emptying the trash, the backend still keeps everything. When you restore the JSON, the chat continues from the exact same internal state, which is only possible if the server never deleted anything. This is the equivalent of saying: I have a key and a house. The house disappears, but I can still walk through the door. If the data had truly been deleted, the model would not be able to continue the conversation. But it does, which proves the backend never removed the data. Under GDPR, the right to erasure, data minimization, purpose limitation, lawful basis, and transparency are all violated. Google claims the data is deleted, secretly retains it, and continues to process it. This is not a misunderstanding. This is not a UI issue. This is undisclosed internal behavior and unlawful data retention. I proved it with a simple logical test that anyone can reproduce.
Official Google emails about the recovery process:
https://archive.org/details/gmail-0-1805000041398-confirmation-request-for-drive-file-recovery
I prove the authenticity of the video by saving the long screenshot from the Google My Activity page, the PDF‑exported screenshot, and the full HTML archive into both my Google Drive and the Internet Archive. These files can be compared with the events shown in the video down to the exact minute. Google My Activity logs confirm every browser action, and the saved files are fully synchronized with the video in both timing and content.
Google My Activity:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vywb6sim4lVin3d4dA9CUQMF_PrmG4NK/view?usp=sharing
https://archive.org/details/my-activity_202607
Part 2 of the video can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/m4U6ajKuLRo
