Google Chrome silently downloads 4GB on-device AI model without permission
Preliminary Why: 1 report: Tom's Hardware · subject to change · 1 independent report
Status: no action reported
No source states: loss or records, agent tool, could do, deployer, industry.
Google Chrome, according to security researcher Alexander Hanff, downloads a roughly 4GB on-device AI model file named weights.bin, part of its Gemini Nano feature, to users' machines without notice or consent. Hanff says there is no clear consent flow, no prompt explaining the download, and no straightforward setting to prevent it, and that the file is re-downloaded if deleted. In a controlled test on a fresh Chrome profile on macOS, using operating system filesystem logs, he reports the browser created the model directory and downloaded the full payload in the background during idle browsing with no human interaction. Chrome's internal state files reportedly show the machine was marked eligible for the model before the download. Hanff's claims have not been tested in court. Google had not publicly responded in detail at the time of writing.
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No source states: what the AI was doing, what it reached or did, how it was caught, when it happened, when it was found, how many records were exposed, the direct loss, a count of the other parties affected, any court case, the cause, what set it off, what was done.
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- During the test, the browser creates the model directory and downloads the full 4GB payload in the background.
- The download process completes, in just over fourteen minutes, during apparent idle browsing time.
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LR-2026-0542 · version 1 · published 2026-11-01 after automatic checks; not yet checked field by field by a person · JSON