NotebookLM
About NotebookLM through Hwb, including considerations and data assurances.
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Overview
NotebookLM acts as an on-demand research assistant and is powered by Google’s Gemini AI models. To comply with data protection and compliance policies, Google NotebookLM is only available to practitioners through their Hwb account.
How to access NotebookLM in Hwb
To access NotebookLM from the Hwb website, log in and click the Google app on the Hwb dashboard. Open the Google waffle (the grid of squares in the top-right corner), scroll down and select NotebookLM.
To access NotebookLM outside of the Hwb website, open notebooklm.google.com and sign in using a Hwb account. Check the top right corner of the screen to ensure that NotebookLM is signed into a Hwb account and not a personal Google account.
How Notebook LM can support schools
- Summarise research articles and professional learning materials.
- Transform uploaded documents into audio overviews.
- Create video overviews to grasp core ideas.
- Ask questions about school documents, for example Estyn reports, school improvement plans.
- Organise notes and ideas for curriculum development or whole school strategic planning.
- Connect ideas by creating mind maps.
- Create flash cards for revision.
Sharing and assigning NotebookLM files in Google Classroom
Notebooks can be shared between practitioners to aid collaboration, with each user in that share being able to add up to 50 sources.
When in an individual notebook, click the share button in the top right corner to control who has access to the notebook and set sharing permissions.
Notebooks can be assigned and shared via Google Classroom. However, learners are currently unable to access NotebookLM using their Hwb accounts. While the icon to attach a Notebook LM file is visible to practitioners when creating assignments, learners will not be able to open or view NotebookLM files.
Key considerations
- The use of NotebookLM should align to wider school policies such as digital literacy, online safety, acceptable use, safeguarding and data protection. Its use should also reflect any existing AI strategies set by the local authority.
- NotebookLM is designed to support not replace professional judgement. It may produce inaccurate or biased responses and is susceptible to copyright infringement. It can sometimes appear to express personal opinions or emotions, which are not genuine. Additionally, it may misjudge prompts, failing to respond appropriately or offer unsuitable replies.
- Careful consideration should be given to sources uploaded to NotebookLM, as it may influence the nature of the output. If content generated by NotebookLM is considered inappropriate, it must be reported to the school IT team, education technology support partner or local authority.
- For additional resources on generative AI, including guidance, training and learning activities visit the Keeping safe online Generative AI page on Hwb.
Usage limits
Google NotebookLM in Hwb operates with 2 types of limits:
1. Creation limits
Google NotebookLM has ongoing creation limits. These limits reflect the maximum content a practitioner can build over time:
- up to 100 notebooks per practitioner
- up to 50 sources uploaded to each notebook
- each source can contain up to 500,000 words or 200MB (for local uploads)
- shared notebooks retain individual source limits, each practitioner can upload up to 50 sources, but the total number of notebooks is tied to their own account
These limits do not reset and represent the long-term capacity of a practitioner’s NotebookLM workspace.
2. Daily usage limits
These reset every 24 hours and apply to how much a practitioner can interact with NotebookLM:
- 50 chat queries
- 3 audio generations
- 3 video generations
- 10 reports
- 10 quizzes
- 10 flashcards
Data retention
| Data type | Data retention | Retention period |
|---|---|---|
| Chat queries | Not retained | Discarded after session |
| Uploaded materials | Retained | Until user deletes |
| Saved notes | Retained | Until user deletes |
| Audio overviews | Retained | Until user deletes |
| Prompts/responses (WS) | Not retained in workspace | Cleared after each session |
| Notebook | Retained | Until user deletes |
Data assurances
- Schools should consider if a new Data protection impact assessment (DPIA) is needed, or if their current DPIA should be updated. For further information, refer to Supporting Your Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for Google Workspace with Gemini.
- Practitioners using NotebookLM in Hwb benefit from enhanced protections and controls called enterprise data protection. Always ensure a Hwb account is used, not a personal Google account, check the icon in the top right corner.
- Data in NotebookLM is stored within the Hwb domain. It’s private and cannot be accessed by anyone outside of Hwb, unless a practitioner chooses to share it.
- Prompts and responses will not be reviewed by human reviewers and are not used to train the underlying large language models (LLMs). NotebookLM only has access to files the practitioner allows access to.
- NotebookLM respects the permissions and access controls set within Hwb Google Workspace.
- NotebookLM adheres to privacy and security commitments, including UK GDPR. Further information available at Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub.
Differences between a Google account in Hwb and a personal Google account
| Features | Using Notebook LM when not logged in with a Hwb account (unauthenticated access) |
Using Notebook LM logged in with a Hwb account (authenticated access) |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt and responses are not used to train the foundation models | No | Yes |
| Encryption at rest and in transit. Google has no ‘eye-on’ access to it with rigorous physical security controls, and data isolation between tenants | Yes | Yes |
| Prompts and responses are stored for compliance scenarios | No | Yes |
| Prompts and responses stay within the Google in Education service boundary | No | Yes |
| Processor service. Data Protection and Product Terms apply | No | Yes |
| Support for GDPR, and ISO/IEC 27018 | Yes | Yes |
| Prompts and responses are logged and available for audit | No | Yes |
| Prompts and responses are available for eDiscovery | No | Yes |
| Passed to the Google Search, to retrieve information from the web | Yes | Yes |
| Abstracted/deidentified from the user’s prompt and grounding data | Yes | Yes |
| Controller service. The use of Google Search, including as part of Gemini's grounding feature is governed by the Google Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. Where applicable, data processing is subject to the Google Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms. | Yes | Yes |
| Ads are displayed | Yes | No |
More information on Notebook LM can be found at Frequently asked questions, NotebookLM Help.