Gmail users may want to check their privacy settings. According to BuzzFeed, an automatic opt-in feature may allow Google access to your emailed data. This includes personal and work messages and attachments. Cybersecurity experts say this data could train AI models. If you want to stop this information sharing, you need to adjust your settings.
How the Settings Work
Engineer Dave Jones shared a warning on X earlier this week. He said users were automatically opted in to allow Gmail to access all private messages and attachments to train AI models. You have to manually turn off Smart Features in the Settings menu in two locations.
Bloomberg reports there is already a proposed class-action lawsuit against Google. Users allege that the company secretly turned on Gemini to access and exploit their entire recorded history of private communications. This includes every email and attachment sent and received in their Gmail accounts.
Google says these reports are misleading. A spokesperson told BuzzFeed that Gmail Smart Features have existed for many years. Google does not use your Gmail content for training their Gemini AI model. But users still want more control over how AI is used in their lives. The Pew Research Center reports that 6 in 10 Americans share this concern.
Turning Off the Feature
You can disable this feature by opening your settings. On desktop, click the cog in the top corner and look in the General tab. There, you can do your first opt-out and unselect the Smart features option.
Second Location to Check
Next, click into the Manage Workplace smart feature settings. It will take you to a secondary pop-up. This allows you to toggle on and off the features in Google Workspace and other Google products.
Opting out of the former will turn off the Ask Gemini feature that summarizes content. It also stops personalized search and events from your email being automatically added to your calendar. The latter will opt you out of features showing restaurant reservations and to-go orders in Maps.
If you use mobile, go to your settings page at the bottom of the inbox menu. Select Data privacy. From there, you can toggle off Smart features and click into the Google Workspace smart features menu. Turn off the feature for Workspace and Google products again.
One downside is that some useful Gmail features are eliminated by opting out. Things like smart compose and automatic email filtering into promotional and social inboxes are tied to the Gemini opt-in. Spell-check, grammar check and autocorrect are also affected. But for many concerned with their privacy, that trade-off is worth it.
