If You Use Gmail, You May Want To Disable This Automatic Setting Right Now Before It’s Too Late

Another day, another “feature” turned on in a load-bearing app that you might want to turn off.

Cybersecurity experts claim that there is an auto-opt-in option for Gmail users that could allow Google to access your emailed data (your personal and business messages, attachments) “for the purpose of training AI models.” If you do not want this information to be shared, you need to adjust your settings.

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“IMPORTANT message for anyone who uses Gmail. You have been automatically SELECTED to allow Gmail access to all your private messages and attachments for the purpose of training AI models,” said engineer Dave Jones. Shared on X earlier this week. “You must manually turn off Smart Features in TWO locations in the Settings menu.”

@eevblog / Via Twitter: @eevblog

In the race for companies to get a return on investment from AI, we are seeing language learning models run out of new, human-made data on which to train. And as HuffPost did previously reportedTools such as AI assistants that automatically take meeting notes were already being considered as an opportunity to passively capture data from users in business settings. (Even boring corporate meetings aren’t exempt!)

“Google uses information to improve our services and develop new products, features, and technologies that benefit our users and the public. For example, we use publicly available information to help train Google’s AI models and build products and features such as Google Translate, Gemini Apps, and Cloud AI capabilities.” company’s privacy policy.

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Especially, Bloomberg reports already exist Proposed class action lawsuit against Google. Per complaintusers claim that the company “secretly” turned on Gemini to “access and exploit the entire recorded history of users’ private communications, including literally every email and attachment sent and received to their Gmail account.”

Google did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s question about the process for opting in and opting out users of these features or the class-action lawsuit. A Google spokesperson told HuffPost via email that the reports were “misleading,” adding that “Gmail Smart Features have been available for many years and we do not use your Gmail content to train our Gemini AI model.” The spokesperson added: “We will always be transparent and clear if we make changes to our terms of service and policies.”

But if you still want more control over how AI is used in your life ( Pew Research Center (reports that 6 in 10 Americans share this concern), there’s some good news: You can turn it off.

Read on to find out how.

Turning Off Gmail’s AI Training Activity

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To turn off this feature, you need to open your settings and manually disable it in two different locations.

On the desktop, you go to your settings (the little cog in the top corner) and look at the “General” tab. Here you can make your first opt-out and deselect the “Smart features” option.

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Next, you click “Manage Workplace smart feature settings” (pictured above), which takes you to a secondary popup that lets you turn features on and off in Google Workspace and other Google products.

Disabling the former will turn off the “Ask Gemini” feature that summarizes content, as well as personalized search and the automatic addition of events from your email to your calendar.

The latter will opt you out of features that show you restaurant reservations and takeout orders in Maps, suggested tickets or loyalty cards to use in Wallet, and replies, reminders, and suggestions from Google Assistant and the Gemini app.

If you’re using a mobile device, you can change these settings by going to your settings page (found under the inbox menu) and selecting “Data privacy.” You can turn off “Smart features” from here and turn this feature off again for Workspace and Google products by clicking the “Google Workspace smart features” menu.

An annoying part of this is that some useful Gmail features we’ve become accustomed to are eliminated by disabling them. Features like “smart compose,” as well as the feature that automatically filters your emails into “promotional” and “social” inboxes, and even spell check, grammar check, and autocorrect are currently available in the Gemini preference.

So when you choose not to share your information, you may want to consider whether you’re prepared to lose some features in return. And you’ll probably need to read your emails a little more carefully.

But for many people who are concerned about their privacy, this is better than letting something else do it.

This article was first published on: HuffPost.

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