Another day, another “feature” turned on in a load-bearing app that you might want to turn off.
For Gmail users, there is an automatic opt-in that may allow Google to use your emailed data (think: your personal and work messages, your attachments) to train its AI models, cybersecurity experts warn. If you don’t want this information shared, you need to adjust your settings.
“IMPORTANT message for everyone using Gmail. You have been automatically OPTED IN to allow Gmail to access all your private messages & attachments to train AI models,” Engineer Dave Jones shared on X earlier this week. “You have to manually turn off Smart Features in the Setting menu in TWO locations.”
Despite being automatically opted in, you don’t need to consent to sharing your data.
In the race for companies to get an ROI on AI, we’re already seeing language learning models running out of new, human-generated data to train on. And as HuffPost has previously reported, tools like AI assistants that automatically take meeting notes were already being considered an opportunity to passively gain data from users in work settings. (Even boring corporate meetings aren’t exempt!)
“Google uses information to improve our services and to 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 like Google Translate, Gemini Apps, and Cloud AI capabilities,” according to the company’s privacy policy.
Notably, Bloomberg reports there is already a proposed class-action lawsuit against Google. Per the complaint, users are alleging that the company “secretly” turned on Gemini to “access and exploit the entire recorded history of its users’ private communications, including literally every email and attachment sent and received in their Gmail accounts.”
Google did not immediately answer HuffPost’s question about the process of opting users in and out of these features, or the class action lawsuit. A spokesperson for Google told HuffPost via email that the reports are “misleading,” noting that “Gmail Smart Features have existed for many years, and we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.” The spokesperson added, “we are always transparent and clear if we make changes to our terms of service and policies.”
However, if you would still like more control over how AI is used in your life (the Pew Research Center reports that 6 in 10 Americans share this concern), and would like to keep the data from your Gmail account being fed into the gaping maw of AI training, there’s some good news: You can turn it off.
Turning Off Gmail’s AI-Training Opt-In
To get this feature turned off, you need to open up your settings and manually opt out in two different locations.
On desktop, you go to your settings (the little cog up in the top corner) and look in the “General” tab. There, you can do your first opt-out and unselect the “Smart features”
How to opt out of Google’s “smart features.”
Next, you click into the “Manage Workplace smart feature settings” (pictured above), and it will take you to a secondary pop-up that 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, as well as 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, suggested tickets or loyalty cards to use in Wallet and answers, reminders and suggestions from Google Assistant and the Gemini app.
If you’re on mobile, you can change these settings by going to your settings page (located at the bottom of the inbox menu) and select “Data privacy.” From there, you can toggle off “Smart features” and click into the “Google Workspace smart features” menu to turn off the feature for Workspace and Google products again.
On mobile, find the “data privacy” in your settings menu to access the opt-out options.
One annoying part of this is that some useful Gmail features we’ve gotten used to are eliminated by opting out. Things 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 tied to the Gemini opt-in.
So, as you opt out of sharing your information, you might want to consider whether you’re ready to lose some features in exchange. And you’ll probably have to read your emails a bit more carefully.
But for many concerned with their privacy, that’s better than letting something else do it.