{"id":310896,"date":"2025-11-24T13:48:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/310896\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T13:48:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:48:51","slug":"correction-gmail-can-read-your-emails-and-attachments-to-power-smart-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/310896\/","title":{"rendered":"[Correction] Gmail can read your emails and attachments to power &#8220;smart features&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Update November 22. We\u2019ve updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail\u2019s smart features. The settings themselves aren\u2019t new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google\u2019s AI models, and that users were being opted in automatically. After taking a closer look at Google\u2019s documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn\u2019t appear to be the case.<\/p>\n<p>Gmail does scan email content to power its own \u201csmart features,\u201d such as spam filtering, categorisation, and writing suggestions. But this is part of how Gmail normally works and isn\u2019t the same as training Google\u2019s generative AI models. Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out, although users\u2019 experiences seem to vary depending on when and how the new wording appeared.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to see where the confusion came from. Google\u2019s updated language around \u201csmart features\u201d is vague, and the term \u201csmart\u201d often implies AI\u2014especially at a time when Gemini is being integrated into other parts of Google\u2019s products. When the new wording started appearing for some users without much explanation, many assumed it signalled a broader shift. It\u2019s also come around the same time as a proposed class-action lawsuit in the state of California, which, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-11-12\/google-accused-in-suit-of-using-gemini-ai-tool-to-snoop-on-users\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">according to Bloomberg<\/a>, alleges that Google gave Gemini AI access to Gmail, Chat, and Meet without proper user consent.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve revised this article to reflect what we can confirm from Google\u2019s documentation, as it\u2019s always been our aim to give readers accurate, helpful guidance.<\/p>\n<p>Google has updated some Gmail settings around how its \u201csmart features\u201d work, which control how Gmail analyses your messages to power built-in functions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/eevblog\/status\/1991293066175492297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">According to reports we\u2019ve seen<\/a>, Google has started automatically opting users in to allow Gmail to access all private messages and attachments for its smart features. This means your emails are analyzed to improve your experience with Chat, Meet, Drive, Email and Calendar products. However, some users are now reporting that these settings are switched on by default instead of asking for explicit opt-in\u2014although <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/mail\/answer\/15604322?hl=en&amp;visit_id=638992322179220536-889253150&amp;rd=1#zippy=%2Cwhat-are-googles-legal-bases-of-processing-for-users-in-the-european-economic-area-united-kingdom-or-switzerland%2Chow-long-is-your-workspace-content-activity-used-to-provide-smart-features-and-to-improve-these-features\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Google\u2019s help page<\/a> states that users are opted-out for default.  <\/p>\n<p>How to check your settings<\/p>\n<p>Opting in or out requires you to change settings in two places, so I\u2019ve tried to make it as easy to follow as possible. Feel free to let me know in the comments if I missed anything.<\/p>\n<p>To fully opt out, you must turn off Gmail\u2019s smart features in two separate locations in your settings. Don\u2019t miss one, or AI training may continue.<\/p>\n<p>Step 1: Turn off Smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet settings<\/p>\n<p>Open Gmail on your desktop or mobile app.<\/p>\n<p>Click the gear icon \u2192\u00a0See all settings\u00a0(desktop) or Menu \u2192\u00a0Settings\u00a0(mobile).<\/p>\n<p>Find the section called\u00a0smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet. You\u2019ll need to scroll down quite a bit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"266\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Smart_settings_1.png\" alt=\"Smart features settings\" class=\"wp-image-338395\" style=\"width:600px\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Uncheck this option.<\/p>\n<p>Scroll down and hit\u00a0Save changes\u00a0if on desktop.<\/p>\n<p>Step 2: Turn off Google Workspace smart features<\/p>\n<p>Still in Settings, locate\u00a0Google Workspace smart features.<\/p>\n<p>Click on Manage Workspace smart feature settings.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll see two options: Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"558\" height=\"648\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Smart_settings_3.png\" alt=\"Smart feature settings\" class=\"wp-image-338402\" style=\"width:600px\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Toggle both off.<\/p>\n<p>Save again in this screen.<\/p>\n<p>Step 3: Verify if both are off<\/p>\n<p>Make sure both toggles remain off.<\/p>\n<p>Refresh your Gmail app or sign out and back in to confirm changes.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t just report on privacy\u2014we offer you the option to use it.<\/p>\n<p>Privacy risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep your online privacy yours by using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.malwarebytes.com\/vpn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Malwarebytes Privacy VPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Update November 22. We\u2019ve updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,79166,168,160645,74,160646],"class_list":["post-310896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-gmail","tag-google","tag-smart-features","tag-technology","tag-workspace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}