Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out

Eric

Eric

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Not surprising that they automatically opt you in, I followed the instructions here to disable it.

How to opt out​

Opting out requires you to change settings in two places, so I’ve tried to make it as easy to follow as possible. Feel free to let me know in the comments if I missed anything.

To fully opt out, you must turn off Gmail’s “Smart features” in two separate locations in your settings. Don’t miss one, or AI training may continue.

Step 1: Turn off Smart Features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet settings​

  • Open Gmail on your desktop or mobile app.
  • Click the gear icon → See all settings (desktop) or Menu → Settings (mobile).
  • Find the section called Smart Features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet. You’ll need to scroll down quite a bit.
Smart_settings_1.png

  • Uncheck this option.
  • Scroll down and hit Save changes if on desktop.

Step 2: Turn off Google Workspace Smart Features​

  • Still in Settings, locate Google Workspace smart features.
  • Click on Manage Workspace smart feature settings.
  • You’ll see two options: Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products.
Smart_settings_3.png

  • Toggle both off.
  • Save again in this screen.

Step 3: Verify if both are off​

  • Make sure both toggles remain off.
  • Refresh your Gmail app or sign out and back in to confirm changes.

Why two places?​

Google separates “Workspace” smart features (email, chat, meet) from smart features used across other Google apps. To fully opt out of feeding your data into AI training, both must be disabled.
 
I recommend fastmail. It isn’t free, but you get what you pay for.
 
Proton is very good @ handling your email. I love their equivalent of HideMyEmail with ProtonPass
so many choices and you can personalize your email for each recipient and really block nuisance
better than Apple
 
Do not use Proton. Their CEO revealed himself as a MAGA fascist.

Also, even before that, he began adding dubious AI features to ProtonMail, in ways which call into question their continued dedication to privacy.
 
Katbel said:
Where do you get this?


www.euractiv.com

Proton CEO: Tech sovereignty requires demand for European services | Euractiv

"Europe needs to realise is that there is no difference between tech sovereignty and actual sovereignty," said Andy Yen.
www.euractiv.com www.euractiv.com


Click to expand...

When Trump was elected the CEO sent a congratulatory message and said the Republican Party was better at tackling big tech regulation and he looked forward to working with Trump, yadada. I don’t know if he’s MAGA but he’s definitely an idiot. It pissed a lot of people off.

There were also some AI initiatives but I can’t remember what.
 
Last year, Proton transitioned to a Swiss non-profit structure, arguing it would help ensure Proton’s commitment to privacy and public good, independent of profit-driven investors or shareholders.

“We need to be a profitable business, for sure, because that’s what guarantees our independence,” said Yen. “But by having the controlling shareholder being a nonprofit foundation, what we actually ensure is, even in the long run, for future generations as well, Proton’s work and what we do will always be there to benefit society”.

“It’s also a layer of security,” he said, protecting Proton from the likes of Google or Elon Musk trying to buy it.

Yen said Proton would continue to offer basic services for free.

“We operate in countries like Iran and Russia and others under sanctions. And in those countries, you don’t have Visa, you don’t have MasterCard, you don’t have PayPal. In fact, there’s no way to pay, so having a free service is core to our mission,” he said. “We lose money on the free service, for sure, but I think being a nonprofit allows us to make business decisions that don’t make business sense from a numbers standpoint but do make sense from a mission and benefit a society standpoint.”

Yen said his aim was to help build the kind of Internet that people really want.

“Democracy itself depends on privacy, and privacy is the foundation, in many ways, of freedom of speech,” he told BIRN.

“Today we have 100 million users, but big tech companies have billions. What I would hope to be able to achieve in the next 10 years is actually to build out even more products within our ecosystem, so that more people are able to switch from the Google ecosystem into performance ecosystem, because I think it’s simply better for people, it’s better for the world, better for society, and it lets us build a future Internet that is more consistent with what people actually want.”

Big Tech, he said, is “not optimising their services for you, because you are not really their customer. You are the product being sold to the real customer, which is the advertisers.”
 
dada_dave said:
When Trump was elected the CEO sent a congratulatory message and said the Republican Party was better at tackling big tech regulation and he looked forward to working with Trump, yadada. I don’t know if he’s MAGA but he’s definitely an idiot. It pissed a lot of people off.
Click to expand...
If he sent a congratulatory message about big tech regulation
it wasn’t gold laminated or with a check with billion $$$$ as all the other tech CEO did, Apple included 🤮.
Nobody is tackling the big tech now less than before because they are cheekily bribing your administration.
No more comments on my side, no politics here as requested
 
Katbel said:
If he sent a congratulatory message about big tech regulation
it wasn’t gold laminated or with a check with billion $$$$ as all the other tech CEO did, Apple included 🤮.
Nobody is tackling the big tech now less than before because they are cheekily bribing your administration.
No more comments on my side, no politics here as requested
Click to expand...
No disagreement. As I’ve argued myself. I’m just explaining why people were/are pissed. At the time it was a shock - it was also a stupid thing to do/say.

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Btw the Google scanning email and training its AI on it may not be true:



I am too sick to independently verify all this, just be careful out there, in every direction.
 
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