this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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[–] shifty@leminal.space 144 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] aurelar@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 months ago

Thanks for making it easy, friend. It takes a lot of clicking to turn this stuff off lol.

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Not to be a downer, but I'm confident Google scans every email with AI regardless.

People should still opt out, but we know Gmail itself is entirely compromised.

[–] Repelle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Seems like you can’t disable from the web? I’ve never used a Gmail app, always used via imap. Fucking hate having to download an app to turn this off. Not my primary email address, but it is my secondary. Should change that…

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[–] SnoringEarthworm@sh.itjust.works 94 points 2 months ago

You have been automatically OPTED IN to allow Gmail to access all your private messages & attachments to train AI models.

"Feature"

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 38 points 2 months ago (10 children)

I'm not seeing where any of this gives Google permission to train AI using your data. As far as I can see it's all about using AI to manage your data, which is a completely different thing. The word "training" appears to originate in Dave Jones' tweet, not in any of the Google pages being quoted. Is there any confirmation that this is actually happening, and not just a social media panic?

[–] MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The only option is smart features, on or off. That requires Google to read the email to categorize them and do a lot of basic stuff. It doesn't let you narrowly have more privacy on specific features. It's all or nothing, and if you get a lot of emails then it's hard to turn it off if you already use categories. Google always does all or nothing because they know people need some of it, same with location. It has to be precise location tracking to use things, you can't just do rough location.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 12 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yes, but the point is that granting Google permission to manage your data by AI is a very different thing from training the AI on your data. You can do all the things you describe without also having the AI train on the data, indeed it's a hard bit of extra work to train the AI on the data as well.

If the setting isn't specifically saying that it's to let them train AI on your data then I'm inclined to believe that's not what it's for. They're very different processes, both technically and legally. I think there's just some click-baiting going on here with the scary "they're training on your data!" Accusation, it seems to be baseless.

[–] potustheplant@feddit.nl 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

So you think that they're not using your data simply because they're not telling you that they are? Don't be naive. Since when are these companies asking for permission? I'm not even confident opting out does anything. At this point, your safest bet is to not use their services.

[–] kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So they are using AI but not in a capacity that would make it learn? Doubt

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 9 points 2 months ago

Yes, exactly. Training an AI is a completely different process from prompting it, it takes orders of magnitude more work and can't be done on a model that's currently in use.

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[–] meejle@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Not that I've seen, no.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I would opt out just in case. I remember using Adobe Acrobat at work and noticed they read every single PDF and generate a few comments about it even when you never asked them to. Meaning they‘re scanning through potentially confidential data. I have no doubts Google will do the same sooner or later.

[–] m3t00@piefed.world 2 points 2 months ago

i probably agreed to 'smart' something, long ago for spellcheck and others. they've expanded those options a lot. i no longer need google spellcheck. firefox since the chrome went downhill

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[–] Toto@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Did I miss the part where they link how to opt out?

Edit: Instructions

[–] Xenny@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago

I just opted out of Gmail

[–] cb900f_bodhi@lemmynsfw.com 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Be aware that disabling this also disables categories in your email. It really sucks that they tied those together. But I need to get away from gmail anyway...

[–] artyom@piefed.social 7 points 2 months ago

Good news, I already had that disabled

[–] madjo@feddit.nl 20 points 2 months ago (3 children)

That site is cancer on mobile. Can anyone TLDR this article for me?

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 10 points 2 months ago

i closed reader view and scrolled just to see and wow the POPUPS and 50% of the page length being ads

WHAT

who uses the internet like this and finds it acceptable?!

[–] Kissaki@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Google extended their Smart features with AI. It can be disabled in the settings, presumably if you haven't already.

I visited Gmail earlier today, and it gave me onboarding with information and the choice of enabling or not. I'm in the EU, dunno if that makes a difference.

[–] ApeNo1@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago

On the web UI they sneakily slide in the Gemini icon exactly where the settings icon is after about 2 seconds of loading the page which caught me out for the first account I was updating. Really annoying.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I logged into my GMail account for the first time in years due to this (I normally just use it as an IMAP server.) The "smart features" were already turned off.

It would certainly be nice if we could have sources of information about these kinds of privacy issues that didn't lie their asses off constantly to create hysteria, but I guess that's too much to ask for.

Glad I have uBlock installed so at least this site didn't get any ad revenue from me.

[–] CovfefeKills@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

It was already on for me I had to disable it. I appreciate the warning.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm honestly kinda surprised that Google is apparently not in fact doing this already and (according to the comments here) continues to not do so.

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They don’t give a shit about what the law or terms say. They’ll just do whatever and if caught pay pennies on the dollar in fines.

We’ve seen them do this and win time and time again with the google library project and other actions. All the AI companies are training on any and all data they have access to, laws be damned. It’s the MO for any new venture capital / tech project with unlimited profits if someone gets there first.

[–] aurelar@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

It would be par for the course if they just ignored the settings changes when it comes to training their AI on your data, and you're just turning off your access to the AI features instead.

[–] Minimac@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I deleted Gmail I won’t go there ever again

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[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I for one won't opt out because the only thing I get is spam and work shit. Go ahead train the AI off spam. The vast majority of emails are spam.

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah my gmail is mostly for spam. I dont get any real emails to it.

[–] MadhuGururajan@programming.dev 9 points 2 months ago

good thing my gmail is full of spammy bullshit.

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Does anyone have a good in depth guide on how to de-google? My ultimate goal is to not use Google at all and use Graphene OS on my Pixel

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sucks that they focus solely on google produced phones though.

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Right? I hate how there's like no options for phone OS

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[–] halfsak@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (5 children)

There's no guide since everyone's use case is different, and 100% is only obtainable if you avoid all tech. GrapheneOS or buy an iPhone are the best options. I went the grapheneos route, but I still use google play services as I found its the safest way to still get apps for now, and the disconnect from google is still much more than using stock android. I moved email to proton, maps I use OsmAnd.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Imma leave it.

All I get is fucking spam. Let them train on that shit and make Gemini even shittier than it already is. I swear, AI sucks major shit but Google's especially takes the cake for how shitty it is compared to all the others.

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[–] ryan_@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

So what you’re saying is that all of Epsteins emails are going to be used to train Gemini? Interesting…..

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

I already disabled all that "smart" crap years ago.

[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Glad I never invested into gmail as an email platform. I have gmail only as part of my google accounts.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

That‘s the only way to truly get rid of their shenanigans. I started degoogling a while ago. I learned that a faulty spam recognition system at Youtube can ban all your accounts (they know your google alts even when you never linked them) instantly for a comment you posted in a livestream, thinking it‘s spam. That includes your mail accounts and google pay. Just like that. Imagine that, you lose access to your mails, the google app store and your preferred paying method without a warning because you posted the same laughing emote 3 chatters posted before you. It is very dangerous to be too dependent on a single platform so I moved my mail somewhere else. I pretty much only use Youtube regularly now in terms of Google products.

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