Do you have a Gmail account?
Chances are that you are one of the 3 billion users Google claims to hold Gmail accounts. You might want to keep reading this if you don’t want artificial intelligence accessing your emails.
Since 2023, Google has been regularly updating its terms and conditions of use treated as routine by most digital content consumers. Like most other agreements–with lots of fine printed information and a small box at the end of the copy that allows you to toogle a check mark in a box or make a notation indicating your support of the verbose terms–the updates allowed you continued access to your account.
These updates for more than two years have included references to “smart” features that seem to allow ease of composing an email, corrections, and positive features to “give you more granular control” and a better integrated experience. The terms of use include use of Alphabet Inc.’s full suite of products that most know by the name brand “Google,” not the parent company.
Many dismiss concerns and point to an existing disclaimer warning against having confidential information in your emails, specifically, “please don’t enter confidential information that you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our services, including machine-learning technologies.”
Want to see if your account is impacted and have the choice to control your data?
Open your Gmail account on your computer and head to settings or your phone app. The navigation is different, so notice the information listed first is for a laptop/desktop navigation of Gmail settings. The second batch of information is related to your Gmail phone app.
On your computer,
1. Open your Gmail account.
2. Click on the “gear” to open “settings” to see a dropdown menu appear.
3. At the top of the dropdown menu is a prompt to “See all settings.” Click that.
4. Scroll down to find, “Smart features: Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet.”
If that box is checked, uncheck it. Most accounts have opted in automatically without understanding. A second place in the same expanded “See all settings” is just below, “Google Workspace smart features.” Click on the “Manage the Workspace smart features.” Now see two toggles. To opt out of AI using your emails, mark both places–Google workspace and “other Google products.”
On your phone, head to the Gmail app. Once it’s open
1. Touch the three stacked lines up to the left, the menu.
2. Scroll to the bottom to see the “Settings” gear.
3. Open settings and scroll down to the “General” area near the bottom to find “Data privacy.”
4. Open “Data privacy” to find “Smart features” and “Google workspaces smart features.”
5. Make sure both are toggled to indicate you have turned off these settings in both places. Speech and privacy have always been protected. Yet tech is making your data theirs…for profit. Be wise.