Privacy experts say this could expose extremely sensitive information, including medical details, financial data, and confidential work discussions.
Google has quietly expanded how much of your personal data it can use to train its AI models, and yes, that includes your Gmail inbox. Emails, attachments, receipts, bills, private conversations… all of it can help power Google’s generative AI features unless you manually opt out.
The change affects features like Smart Compose, predictive writing tools and upcoming AI-generated responses. But what’s troubling users is not the technology, it’s the default setting. Google has turned this on automatically for most regions, meaning your inbox is feeding AI models unless you tell it otherwise.
Privacy experts say this could expose extremely sensitive information, including medical details, financial data, and confidential work discussions. Security researchers at Malwarebytes recently flagged that Gmail users must disable the setting in two separate places to fully opt out.
Here’s how to stop Google from using your email data to train its AI.
How to turn off Gmail AI training (Step 1)
You can do this on desktop or the Gmail app:
- Open Gmail.
- Click or tap the Settings icon (gear).
- Select See all settings (on desktop) or open Settings on mobile.
- Scroll to the section labelled Smart features and personalization.
- Uncheck the option: “Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet.”
- Scroll down and Save changes if prompted.
This disables things like Smart Compose and automated suggestions, and it stops Google from using the contents of your emails for model training via these features.
But you’re not done yet.
How to stop Google from using your data elsewhere (Step 2)
Google also uses your Gmail information to enhance AI features across other products like Calendar, Drive and Assistant.
To completely opt out:
- Open Gmail again.
- Go to Settings > See all settings.
- Scroll to Manage Workspace smart feature settings (or similar wording).
- Turn off both:
Smart features in Google Workspace
Smart features in other Google products - Save changes.
Once this is disabled, Google can no longer use your email data to power AI features across its product ecosystem.
Users in Europe are exempt, for now
Due to stricter privacy laws, users in the EU, UK, Switzerland and Japan are automatically opted out of this form of AI training. Everyone else, including users in India and the US, must turn it off manually.
Protect yourself, and others
If you have parents, friends or colleagues who aren’t tech-savvy, help them check these settings. Most people don’t realise their inbox, which often contains their entire digital life, is being used to train AI models by default.
Google says the data is processed securely and helps improve features. But the choice should be yours, not theirs.
Turning off AI training takes less than a minute, and it’s the easiest way to protect your privacy.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
