Gemini could be poking through your emails - here's how to stop it
Gemini can read your emails, summarize them and draft replies. If you'd rather it didn't, here's what Google actually does with your data and how to opt out.
To turn off Gemini, go to your Gmail account and visit Settings. If you're using the app, tap the three lines at the top left corner, scroll down, select Settings and choose your email. Go to Smart features and deselect the box. To remove Gemini from your Workspace apps, tap Google Workspace smart features and clear the checkboxes. These settings apply across your account, so you only need to go through this process once.
In a web browser, click on the Settings button (gear icon) beside your search bar at the top right side. This will bring up a dropdown menu displaying various quick settings. At the top of this dropdown, select See all settings. From here, scroll through your General tab until you find Smart features. Uncheck the box and confirm your choice. Then go back to the General tab, navigate to Google Workspace smart features, click Manage Workspace smart feature settings, turn off both options and click Save.
Unfortunately, there are downsides to disabling Gemini: turning off smart features can also switch off things like spelling and grammar checks. Perhaps as a means of incentivizing users to adopt its AI, Google puts its customers in the uncomfortable position of choosing between basic editing software and potentially invasive features. As a result, you may need to either suffer through meddlesome AI functionalities or learn to trust your own grammatical acuity.
If you don't want to lose these AI features but want to limit what Google uses to train its AI, you can change your Search Services History and Personalized Recommendations settings. By default, your Search Services History and Personalized Recommendations settings are set to your most recent Web & App Activity and Search Personalization settings.
To turn off your Search Services History, sign in to your Google account and go to your Search Services History settings. Here, you choose whether you'd like to turn it off. You can also delete your previously saved activity. To leave the setting on and restrict what it saves, you can adjust your Save Media settings.
To adjust your Personalized Recommendations settings, go to your Google account. Next, visit Data & privacy > Personalization settings. Here, you can turn Personalized Recommendations in Search services on or off.
Originally published on Engadget
