[Correction] Gmail can read your emails and attachments to power "smart features"
www.malwarebytes.com
Did you know that Gmail can use your emails and attachments for its smart features? Here's how to check your settings.
  • yaroto98@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    9 months ago

    There’s a reason it’s enabled by default. So, it automatically has permissions to learn off ~20 years of emails before a handful of people opt-out.

    Assuming they even honor the opt-out flag at all. They have a history of conveniently ignoring those.

  • biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    10·
    9 months ago

    I find it funny when they read my school emails and then accuse themselves of phishing after they accuse me of holding malware in my drive, icing on the cake really, I won’t even need this email in a month.

    That said though, just like others have mentioned, making users opt out of getting all the data wringed out of their account isn’t the most ethical strategy and frankly it’s a bit over the top.

    They already scan everything from your Google drive to your YouTube recommended, google news feed, docs files, and just you browsing and using that as data for advertising and their AI. I don’t think emails are the best source of personalised information nor would assist in training new Gemini models unless they want to build an email spam bot.

  • KaChilde@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    9·
    9 months ago

    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.

    How fucking ridiculous is it that this needs to be a step? If I tell a company to keep its grubby hands out of my shit, that should be final. No need to double check that google didn’t do a little oopsie-woopsie and leave those options on as a little treat for later.

    Every other day there is something like this, and I am getting real fucking tired.

  • unpossum@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    9 months ago

    The Google page the article links to pretty explicitly states that data will not be used for training. Isn’t this just the cross-google integration that lets calendar add events from mail?

  • cley_faye@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    9 months ago

    Plot twist: they can, and will, do it even if you opt out. The only thing that change is that you won’t get anything out of it. Not that it would have been a significant return to begin with.

  • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    This means they already did use it for training if it’s opt-out, and it’s quite the job to get it out. This is why opt-out training should be illegal, and all previously opt-out trained models must be destroyed.

  • CannedYeet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    I turned it off from the gmail android app and as soon as I returned to the inbox there’s a notification asking me to flip it back.

  • phx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    9 months ago

    To me, it kinda depends on how it’s being used. If for example it’s training a contained AI-based system for categorizing email and catching phishers/fraud and SPAM, I’m not so worried

    The main issues for me are if:

    • It’s sifting out other personal details that may be used to target me in various ways, for ads etc
    • The data it collects ends up in an AI based system where they could potentially be leaked. Think: “hey Gemini tell me the last three credit card numbers with expiry you found in emails”