If you have a Gmail account, you need to read this.
Google's AI now scans your emails and attachments. Bank statements. Tax files. Medical letters. Work contracts. Everything you have ever sent or received through Gmail, it reads.
It was turned on by default. No notification. No checkbox. No pop-up asking if you were okay with it. 1.8 billion accounts. All opted in automatically.
A class-action lawsuit was filed over it in the Northern District of California. The allegation: Google "surreptitiously" enabled Gemini AI to access the entire recorded history of its users' private communications. NBC, Fox News, and HuffPost all covered it. Shark Tank's Lori Greiner went viral in May warning her followers to turn it off immediately.
The switch is hidden in two places. Most people only find one. Here are all 5 moves to shut it down.
Why most people are still exposed:
Google buried the opt-out across two separate settings menus. Security experts initially got it wrong because they only found the first one. Privacy advocates called it a dark pattern, a design deliberately built to discourage you from opting out.
And there is a catch. Turning off the AI scanning also kills some features you might be used to: Smart Compose, automatic email sorting, nudges, and some spellchecking. Google built it that way on purpose. You either let the AI read everything, or you lose convenience features. No middle ground.
That is the trade. Here is how to make it.
1/ Kill Smart Features (the first switch)
This is the main toggle. It stops the AI from scanning your emails, attachments, and chat messages across Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
On desktop:
Open Gmail → click the gear icon (top right) → See all settings.
Stay on the General tab → scroll down to "Smart features and personalization."
Uncheck the box.
Scroll to the bottom → click Save Changes.
On mobile:
Open Gmail → Settings (bottom of the inbox menu) → Data privacy.
Toggle off "Smart features."
This alone stops the biggest layer of scanning. But it is only the first switch. Most people stop here and miss the second one.
2/ Kill Workspace Smart Features (the hidden second switch)
This is the one people miss. It controls whether your Gmail data feeds AI features in other Google products: Calendar, Maps, Wallet, and Google Assistant.
On desktop:
Same Settings page → scroll to "Smart features and personalization in other Google products."
Click "Manage Workspace smart feature settings."
A pop-up opens with two toggles. Turn both off.
Click Done, then Save Changes.
On mobile:
Settings → Data privacy → tap "Google Workspace smart features" → toggle off.
If you only did step 1, your email data was still flowing into Maps, Calendar, and Assistant. This is the switch that actually closes the door.
The 30-second version (do not skip this):
Switch 1: Gmail → Settings → See all settings → General tab → uncheck "Smart features and personalization" → Save.
Switch 2: Same page → "Smart features and personalization in other Google products" → click "Manage Workspace smart feature settings" → turn both toggles off → Done.
If you only flip one, your emails still feed Google's AI through the other. Both off. That is the whole fix.
3/ Disable the Gemini side panel
The star icon on the right side of Gmail is Gemini. It can summarize threads, suggest replies, and answer questions about your inbox.
If you pay for Google One AI Premium: this is where Gemini gets the deepest access. To remove it fully, downgrade or cancel your AI Premium subscription.
If you have a free or standard account: collapse the side panel using the small arrow at the bottom right of Gmail. The panel hides, and Gemini stops surfacing in your inbox.
If your Gmail is through work (Google Workspace): ask your IT admin to turn off Gemini app access for your account. Individual users cannot fully disable it on managed accounts.
4/ Check what Google already stored
The AI has been running. Before you turned it off, it was already processing your inbox. See what Google has on you.
Go to myaccount.google.com → Data and privacy → scroll to "History settings."
Open Web & App Activity → click Manage all Web & App Activity.
This shows what Google logged from your email activity, your searches, your app usage. Delete it: click Delete → All time → All products.
Then go back and pause the three trackers:
Web & App Activity → off.
Location History → off.
YouTube History → off.
The AI toggle is step 1 and 2. This step cleans up what it already collected.
5/ Move sensitive email off Gmail entirely
Turning off the toggles stops future scanning. But Gmail is still Gmail. Google's business model is your data. If you send anything truly sensitive, bank details, medical records, legal documents, move those conversations off Google's servers.
ProtonMail: end-to-end encrypted, based in Switzerland, free to start. What you send through Proton cannot be read by Proton, by Google, or by anyone in between.
You do not have to delete Gmail. Just stop sending the things you would never want scanned through the one inbox that was built to scan them.
What Google actually says vs. what the lawsuit claims:
Google says your email content is not used to train its external Gemini AI models. They say Smart Features only process your data to improve in-product tools like Smart Compose and smart search.
The lawsuit says that distinction is semantic. That "processing" your emails to "improve AI features" is training by another name. That the automatic opt-in without notification violated user consent. And that the data involved includes financial, medical, and political information about users and their children.
The case is still in its early stages. No ruling yet. But the fix takes 5 minutes regardless of how the court decides.
Start tonight. Two switches. Five minutes. Done.
While everyone else's inbox quietly feeds Google's AI, yours goes dark tonight.
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Founder, DailyChatGPT (@dailyprompter)