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New Delhi: Google users on Gmail are being cautioned to check their privacy settings following the allegation that the smart functions could get a hold of sensitive emails and attachments without users having to take charge. This caution that became viral on X has revived the question of the extent of the use of user information to drive artificial intelligence applications such as Gemini.
Engineering YouTuber Davey Jones shared the alert and allegedly said that users are automatically enrolled in the option to enable Gmail to scan messages to have AI-related features. Although Google has since resisted such accusations, the problem has also caused confusion, anger, and a new debate concerning consent, transparency, and increased reliance on AI in the daily use of digital technologies.
The focus of the controversy is the Gmail smart features and Google Workspace smart features. Such environments allow email briefs, writing recommendations, Ask Gemini, inbox organisation, and notifications in Gmail, Chat and Meet.
Jones says that the two separate settings menus require manual disabling of smart features to do so. This can be done by visiting See all settings, turning off smart features, and repeating this in the pop-up Workspace smart features. On Android, these are available under the Gmail app in a smartphone under the Data privacy section.
Turning off smart functions eliminates Gemini-driven summaries and recommendations, yet also turns off old tools that numerous users have been using. These are Smart Compose, automatic categories of inbox such as 'Promotions' and 'Social', and even simple features like spell-check and grammar suggestions.
Some of the users on the internet noted that when they switched off AI-based features, their inbox became more difficult to handle and wondered why some of the features that have been there since time immemorial are now associated with Gemini-related settings.
This discussion gained more thrust when a resident of Illinois filed a lawsuit in November 2025, claiming that Google silently allowed Gemini to run in Gmail, Chat, and Meet without the clear consent of users. The complaint asserts that users had no option of choosing to become members of AI tracking but to decline.
Google has refuted the accusations. A spokesperson of the company told HuffPost that the assertions are misleading and that the smart functionality of Gmail is not novel, nor does the content of user emails provide the basis of training Gemini AI models. The company further indicated that it effectively informs about its services and privacy policies.
In the meantime, users who have privacy concerns are being encouraged to check their settings and make up their minds on whether they believe the convenience of the smart features is worth more than the data concerns.
