No, Google is not using your Gmail inbox to train Gemini
If you spend any time on social media, you undoubtedly saw the dire warnings. It was all over Reddit, and there were a wealth of news articles and hot takes posted. Folks were insisting that Google sneakily flipped a switch that lets the company use your personal email and attachments to train its AI models. The advice usually ends with instructions to turn off Gmail smart features to stop it.
Now, a bit later, we’re starting to see the corrections published. Here’s Malwarebytes, as an example. And a number of folks actually checked with Google (like The Verge) and got a clear statement: Gmail content is not fed into Gemini training.
The confusion? Gmail has long scanned message content for things like spam filtering, category tabs, and small conveniences such as spell checking or pulling a flight into your calendar. Those features rely on reading message data locally for product functionality. That is not the same as funneling your inbox into a generative AI model.
I am led to believe that Google has recently moved or modified some settings related to these long-standing smart features. If the wording struck people as new, it is easy to see how the rumor took off. If you want to review your own settings, go ahead. There’s nothing wrong with verifying what is on or off. But remember: Gmail message content is not used to train Gemini.
If you spend any time on social media, you undoubtedly saw the dire warnings. It was all over Reddit, and there were a wealth of news articles and hot takes posted. Folks were insisting that Google sneakily flipped a switch that lets the company use your personal email and attachments to train its AI models. The advice usually ends with instructions to turn off Gmail smart features to stop it.
Now, a bit later, we’re starting to see the corrections published. Here’s Malwarebytes, as an example. And a number of folks actually checked with Google (like The Verge) and got a clear statement: Gmail content is not fed into Gemini training.
The confusion? Gmail has long scanned message content for things like spam filtering, category tabs, and small conveniences such as spell checking or pulling a flight into your calendar. Those features rely on reading message data locally for product functionality. That is not the same as funneling your inbox into a generative AI model.
I am led to believe that Google has recently moved or modified some settings related to these long-standing smart features. If the wording struck people as new, it is easy to see how the rumor took off. If you want to review your own settings, go ahead. There’s nothing wrong with verifying what is on or off. But remember: Gmail message content is not used to train Gemini.
TL;DR? Nothing to see here; move along.
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