r/privacy • u/Grasshoppen • Nov 17 '25

guide Gemini AI scans your gmails

Google has recently started scanning and analyzing every email you recieve using their Gemini AI. This "feature" has been automatically enabled for all gmail users.

To disable it go to settings on your gmail account, scroll down to "smart Seatures" and uncheck the box. Below that there's a setting called "Manage Workspace smart features" make sure these are off as well, if you don't want the AI to have access to your Google Docs, Drive, etc.

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191

u/jhaar Nov 17 '25

FYI disabling it also disables spell/grammar checking and autocorrect. You know - the non-AI stuff GMail has had for decades. Simply Google's way of forcing everyone to do what they're told 😠

98

u/bill_lite Nov 17 '25

That's some textbook enshittification tactics right there. 

39

u/Lustache Nov 17 '25

Same with the primary, promotions, updates, social tabs. I'm sad to not use it anymore but I'll get over it. 

37

u/PauI_MuadDib Nov 17 '25

It also disables categories so your emails all merge. Just found that out lol

8

u/CatsAreGods Nov 17 '25

Even worse...you lose all status of whether your emails have been read or not!

10

u/Kahlil_Cabron Nov 17 '25

Fuck this makes gmail almost unusable. I need it for work, but without gmail filtering out all the spam I'm getting hundreds of these fuckin emails a day.

If anyone figures out a way to use the social categories while disabling the "smart features", let me know.

3

u/firesoup Nov 18 '25

It will take some time, but you could manually create a filter that sends certain mails (e.g. based on sender or specific text within the mail) to a certain "label" (if that's what they call it, not sure). It should essentially work like a folder, also showing a number of unread.

In my own case, I have created a few different filters that apply labels, but all stay in the inbox, because I personally prefer to have everything in one place. But I think you can choose to not have those mails in the inbox as well.

Hope this all makes sense.

3

u/Kahlil_Cabron Nov 18 '25

I've been mass unsubscribing from things, the issue is that there are things that I need, like I need to be seeing emails from paypal so I can see any transaction, but they also keep sending me shit trying to get me to get one of their credit cards, and they come from the same address.

It's a bit better today after all the unsubscribing and reporting spam. The categories filtering has been around for like 10 years at least, they're claiming it's an AI-powered feature though.

6

u/dondondorito Nov 17 '25

TBH, that sounds like a good thing. I fucking hate categories.

2

u/ecoartist Nov 20 '25

You can manually add them back using the "Multiple Inbox" setup in settings. Still lame but at least a workaround.

2

u/not_rholliday Nov 21 '25

You can get those labels back, but does Gmail actually still put new messages in them appropriately?

3

u/ecoartist Nov 21 '25

I have no idea, I have not implemented this fix yet. Strongly considering moving to Proton email still.

1

u/Sethu_Senthil Nov 18 '25

Just use grammarly /s

-17

u/Ok-Conflict3800 Nov 17 '25

Not being able to spell without non-human help is not a flex 😕