Using Gmail Daily? Change These Settings If You Care About Privacy

If you use Gmail daily, and most of us do, it might be a good time to pause and check a few settings you probably haven’t touched in years. Recently, a discussion around Gmail’s “Smart Features” has resurfaced online, pushing users to take a closer look at how much control they actually have over their inbox data. Also Read: Gmail update for iPhone makes sharing Google Photos easier: Here’s how

While Google says nothing new or sneaky is happening, some users would still prefer to manually review these options and decide what stays on and what doesn’t. If privacy matters to you, these are Gmail settings worth checking right now. Also Read: Gmail’s Promotions filter appears down! Primary inbox flooded by Updates and Ads

Why Gmail’s smart features are being discussed again

The conversation started after a tech creator warned that Gmail users may already be opted into features that allow Google services to analyse email content to power AI-driven tools. These settings aren’t new, but they are enabled by default, and turning them off requires action in more than one place. Also Read: Massive data leak! Gmail, Instagram, Netflix accounts among 149 Million logins exposed online

Google has responded by saying Gmail content is not used to train its Gemini AI models and that smart features have existed for years. Still, for users who prefer tighter control, Gmail does give you the option to opt out, if you know where to look.

The key Gmail setting you should review

The main setting to focus on is called Smart features. When this is turned on, Gmail, Chat and Meet can use your email content and activity to offer tools like email summaries, reminders, package tracking, and suggestions.

To turn it off on the desktop:

• Open Gmail and click the Settings (gear icon)
• Select See all settings
• Under the General tab, find Smart features
• Uncheck “Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet”
• That’s only step one.

The second place most users miss

After disabling smart features in Gmail, scroll down and click Manage Workspace smart feature settings. This opens another panel where you need to turn off smart features for Google Workspace and other Google services as well.

This second toggle controls things like:

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• Email-based calendar events
• Travel and delivery info shown in Maps
• Suggestions in Google Assistant and Gemini
• If you skip this step, some data-based features may still remain active.

What you lose by turning these off

Switching off smart features isn’t without trade-offs. You may notice:

• No automatic email categorisation (Promotions, Social)
• Smart Compose and AI summaries are turned off
• Reduced spelling and grammar assistance
• For some users, that’s a fair exchange. For others, convenience may matter more.