Gmail secretly scans emails for AI: How to disable monitoring manually.

According to ТСН: Gmail users have received an alarming message about a new threat to privacy. It has turned out that Google connected accounts with a feature that grants complete access to personal emails without warning. This is done to train artificial intelligence models, particularly Gemini.

An engineer from Australia, Dave Jones, drew attention to this issue. He reported that Google automatically activated message and attachment scanning for all users in October 2025, likely without proper notification to account holders. This means that your emails – from work reports to personal correspondence and medical documents – can be read and used without your consent.

This situation has drawn legal attention in the USA, where a class action lawsuit has been filed against the company. The plaintiff, Thomas Tele, claims that the company intentionally activated this hidden feature to use email history to train its neural networks.

How to disable monitoring

To protect your data, users should manually change settings in two menus.

For computers and laptops:

1. Open Gmail and go to the 'Show all settings' tab.

2. Find the 'General' section and scroll down to 'Smart features and personalization'.

3. Uncheck the 'Enable smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet' option.

4. Go to 'Smart features and personalization in other Google products'.

5. Disable the permission to use data to personalize other products.

6. Save the changes.

For smartphones (Android and iOS): Tap the menu (three lines), select 'Settings', then tap your account and go to 'Privacy', where you can disable the relevant points.

Experts warn: Google has made it difficult to unsubscribe from monitoring, so the service will stop filtering emails if you prevent AI from scanning your emails. This will result in the loss of the 'Promotions', 'Social', and 'Updates' tabs, and your inbox will turn into a mess of unsorted messages. Additionally, the following will disappear:

• Text suggestions (Smart Compose).

• Automatically adding events from emails to the calendar.

• Spell checking.

Users on social media X are outraged: 'Oh, great. That also turns off the categories in the inbox. Why do they have to ruin everything constantly?'

The company assures that its measures are aimed at improving service. In the privacy policy, it states:

“Google uses information to improve its services and develop new products that benefit users”.

Some critics, however, point out that if you have not manually disabled these features, you automatically consented to your financial reports and personal correspondence being training material for algorithms. Moreover, your emails may still be used to train AI even if your conversation partner has not done so, even if you have disabled the feature.

A Trojan named Sturnus has also been discovered for Android, capable of using accessibility features and even reading encrypted chats in WhatsApp and Telegram.

This situation highlights the importance of protecting personal data in the digital age. The use of algorithms for training requires caution, as automated access to confidential information threatens the personal security of users. We recommend reviewing privacy settings on your accounts and staying informed about the latest news in this area.