The artificial intelligence revolution is sweeping across various industries, particularly in data-related fields. As major tech companies place AI at the core of every application, the industry presents users with a difficult trade-off: give up privacy, and we will deliver productivity gains you never imagined. While these efficiency improvements remain contentious, it is clear that companies are determined to push forward with AI capabilities. Google is no exception. Gemini, the company's flagship large language model, has become a key pillar in its recent feature rollout. This year, Google introduced a series of Gemini-based features in Gmail, including voice-activated commands and real-time AI search capabilities.
Gemini now offers AI-generated summaries of your recent emails, creates to-do lists, drafts replies, and completes other organizational tasks. Paid subscribers can also access more advanced features, such as enhanced AI proofreading. Many of these free features are enabled by default. This has raised concerns about whether Google’s deployment of Gemini in its email suite infringes on user privacy. In light of a wave of lawsuits accusing the AI industry of large-scale copyright infringement, you might wonder if your emails are being used as fuel for Google’s voracious Gemini algorithms.
Google Gemini's data usage policy ensures user privacy
So, is Google providing your emails to Gemini? The answer is both "yes" and "no." To perform these tasks, Gemini essentially needs access to the content of your emails. The real question is whether your data will extend beyond these specific uses. Google released a statement in April 2026 detailing the interaction between Gemini and your data. The statement noted, "Google does not train its foundational AI models, including Gemini, on your personal emails."
Instead, Gemini only accesses your inbox for "isolated tasks," such as summarizing emails or drafting replies. Google explained that this means Gemini "only processes your information to fulfill your specific requests and does not retain that data afterward." In other words, Gemini's analysis of your emails is confined to the scope of your personal use of the application. Google’s support page clarifies that these safeguards apply not only to your emails but also to other Workspace applications, such as Chat, Calendar, Docs, Drive, Sheets, and Slides.
The statement emphasized: "We do not use your Workspace data to train or improve generative AI and large language models that support Gemini, Search, and other external Workspace systems without your permission."
"Without permission" is a critical exception—once you connect Google’s content applications to your account, the permissions change. For instance, Google points out that when you connect a Google Workspace content application to the search service, it may enable AI mode features, and Google may "use this data to improve Google services for everyone, including by training generative AI models." However, Google also stated that the search service "does not directly train generative AI models on your Gmail inbox." Instead, "when you interact with Search, relevant summaries, excerpts, generated media, and inferences from media, emails, and documents may be used to help us respond to your prompts."
“To make our responses relevant, helpful, and high-quality, we train our generative AI models based on these summaries, excerpts, generated media, and inferences.” To turn off Gemini, go to your Gmail account and access settings. If you are using the app, click the three lines in the upper left corner, scroll down, select settings, and choose your email. Go to Smart features and uncheck the box. To remove Gemini from Workspace apps, click on Google Workspace Smart features and uncheck the box.
These settings apply to your account, so you only need to go through this process once.
In a web browser, click the settings button (gear icon) in the upper right corner of the search bar. This will pop up a dropdown menu showing various quick settings. At the top of this dropdown menu, select "See all settings." From there, scroll down to the General tab until you find Smart features. Uncheck the box and confirm your choice. Then return to the General tab, navigate to Google Workspace Smart features, click manage Workspace Smart features settings, turn off both options, and click save. Unfortunately, disabling Gemini comes with some drawbacks: turning off Smart features may also disable functions like spell check and grammar check.
Perhaps as a way to encourage users to adopt its AI, Google places its customers in an awkward position of choosing between basic editing software and potentially intrusive features. Therefore, you may need to endure cumbersome AI features or learn to trust your own grammatical acuity. If you do not want to lose these AI features but wish to limit the data Google uses to train its AI, you can adjust your search service history and personalized recommendations settings. By default, your search service history and personalized recommendations settings are set to your recent web and app activity and search personalization settings.
To turn off search service history, log into your Google account and go to search service history settings. Here, you can choose whether to turn it off. You can also delete previously saved activities. To maintain that setting and limit the content it saves, you can adjust the media saving settings. To adjust personalized recommendations settings, visit your Google account. Next, go to Data & Privacy > Personalization settings. Here, you can toggle personalized recommendations settings on or off in the search service.