Google accused of using AI to exploit data from Gmail accounts

The world’s largest email platform may be using AI to access and exploit your private data, according to a class action lawsuit.

That lawsuit was filed against Google in recent days, and NBC 5 Responds is sharing steps that Gmail users can take to opt out of the program.

Gmail is by far the biggest email platform in the world, with more than a billion users worldwide. But since November, there have been complaints and warnings from security experts alleging that the tech giant is feeding users private messages and attachments to its AI system for training. And while the company says that’s not the case, this new lawsuit claims it hasn’t been transparent about how it’s using the data of customers.

A class action lawsuit accuses Google of “secretly” turning on Gemini to “access and exploit the entire recorded history of its users’ private communications, including literally every email and attachment sent and received in their Gmail accounts”.  

The lawsuit alleges that data includes financial, medical, and political information about users and their children, and that Google automatically activated the feature on all accounts without providing notice to users.

In order to opt out of this setting, users have to manually turn off smart features in the setting menu in two different locations.  

-Under settings, click “see all settings” scroll about half way down the screen and look for ‘smart features’. Click “turn off”.

-Then underneath that section, click ‘manage workspace smart features settings’, and unclick the two options that pop up and click save.

Google did not respond to our request for comment but the company has stated publicly that the lawsuit is misleading, and that they do not use Gmail content to train their AI system.