Google users have been warned that they’ve been secretly opted in to a feature that allows the tech giant to access all their private emails.
According to electronics design engineer Dave Jones of Australia, all Gmail users have had their accounts automatically selected to allow Google to scan their messages and attachments to help train its AI models like Gemini.
This means your personal or work emails could be read and used without you explicitly agreeing to it first, after the feature was quietly activated in October 2025.
The issue has already spurred a class-action lawsuit to be filed against Google, claiming the company activated this hidden setting in Gmail to ‘secretly’ exploit users’ email history.
Jones said in a post on X: ‘You have to manually turn off Smart Features in the Settings menu in TWO locations.’
For those using Gmail through a desktop or laptop, users would have to open the ‘See all settings’ tab and choose to turn off the option ‘Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet’ in the section labeled as Smart features.
Then, Gmail users will have to open the ‘Manage Workspace smart feature settings’ located right below the Smart features and opt out of the permissions there before saving their choices.
However, when the Daily Mail attempted to deactivate the hidden Google opt-ins, it was discovered that opting out of the data sharing unfiltered all of your emails, removing the ‘promotions,’ ‘social,’ and ‘updates’ tabs from your inbox.
Gmail users who do not wish to have their private messages scanned by Google’s AI learning models will need to turn off two featured immediately
The smart features were quietly activated, allegedly without notifying users, in October 2025
Essentially, choosing not have Google scan all of your private messages and sensitive documents turns your Gmail into an unfiltered mess, possibly showing you hundreds or thousands of emails without any type of organization.
Daily Mail discovered that the only way to reorganize your Gmail to properly sort the countless emails some people have in their accounts is to turn the smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet on and allow Google’s AI to read your data.
‘Oh, good. It also disables inbox categories. Wonderful. Why do they have to keep making things progressively s*******?’ one frustrated Gmail user asked on X.
The November 2025 lawsuit was brought against Google by Illinois resident Thomas Thele, and proposes that any and all Gmail users in the US with a Google account whose Gmail, Chat, or Meet messages were scanned by Gemini AI after the feature was activated.
If you access Gmail through your phone, using the Gmail app on Android or iOS devices, you’re affected too.
All Gmail accounts are impacted, regardless of the device, as long as you’re logged in.
The main danger for Gmail users is to their privacy. Emails might contain sensitive information, such as financial details, health records, or personal conversations, and allowing AI to train on this data could mean it’s misused or falls into the wrong hands.
‘Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features and technologies that benefit our users and the public,’ the company’s privacy policy states.
Anyone in the US who has not switched these two features off has automatically opted in to having their emails and documents scanned by the AI programs like Gemini
While Google has argued that it doesn’t use Gmail content directly for training Gemini, the opt-in still raises concerns about how your data is handled and if it’s not more vulnerable to a breach by hackers.
For Gmail users accessing their messages through a smartphone, tap the menu icon, which looks like three lines at the top left of the screen.
Next, scroll down and select ‘Settings,’ choose your Gmail account, and then tap ‘Data privacy.’
Toggle off ‘Smart features and personalization’ and then tap into ‘Google Workspace smart feature settings’ and turn off the options for Workspace and other Google products.
After opting out on all platforms, Gmail users won’t be able to use features such as auto-complete suggestions, spell-check, or quick calendar adds from emails.
Opting out is not a permanent decision, and the email scanning can be switched back on at any time if the disabled settings become too inconvenient for some people.
However, some critics on social media have pointed out that opting out of Gmail permissions is pointless if the person you’re communicating with is having their emails unknowingly read by Google’s AI language learning models.
‘Ok, but unless the other side that receives your emails opts out, you’re screwed regardless,’ one person posted.
‘We’re also trusting that Google will honor those setting changes or won’t quietly switch it on [later].’
