Google bestreitet die Analyse Ihrer E-Mails für KI-Schulungen – hier ist, was passiert ist

ZDNET’s key takeaways:

>- Google denies charges that it’s analyzing your private emails to train its AIs.

>- A class action lawsuit accuses Google of privacy violations.

>- You may still want to opt out of the features in question.

Excerpt:

> „…In response to Google’s pushback, Malwarebytes updated its blog post with the following commentary:

>“We’ve updated this article after realizing we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail’s smart features. The settings themselves aren’t new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google’s AI models, and that users were being opted in automatically. After taking a closer look at Google’s documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn’t appear to be the case.“

>Malwarebytes further said that Gmail does scan the content of your emails to enable its smart features such as spam filtering, email categorization, and writing suggestions. But the security firm said that this is „normal“ behavior and is different from using your data for AI training.

>Yes, these smart features have been around for years. But even if they’re not being used for AI training, they seem to be enabled automatically. The Verge reported that one of its staffers said they had opted out of some of the smart features but had been opted back in so that they were enabled…

>…What about the lawsuit that seemed to trigger the concerns and controversy? Filed on Nov. 11 in federal court in San Jose, California, the proposed class-action lawsuit alleges that Google secretly granted Gemini access to the private communications of Gmail, Chat, and Meet users. As reported by Bloomberg on Nov. 12, the suit charges that doing so without the consent of users and making it difficult to opt out may be a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act…

>…Based solely on Google’s explanation, most of the allegations in the suit seem to be without merit. But that doesn’t mean there’s no cause for concern. The biggest question is why Google is automatically enabling these settings, and seemingly without your knowledge or permission…“

The article goes on to explain how to opt-out/disable these settings:

>- On the desktop, sign in to the Gmail website, click the Gear icon in the upper right, and then select the button to view all settings. At the General screen on the Settings page, look for the Smart features section. If the setting for „Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet“ is turned on, click the checkbox to turn if off.

>- In the next section for Google Workspace smart features, click the button to manage Workspace smart feature settings. At the pop-up window, turn off the switches for „Smart features in Google Workspace“ and „Smart features in other Google products.“

>- In the Gmail mobile app, tap the three-lined icon in the upper left and select Settings. In the iOS app, tap the setting for Data privacy. In the Android app, tap the name of your Google account. Turn off the switch for Smart features. Tap the option for „Google Workspace smart features“ and then turn off the switches for „Smart features in Google Workspace“ and „Smart features in other Google products.“

>- If you do turn off all three settings, keep in mind that certain smart features may no longer operate as expected, including Smart Compose and Smart Reply. But Gmail itself will still work normally…

mine wasn’t on by default. it’s opt in.i just checked this yesterday.