Ai is rapidly being deeply integrated into products from major software companies. For example Google Gmail now includes smart features that allow it to scan your emails and attachments to predict text while you type, categorize your inbox automatically, and generate summaries and suggestions. These sound helpful, but the trade-off is that your emails are continuously processed and analyzed in the background. Google says this is to improve your experience,
A recent YouTube video describes how default settings in Gmail also enable Google to use your Gmail messages to train their AI models. This includes private emails, receipts, invoices, and sensitive documents in your inbox. The video points out that this may be turned on by default. For some ICG members who have personal Gmail accounts, this may raise privacy concerns about having their entire email history feeding any AI model now or in the future. The ICG also relies on Google for Non-Profits, including Gmail accounts, for much of its technical infrastructure, and messages in these accounts may also be used for this purpose .
The video walks users through turning off two Gmail settings to help ensure their privacy. These settings must be turned off for each Gmail account. The steps shown in the video take less than two minutes to modify. However this may result in most of the convenience features provided by Google’s AI systems no longer being available for Gmail accounts that take these steps.. Users will need to evaluate their level of comfort and decide whether to disable these features.
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM_KkldTXfs
Philip Gust
Chair, ICG Technology and Web Committee
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