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Topics: Google, Artificial Intelligence
William Morgan
Topics: Google, Artificial Intelligence
Consumer products guru and Shark Tank investor Lori Greiner is warning users of the most popular email service on the planet that a different kind of predator is circling their private information.
Most of Gmail's 1.8 billion users are completely unaware of the hidden email setting that Greiner is issuing a warning about, which allows artificial intelligence to read every single one of your private correspondences.
The 56-year-old 'Queen of QVC' said in her warning that 'Google doesn't want you to know this, but they've been allowing AI to scan every single one of your emails,' with the Shark Tank star pointing out this includes 'financial documents, tax information and personal conversations'.
While most users will not be aware that their emails are being scanned like this, Greiner explained that this new technological problem can be fixed 'in like 30 seconds' if you know where to look.
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The Scrub Daddy and Squatty Potty investor explained that all you have to do is click on the gear icon in the top right corner of their Gmail inbox and select 'see all settings'.
Once there, scroll down and click on 'smart features and personalization'. After that, users just have to select 'Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat and Meet' and turn it off.
To continue disabling the Gmail settings that allow AI to read through your emails, go to other Google Products and look under Smart Features.
There, you need to make sure Smart features in Google Workplace and Smart features in other Google Products are switched off.
The Daily Mail reports Greiner adding: "Once you've done that, just click save changes, and you're all set. Your emails are now protected from AI scanning, and Google cannot access your personal information anymore."
But while the product expert with a net worth over $250 million is telling all Gmail users to 'not ignore this warning', Google has defended its AI settings and explained what is going on.
Gmail user emails are scanned by Google's own AI assistant, Gemini, in order to provide services like summarizing a user's emails and offering 'smart' replies, saving them crucial time on filling out the usual niceties.
Google stresses that any personal data gathered while scanning emails is not used to train the AI bot and that users should not worry about the new features as Gemini only accessed the information needed to carry out a person's requests.
The company also claimed that Gemini does not retain any of the data used in these requests, with the process taking place entirely inside each user's Gmail inbox rather than wider Google systems.
While this may assuage some people's concerns that their data is being used to train the tech giant's AI systems, some users have said it is not as simple as just disabling these new 'smart' features.
One Gmail user pointed out on Reddit: "FYI disabling it also disables spell/grammar checking and autocorrect. You know - the non-AI stuff GMail has had for decades. Simply Google's way of forcing everyone to do what they're told."