@stefan I did it! Finally! 11k emails extracted and expunged from Gmail. Pointed as many emails to my personally hosted email as possible. I also switched from googles gallery that has been threatening to steal my photos for years.

Feels really good!

@stefan

It still doesn't mean ANYONE should trust #Google

@stefan Thank you very much for the update! ☺️

@stefan

FWIW: I did turn them off after the first message and I definitely never turned them on by mezelf. So not opt-in, Google.

Note to self: look for anything called #SmartFeatures and disagree for them to be used. Wording about compliance may well change, and be sure to look out for them again every once in a while. #Google is now just partner a bigger Thing called #Alphabet which has other manifestations including (? tbc)

@stefan thanks for your update

@stefan maybe if they were even the slightest bit trustworthy we might not always assume malfeasance

Shout out to @vantiss for the update!

https://social.treehouse.systems/@vantiss/115596944443376583

@stefan i just moved to proton bc i aint dealing with all that.

@stefan Thanks for this, though I’m probably already too late. I really need to make the switch to proton mail.

@stefan
If you've already turned off #Gemini, it looks like this is unavailable. 🤷🏽‍♂️

@stefan

I need to do the work and move to a non-Google based email.

@stefan
You only have yourself to blame when you used to using Gmail because there are, as always, many other alternatives to that.

If you don't give a shit about the things you use, instead of showing at least just a little bit of interest in it about the how and why something works, it's your fault getting screwed by a greedy company who uses you.

#Gmail #Google #Blame #Alternatives #Company

@stefan Always assumed they were already doing so, tbh

@stefan Best solution is to swich to Proton or Tuta and leave google forever

@stefan Thanks, I have just disabled it! And next time I used the Gmail app, it suggested to turn it on again... No!

@stefan Google One gives me a lot of value for my $20 a year. But I don't like this at all. What if some password or secure key information ends up in an email, does the AI know not to show this to anyone if it's trained on it? I disabled as per the article's instructions.

@stefan This sounds like BS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but any info I can find from Google on this setting only talks about using your data as inputs for already trained models to provide "smart" features , *not* about training models with it. Those two are very different things, and since it's phrased this way, I'm pretty sure that whether you have this setting on or off does not change at all whether Google trains models on your data. Telling people that Google won't use their data for training if they have this setting off seems pretty misleading to me

@stefan

When a company takes investment money from someone known as #PrinceBonesaw, what did we think would happen?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-06/google-thiel-stand-out-in-saudi-prince-s-silicon-valley-tour

@stefan

Funny, my account was off already. Maybe us europeans get different treatment thanks to laws?

@stefan ...and of course they group under other "smart" actions, so anything really useful is also turned off. Like addition of flights to calendars, and whatnot.

Great (!).

@stefan I would not trust the “opt-out” of AI on any companies website. There’s basically no way to 100% prove they trained on your data, and it’s a massive boost for them to use it.

@stefan Seems like we should promote end to end #encryption of #email|s. #PGP #E2E

@stefan

I hope they enjoy all the poorly written and punctuated emails.

I hope they enjoy all of the shit marketing emails for shoes.

The only outcome of this is further enshitification.

@stefan What are they gonna get??? 3k emails about random marketing generated by ai itself.

@stefan I have my main email somewhere else, but I still have a gmail account that only google uses. All my emails there are basically receipts and "we have updated our privacy policy" but I still care. Is this true for European users too?

@stefan @aburka Doesn’t toggling this setting just toggle your *use* of those features? Isn’t it fully orthogonal to whether your emails are used to *train* the LLMs that power those features? Am I missing something?

@stefan @aburka Doesn’t toggling this setting just toggle your *use* of those features? Isn’t it fully orthogonal to whether your emails are used to *train* the LLMs that power those features? Am I missing something?

@stefan esse é um dos motivos pela qual eu quero mover tanto meus e-mails para hospedagens próprias ou, pelo menos, que sejam brasileiras

@stefan I wonder to myself if opting out really stops it from using your emails to train its AI.

@stefan As far as I can tell these changes were actually implemented quite some time ago. I think I recall mine was turned on when I first saw it, but I turned it off many months ago now.

Perhaps it's a question of location? Maybe in some locations (like the EU where this is probably illegal) they may have waited longer to actually put this in there and enable by default (where it's likely illegal for it to be on by default, but laws only mean as much as is actually enforced after all...)

@stefan Thanks for pushing me over the edge Google. My last takeout is processing now.

@stefan I will have to examine that.

Cannot deactivate those buttons.

@stefan I kinda want to sign my Gmail up for more spam now.

@stefan i kinda figured they were already abusing full access to anything all the time on user accounts so this should be a given.

@stefan even if you opt out they are still going to do it anyway

@stefan And if you turn it off, it also turns off the automatic email classification into spam/promotions/etc.

@stefan did this.

@stefan

Thanks! I don't use gmail, but a family member does and the settings are changed.

@stefan Would it be correct to assume email *sent* to a Gmail address would be suck-upable as well? I use Gmail only for a couple of peripheral accounts, but I correspond pretty heavily with Gmail users.

@stefan
Don’t have a gear icon but on my iPad I can click on settings. No smart features shown.
Even in my advanced settings there is no smart features settings to change. I don’t know how to op out….

@stefan I wonder if including a random paragraph or word salad in communications with every gmail user is best for gumming up the works. Anyone have a guess?

@stefan We can simply whine and moan about it while clicking some switches. OR. We could also send random gibberish word salad emails with incorrect grammar and made up words to info@google (or other generic corporate email accounts that never reply).

@stefan Does this apply to people who only use IMAP to access a Gmail account?

@stefan Mine were turned off by default. Is this a US thing?

@stefan THANK YOU ❤️

@stefan @User47

I stopped using gmail in 2010 when they used my divorce lawyer’s correspondence to serve me ads for Match.com in the gmail sidebar. What the fuck else does it take you people to quit using this shit?

@stefan I particularly despise the "When you turn this on..." description in mobile, it's on by default!

@stefan Appreciate the info! Shared!

@stefan

Thanks! I just checked and they were all on for me, but aren't now.

@stefan Dumped them for proton a few months back. The only thing goin' to that account is spam. May they enjoy it.

@stefan

The great thing is that when I turned it off, it dumped a bunch of historical spam into my inbox.

Just jerks

@stefan Is this going to be another one of those google things where they opt you in some time after you've opted out and make you opt out again?

@stefan Damn. I didn't realise that ran all the sorting Gmail provides like labels etc... and I use the feature a lot.

Will need to rejig the mailbox dammit.

@stefan i’m sorry for the fifty black friday week month content that ai will train on every day from my account

@stefan I hate Google so much now. What happened to Don't Be Evil?

@stefan So even though I've just opted out, they presumably have already scanned all the stuff I already had in my account before the moment I toggled those switches, and won't be giving up that data even if they say they will. Awesome.