- In your Gmail app, go to Settings.
- Select your Gmail address.
- Clear the Smart features checkbox.
- Go to Google Workspace smart features.
- Clear the checkboxes for: Smart features in Google Workspace, Smart features in other Google products
- If you have more Gmail accounts, repeat these steps for each one.
- Turning off Gemini in Gmail also disables basic, long-standing features like spellchecking, which predate AI assistants. This design choice discourages opting out and shows how valuable your AI-processed data is for Google.
This has finally gotten me to take steps to deGoogle my email, Fastmail trial underway.
Its good to clarify that it’s not end to end encrypted like their email because its not clear from their marketing wording that its not. Its very easy to presume “encrypted” is the same encryption process they are known for on their email.
The flip side of that coin is that it is a separate tool you don’t have to use. You can choose to use as many or few of their products as you wish (its not forced on you).
It’s also a plus that there is SOME encryption and attempts at privacy vs every other alternative besides self hosting.
I’ve personally found lumo to be very useful in troubleshooting computer issues that I’m unfamiliar with. I’ve learned a lot from using it, and the researching was faster than scouring forums myself and presented to me in a single pane. Its just a tool similar to a web browser. I choose a browser that helps me be private and I choose an AI tool that does the same, but I don’t expect either to actually keep me private.