- 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.
Don’t use gmail?
From all things in the modern world, E-Mail is the easiest to have for yourself.
That’s assuming the setting is respected server-side, of course. With the track record of company doing AI training, respect of rules and law isn’t really part of their actions.
All the suggestions in this thread are good, but for anyone who doesn’t want to self-host or change providers entirely (because changing your email is an absolute pain in the ass):
At least get a different mail client. You don’t have to use the official Gmail App to access Gmail! I personally really like FairEmail, because it’s open source, has no unnecessary bells and whistles, and just works. It takes less than 5mins to download it and move Gmail over there completely, with no risk of losing any data or missing any mails.
Or Thunderbird, I use that with my yahoo email ive had for 20 years. I cant get rid of it at this point ha
I’m slowly moving my accounts over from gmail to protonmail.
Privacy should be the default, not the exception.
It is very freeing seeing updates that don’t affect me much since I’ve moved on from gmail.
Proton has their own AI bullshit:
At least it’s not rummaging around your email though.
And just so you know, it is not end-to-end encrypted like their email is when emailing another Proton user: https://lumo.proton.me/legal/privacy
The only way to have actually private AI is to run it on your own hardware.
Yeah but lumo is basically just a side gimmick thing that isn’t integrated with the rest of their suite.
It’s basically the equivalent of a self hosted small LLM that you don’t have to fuck around with setting up.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with LLMs as a tool. The problem is the misuse, misapplication and over scaling of them.
If they were all just one off tools like lumo that are basically slightly more advanced digital assistants they would be fine. LLMs are fantastic for quickly searching shit with crap discoverability for example. They routinely are more effective at finding random useful results in say reddit or stack overflow or even some weird forum on the 12th page of Google.
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.
I don’t necessarily have a problem with offering AI. Especially in actually-useful contexts. I have a problem with it being forced on me in unwanted ones.
I have a problem with encryption possibly being a thing of the past because users I write with will put all incoming messages through some LLM because they can‘t be arsed to actually read and reply themselves.
Since when does email have encryption?
I mean in general. It doesn‘t matter what you use because the AI software will be installed on their phones.
Yes and no. If we’re talking about email, that’s completely different from Lumo, and can either be run locally or server-side with encryption, which is then immediately deleted.
https://proton.me/support/proton-scribe-writing-assistant#privacy
But I mean email is generally not private anyway.
deleted by creator
Ooooorrrrrr… You knowww… Delete or stop using your google account and their services?
Because if what actually bothers you is the idea that Google is spying on your things with Gemini…
First: lol. lmao even.
Second: Sorry for the laugh, but that’s because I believe that they don’t need gemini to do that, they do it anyway regardless of your settings.
Case in point, last year google was sentenced to pay a fine because they were collecting data from their users, even though those users had tracking turned off in their settings. And I believe it wasn’t the first time, but I can’t be arsed to search for older examples.
An ad company that has trackers almost everywhere on the web and tracks you even if you’re not using their services, that understanding and studying your behaviour is a central part of their business model; and you believe that they won’t spy and track you because you asked them not to? C’mon
Degoogling your self is a process and needs to be handled carefully. Realisticly, this quite difficult if your not a fruit phone user, but there is hope for people who arn’t neck deep in Apples walled garden. GraphenOS announced last year they would be expanding their range of supported devices. [Link]
Once that happens, closing the ol’ google account will be much easier or atleast use a modern smart phone without having it tied to the tornent nexus.
Yeah, this is one of those cases where we can’t let perfection be the enemy of action. I myself I’m in the middle of degoogling as well, and it’s a process that is taking a few months now (and will take some more).
But even if you use a googled android and still use some of their services, simply not defaulting to them for everything goes a long way. Use other browsers, use other search engines, use other email providers, etc.
But the point I was making was more about the privacy side of things. I don’t believe that leaving those AI features on or off makes that much difference at the end of the day. Google will still spy on your content, and if they want to, they will use it for AI training regardless.
I know that their policies and whatnot might say differently, but I don’t trust that they respect them.
Thanks. Yes, Google had been evil for a long time, probably before they removed “don’t be evil.” No, let’s not be gatekeepers.
https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android
Tuta is always pretty quick to report on these things. 🙂
I did all that ages ago and re-confirmed, it’s still all disabled…
But Gemini persists:
The hell? How can that be?
The billion-dollar company pays a lot of people to abuse its customers.
After getting into web development, I realize that no abusive tactic is an accident.
Definitely not accidental, no.
What the column has you do is disable Gemini access in Mail, but it is still on for search.
Google promises(new window) that Gmail’s 3 billion users will benefit from a “personal, proactive inbox assistant”. But given that these features are free, what’s the catch? Make no mistake, Google isn’t doing this out of generosity. The contents of your inbox are valuable to the company.
Email used to be a more private space where your communications could potentially be intercepted by bad actors, but largely your data was your own.
I dont think that is true wrt gmail is it? Google have been scanning your messages and using that for machine learning based ad targeting since it was released.
I don’t think they meant Gmail used to be private, but email. Yes, Gmail has never been private. But, that’s why it’s free.
That doesn’t make any sense as a reason to turn off Gemini in your inbox though. Either you are ok with having your emails scanned and used in ML systems, in which case why bother turning off the feature; or you aren’t and turning off the feature doesn’t help you.
Oh, I completely agree. Using Gmail is the problem here, and no amount of settings fiddling will solve that.
How to turn off Gemini in one step:
- Stop using google’s services.
If i was actually running my own competing service I’d probably suggest switching to it instead of writing a blog post to help people use my competition, but i guess thats why I don’t work in marketing, this must be some big brained 4-d chess move.
Why does it matter if its googles "AI’ slurping up your emails, or just their massive advertising and tracking network? Do the ads seem less intrusive if they’re just coming from adsense instead of gemini? Are people actually foolish enough to think “disabling” a feature like this actually stops google from constantly scanning every single one of their emails?
I’m going to call this now, Proton will be just as bad as google in 5-10 years. It shows in how they are totally bad faith promoting themselves as a better alternative they have one goal in mind and it’s the same one as cancer.
but i guess thats why I don’t work in marketing
Yeah, I guess it is, because this article works in Proton’s favor on multiple levels:
- Plenty of Proton users have switched over from Gmail, still have their old account, and still, even with forwarding, occasionally need to use those old addresses.
- People who search for or are sent a guide who’ve never or rarely heard of Proton might end up on their site and read a guide that lambasts Google and its usage of AI.
- Meanwhile, Proton’s alternative product is being advertised everywhere on the page outside the guide and even is advertised within it.
- These guides are going to exist anyway (many, in fact). You’re acting like this is some extremely niche thing users might want to do. Having your own guide but poisoned with your marketing when you’re the underdog is a sound idea.
- This gives a benevolent image of “Good Guy Proton” who just wants to keep people’s data private regardless of business – and a “Bad Guy Google” image because it’s apparently so dire that their competition has to do this.
- Consumers becoming more privacy-conscious generally is a boon long-term for businesses like Proton.
You’re so smarmy about this but just come off as a complete dipshit who gave this two seconds of thought.
You had such excellent points all up until the unnecessary ad hominem at the end there. No need for name calling when you’ve already won.
Before I address the substance: that’s not what an ad hominem is in the context of an argument. I’d already 100% finished attacking the substance of their argument. An ad hominem would be if I fallaciously appealed to a personal characteristic (real or otherwise) to attack an argument of theirs. “You’re wrong because you’re a dipshit”.
Anyway: man, I dunno. It’s 2026, and I’ve gotten really fucking sick of being unilaterally bound by etiquette when the bullshit asymmetry principle and the Dunning–Kruger effect are being stretched to their limits by insufferable, insolent shitheads who’ve unburdened themselves of critical thinking and assume having a platform to the entire world makes them qualified to say anything about everything (I can fall into this trap too, but holy shit sometimes).
I was still more polite than they were, still exercised more critical thought than they did, and still addressed the substance, and that’s fine enough by me not to tone police myself.
It’s fellatiously idiot. So much for being smahter huh duuuuuuuuuh…
Alright, my bad, good ackshually. 👍 Let’s refer to it as name-calling.
So like, calling someone a dipshit just because you’ve run into so many people that annoy you… I dunno. If it was the same person that annoyed you over and over again, I’d get it, but, this is your first interaction with this person, right? You feel me?
🤷♂️ You have the right to call anyone you want a dipshit, of course, I just would like us to have civil discourse here. Everyone benefits from that, I believe. Plus, I think we’re all mostly on the same side regarding this matter. I don’t feel like this is a every polarizing issue here. 😁 Google is the enemy here, let’s not infight.
A person is also much more susceptible and inclined to listen without being called names. 😉
Have a good day today, buddy!
They probably should have given it two seconds of thought before sending it.
I mean, it’s just one person’s idea of how they think things will pan out vs another’s. No need for name-calling. 👍
The post is just an ad disguised as a guide and absolutely pointless. You know what else will show people how to disable gemini, googles own ai based search (which now sources protons guide, well above the actual search result that links back to proton)
Sorry if my aversion to advertising comes off as smarmy, im tired of seeing companies go from focusing on providing one good service like email and trying to become the next one corp fits all replacement for google. Instead of doing one thing extremely well it becomes a race to do as many things as they can and get people to replace one monolith with another.Proton is the most recent to make this shift and its obvious they want to be like google but with “privacy” as a gimmic because its only private until they get a government order telling them to do something to unmask a user or monitor an email.
The post is just an ad disguised as a guide
That said:
its obvious they want to be like google but with “privacy” as a gimmic because its only private until they get a government order telling them to do something to unmask a user or monitor an email.
Besides the fact that Proton is based in Switzerland where government warrants aren’t issued willy-nilly, please learn how the mathematics behind encryption works – or, if not, at least trust that it does. For emails that are sent E2EE, Proton can only have garbled data that requires a key they don’t have.
You’re just constantly talking out your ass, and I have no idea why; it’s so unearned. Like I’m not going to debate you on whether ads or corporations are good because a) I broadly agree and b) that’s just, like, our opinions, man, but then you just say shit that’s so demonstrably untrue that all I can think is: “I fucking hate what this decade has done to people.”
Besides the fact that Proton is based in Switzerland where government warrants aren’t issued willy-nilly, please learn how the mathematics behind encryption works – or, if not, at least trust that it does. For emails that are sent E2EE, Proton can only have garbled data that requires a key they don’t have.
Email is not end to end encrypted and this is the first of protons many misleading claims. Best case the contents is encrypted but not info like recipents address or sender’s IP. Leading to less knowledgeable activists not understanding that using protons vpn and their email together can actually lead to users giving proton more then enough info for law enforcement to track someo e down.
Proton doesnt even hide this if you look at their reports they comply with court orders regularly. In theory proton could also back door any of their users keys since everything is done on the fly in the browser and proton controls all of the code. This is something their predecessors had been ordered to do and chose to shutdown instead of complying. Somehow i dont see proton opting to close up shop just to protect a few users who theyre told are criminals.
People who actually care about encryption already had a solution long before proton, called PGP and thats yet to be broken. Why other then vendor lock in would you encourage people to use anything else? (this is a criticism i have of tuta also)
Also just fyi proton moved out of Switzerland last year for guess what… Legal reasons!
Glad to hear you agree with me and dont want to debate because literally none of what ive said is speculative.
Proton ad
LOL I did and these fuckers decided to disable my widget. It only shows my inbox as empty. Yeah I definitely need to continue my de-googlifying.
I’d like to invite you to try https://port87.com/
It’s proudly AI free.
What do you like about them? Over fastmail or whatever
I meant I run it.
But to answer your question, it uses subaddressing really well. When you give your email to a company, you add a label to the address just for that company, then all of their emails go in that label. You can easily toggle things like notifications, mark as read, and show in aggbox (our version of the inbox, since there isn’t really an inbox when everything is sorted already). Then if that company leaks your email, you can block that label.
You can also set up screening labels that are meant for real people, then any new senders get screened to make sure they’re human before you get their mail.
Discord
🤔
Yeah, I really should sit down and create a Matrix server for it.
I need to someday self-host a gmail archive
I am happy I don’t need google products for anything. I have been using Mailfence for several years and been fine with it. For folks who can leave gmail, there are multiple good options, at least for email.
