Lauren WeinsteinJul 17, 2025

WARNING: #GOOGLE IS TRYING TO TRICK YOU INTO USING GEMINI AI AND FEEDING GEMINI YOUR DATA IN GMAIL AND OTHER APPS!

What Google is now doing should be ILLEGAL. PERIOD. For the first time I can recall in history of using Gmail, it just now popped a modal dialogue box -- DEMANDING that I choose whether or not I wanted "Smart Features" turned on -- which when you read the verbiage mostly means goddamned Gemini AI AND if you enable this you're giving Google permission to use your data to "improve" this horrifically invasive, inept, and misinformation spewing tech that steals data from websites for its own use without permission of those sites. DON'T LET IT SUCK IN YOUR EMAIL AS WELL!

There was no way I could find to exit the modal window without choosing YES or NO, which means my existing selection to NOT use Gmail Smart Features (long my preference) was NOT being honored. After saying NO to this disgusting query by Google, I was pushed to ANOTHER page where I was forced to choose again about "smart features" in "other" Google apps. I chose NO again and finally was permitted to escape this trap.

Note that while you can fairly easily check to make sure "smart features" are turned off in Gmail settings, I offhand don't have a clue as to how to find the similar settings in other Google apps that may have been affected by this absolutely disrespectful forced dialogue, as Google keeps trying to ram Gemini AI down our throats.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Google has become a DISGRACE.

#Google #Gmail #Gemini #AI

Show threadLauren WeinsteinJul 17, 2025
I believe I've found the new Gemini-centric "smart features" controls in Gmail, that also seem to include the "other apps" setting as well. If you click the gear, then All Settings, then scroll WAY DOWN in the General tab, there's a "Manage Workspace smart feature settings" bubble. If you click that, you'll see a pair of settings that appear to represent your choices during the forced dialogue modal popup I discussed in the original post on this thread. I can't be 100% sure, but that's how it appears to me currently. My recommendation: Make sure they are both OFF!
Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyJul 17, 2025

@lauren Why would you ever trust them to honor any of your settings though? As you said they already overrode them to get to this & also their #AI is stealing content everywhere else.

The only option is to get the everloving fuck out of the #Google ecosystem & then just hope they can't get to you in other ways, which they probably can but don't obey in advance. #Resistance is its own reward & also might actually work eventually. Not resisting definitely won't.

Show threadLauren WeinsteinJul 17, 2025
@jwcph My concern is with ordinary users who as a practical matter have to use these systems and do not have the technical background for workaround hacks. My goal is finding ways to convince -- or force through legislation -- firms like Google to do the right thing for their billions of users. Because the reality is most users ARE going to keep using these systems, because the time and confusion associated with switching is entirely out of scope for most. Most people can just barely use these systems and devices well enough to get crucial things done, making things harder for them by disrupting what they've finally learned is not a viable solution for the vast majority.
Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyJul 17, 2025

@lauren Well, that's true, but also not. Switching email, for example, is about as easy as getting a Gmail account in the first place - several services have "import from Gmail" as a default offering.

It just *feels* like it's a huge deal - like you're going to mess something up. You almost certainly won't but *you don't have to delete your Gmail to switch*! Leave it on for a bit while using your new email, until the dread feeling goes away.

People need to be told this, again & again.

Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyJul 17, 2025
@lauren (I know you, personally know these things but a lot of people don't & they need to be told)
Show threadLauren WeinsteinJul 17, 2025
@jwcph My overall view is that all of the major email platforms are moving in the same direction, and that hopping from one to another is ultimately futile. These issues need to be dealt with en masse across the provider space, and that means legislatively. Obviously the environment for that right now is awful, but it remains the only long term solution. Because unless these practices are banned, all of these firms will ultimately feel the competitive pressure to use them. I concentrate on Google because it is obviously very large, has about a third of global email, and I know it the best (both as a user and internally from the times I worked inside).
Show threadslashJul 17, 2025

@lauren @jwcph Absolutely. I gave up being a Libertarian when I realized that some problems require regulation to be solved. This is one.

However, for the technically inclined, there's this:

https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/product/ryoms/

A recent book on how to run your own mail server (ryoms), which works you past all the usual deliverability hurdles. Again, not a solution for the general case, but easily within the reach of Unix users.

Run Your Own Mail Server

You Against the Email Empire Message services appear and disappear, but email remains. One of the Internet’s oldest and most open protocols, email reaches everywhere. Dominated by a handful of carriers, yet still manageable by the rest of us. If you do it right. Setting up the email server wit

Tilted Windmill Press
Show threadLauren Weinstein
@agreeable_landfall @jwcph Having run my own mail servers for decades -- and I still do -- I would NEVER, EVER recommend self-hosting to anyone starting off these days. It's an endless battle in terms of spam and other attacks, and that's assuming a nice clean open port 25 and PTR records without having to use workarounds to get past ISP restrictions on consumer level services which most people have. Even getting the major email services to accept your mail means all the SPF and DKIM and other hoops increasingly.
Jul 17, 2025 at 4:20pmWeb
Show threadslashJul 17, 2025
@lauren @jwcph Hence the book, which walks you through those things. Again, a solution for the technically-inclined.