Gmail will soon introduce new settings for smart features and personalization in Gmail to put you in control of your data and the Google experience. These new settings will let you disable smart features like automatic sorting of emails or smart compose and Smart Reply in Gmail, Chat, Meet.
Google can process personal data to enable further features such as reminders from Google for bills that are due or show maps with restaurant reservations in Google Maps. If turned ON, Google will be given permission to use data from Gmail, Chat and Meet. These options can be enabled/ disabled anytime in Gmail settings.
In a blog post, Google says that it will continue evolving controls in their products to align with these trends. Because smart features rely on your data to save you time and provide a more helpful experience, Google wants you to use them because you find value in using them.
As with all Google products, Gmail, Meet and Chat are secure-by-design to help protect your data and safeguard your privacy. As before, these smart features are provided by using automated algorithms, not manual review. And, Google ads are not based on your personal data in Gmail, no matter which choice you make. You remain in control of your data, whether you’re an individual Gmail user or a Google Workspace administrator.
If you decide not to use smart features and personalization, you will still be able to use Gmail and other products. And if you decide later on that these features are helpful and you’d like to turn them on, you can do so in your Gmail settings.
“What’s new is a clearer choice over the data processing that makes them possible. This new setting is designed to reduce the work of understanding and managing that process, in view of what we’ve learned from user experience research and regulators’ emphasis on comprehensible, actionable user choices over data,” explains Google.