Want out of those new ’smart features‘? We’ve got you covered
Google’s „don’t be evil“ ethos is so 2015. These days, the Chocolate Factory is all about integrating users with bots, whether they like it or not. Now, it’s rolling out Workspace „smart features“ that process personal content with AI, and many users are finding the settings enabled by default.
Engineering YouTuber Dave Jones noticed this week that he had been opted into a set of new Workspace smart features without ever being asked. According to Google’s help page for the features, the point of the on-by-default settings is to add its Gemini AI across Workspace in order to suck in all your Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, and Meet data so that it can all be cross-referenced.
As Google notes further down on the help page – where it says the setting isn’t on by default in the EU, Switzerland, UK or Japan due to those regions‘ more robust privacy laws and tries to justify getting users to opt in – any and all of the smart Workspace features that users enable may result in Workspace content and activity being processed to improve those features.
Google is clear on what that means, but not on that help page. You’ll need to visit a different article to get the gist of what Google intends to do with Workspace user data.
