5 ms·
Gmail/Google starts disabling features unless you agree to data processing
- pavel_lishin 1y agoOnly the first one seems to be a pre-AI thing, right? Which is a feature I've always hated and always disabled, because the email-to-calendar automation was always wonky, and would consistently put flights on my calendar with the wrong information.
- oneeyedpigeon 1y agoIt had a terrible habit of propagating spam by adding it to your calendar!
- venusenvy47 1y agoI was going to say the same thing. I'd be glad to disable this "feature", and this seems like an easy way to accomplish it. I'm also happy if I can get rid of that message about Gemini asking to summarize my stuff. I find it distracting and will be happy to remove it.
- antisol 1y agoI agree that this is shitty, but my first question is "why are you using gmail in 2025 if you don't want all your data slurped?"
- diggan 1y agoBecause I'm in the process of migrating but it's kind of low on my list of priorities.
- righthand 1y agoSo you’re fine with your data being slurped. Migrating away doesn’t take that much effort. Redirecting some dns records and setting a forward-all rule in the old email address. What am I missing?
- diggan 1y agoHundreds of filters, tens of addresses, labels and probably other things. It's not that it's technically hard, other things are just more important.
- righthand 1y agoWell I’m not sure which platform you’re migrating to but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some automation tool to help (if self hosting). For example, Fastmail has a quick guide for transferring (including the pieces you mention): https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360058752414-Migrate-to-Fastmail-from-Gmail https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360058752414-Mig...
- diggan 1y agoMigrating to a self-hosted setup. Again, not a technical/know-how problem, it's a "problem" of time/priorities :)
- righthand 1y agoYes I understand it’s an issue with time, that’s why I’m suggesting automation of some sort. Hence why I didn’t drop a link to Cyrus IMAP docs.
- antisol 1y agohttps://github.com/layfellow/imapcopy https://github.com/layfellow/imapcopy
- diggan 1y agoThanks for the recommendation, but even with automation it requires a bunch of work, probably most it will be testing and making sure it all works, so how to automate it isn't really why I'm putting it off.
- voidUpdate 1y ago
- n1b0m 1y agoWhat are good alternatives?
- pcardoso 1y agoFastmail?
- Mashimo 1y agoDepends on what features you need :) I use mailbox.org because I can use my own domain and they claim to focus on privacy. And it's hosted in Germany. But I bet it's missing feature that are essential for others. Posteo and protonmail are alternatives that friends of mine use.
- bubblebeard 1y agoProton
- beAbU 1y agoMigadu + thunderbird. Not the best, not great UX, but it's f'n email, it can be ugly.
- n1b0m 1y agoThanks all for the suggestions
- antisol 1y agoDovecot + postfix + spamassassin for mail. radicale for CalDAV/CardDAV (calendar and contacts). Squirrelmail for webmail used to be ok (though I haven't used it in a long time). Or there's an embarrassment of riches out there if you prefer to pay someone for a nice web-based zero-management thing. I can't really recommend one, but I was reselling a whitelabel email service with pretty reasonable capacity and featureset to a bunch of businesses for $5/month/user about 5 years ago. A couple of people I know seem to like protonmail. Some ISPs might even still provide email. Though that leads to a vendor-lock-in problem and you're better paying for something distinct from your ISP IMO. Same goes for the addresses Apple hands out "free" to their users. The main trick is to remember the old adage: "If you're not paying for it, you are the product" - If you don't want to pay for email then you might as well just stick with google.
- doctaj 1y agoThis doesn’t seem like withholding features because you don’t let them process your data, but that they CANT give you these features unless they have the data to do it — like, They obviously need to get your email data to give you flight info in calendar. Am I missing something…?
- znpy 1y ago> Am I missing something…? Yes. You can process data “one time” without further access, you don’t need to use data to train an llm to do those kind of stuff.
- jsnell 1y agoYour data is not being used to train an LLM even if you click "yes" to this.
- notyourwork 1y agoAnd meta hasn’t pirated the world’s library… it’s business as usual.
- malfist 1y agoAnd you know this how?
- Mordisquitos 1y agoTo be fair, can you even know they won't do it if you click "no"?
- danpalmer 1y agoDisclaimer, I work at Google, but I recommend reading the ToS for Google consumer and business services, and I believe the short version of the policies on this have been documented on the Google blog several times. I can't comment on the policy directly, but encourage you to research it, there's a pretty straightforward answer. Separately, the industry standard elsewhere appears to be that if you're a free user your data is used for training, and if you're a paying user it's not.
- kotaKat 1y agoAnd remember — even if you turn off all those features in Workspace, Google will still forcibly make you pay more for the privilege. I just got told my Workspace plan is hiking another $2 a month for “AI” features I already have turned off at an administrative level — so I guess Google gets to grope around my wallet for some extra change out of desperation.
- blitzar 1y agoIf you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. If you dont like it take your business elsewhere.
- xnx 1y agoWhat's the complaint? Would they rather have no choice to decline the new features? In other contexts the same people are complaining they can't turn new AI features off.
- latexr 1y ago> In other contexts the same people are complaining How do you know it’s the same people? That type of wording insinuates this is a type of person who is a hypocrite, yet I have never once saw someone making that claim who also showed it really were the same groups making both arguments. It looks more like a way to discredit separate but tangential groups one doesn’t like by making them look like one big contradiction.
- diggan 1y agoThe complaint is that I used to be able to see events sent via Gmail in my Google Calendar without agreeing to Google using that data for "improving the services for everyone" and sharing that data with 3rd parties. Since today it seems that's no longer a choice.
- queenkjuul 1y agoIdk why this is so hard for people to get
- const_cast 1y agoI don't either. The problem isn't that opting-out is available or not, but rather there's no granularity. You simply don't need to do 90% of this other shit in order to get feature X to work. For example, the weather widget on Android requires Chrome to have location access. Chrome, the web browser. For... a weather widget. Sorry, no you don't require that. That is a choice on Google's part. Number 1, why does Weather rely on Chrome? That's a choice, and a stupid one. Number 2, why do I need location at all for Weather? Why can I not manually input my City/ZIP?
- joncrocks 1y ago"I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further." Remember don't be evil? Those were the days.
- jsnell 1y ago> Either allow us to process and use your data however we want, or disable these existing features we've offered for many years That's not an accurate description. It's not "however they want", it's pretty clearly scoped for the data being used across Workspace apps. > such a great direction to take your service Also, none of this is new. That setting has been around to control exactly those features for years[0]. It's off by default in some countries, on by default in others, depending on the local laws/regulations. [0] Here's the archived documentation for the setting from 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20210223060113/https://support.google.com/a/answer/10095404 https://web.archive.org/web/20210223060113/https://support.g...
- ddalex 1y agoit's like the publisher wants to manufacture some outrage
- dal 1y agoThey need to drive traffic to the dying bluesky thing somehow.
- diggan 1y agoIt's new in the way that I couldn't proceed to use gmail web interface unless I made a choice. And the documentation link made it clear they won't just use the data between Workspace apps, it's for "improving the services for everyone" and "selected" 3rd parties. Features I used to be able to use yesterday are no longer possible to use without agreeing to that new data sharing, it seems
- jsnell 1y agoYou're in the EU, right? In that case these features have been off by default for years (I posted a link to the 2021 documentation showing that, but I'm 95% sure it was already the case pre-Covid). If you've been using these features for years, it kind of suggests you'd already consented to exactly this level of data use before, and just forgot about it. What's the documentation link?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jstummbillig 1y agoIf you don't agree to "data processing" I would expect features to not work.
- knorker 1y agoIn how I read it, it looks like they're literally asking for the permission to process your data IN ORDER TO provide these features. "You agree to let Google […] use your […] content […] *TO* personalize your experience[…]" (my emphasis) If you don't let them, then under what authority can they have this feature?
- diggan 1y agoThere is indeed more to it. From https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15604322 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15604322 > When smart features are on, your data may be used to improve these features [...] To improve our services. If you have turned on any of the smart features settings, we may also process your Workspace Content & Activity to improve these features. [...] Developing new products and features [...] Performing research
- bbstats 1y agoThe data here described in the features is the data they're requesting access to. Nothingburger.
- Beijinger 1y agoGmail is a great tool. I don't use it anymore except when required (Android). I once got locked out of my gmail account and, despite knowing the right password, never gained access to it again, including all that was attached to it (Android Apps, Software ISync etc.). Get your own email domain.
- develatio 1y agoI’m gonna go ahead and flag this one. This rant doesn’t make any sense (as other people in the comments are pointing out)
- diggan 1y agoSpeaking about flagging things :) > Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag, please don't also comment that you did. I think once you understand the context, it does make sense and would make it clear it isn't a "rant", but I also understand that that would require to actually do some reading so easier with a knee-jerk reaction to it instead.