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1. Embed this notice
   Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:43:07 JST Lauren Weinstein

   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

   • Embed this notice
     Tock (tock@corteximplant.com)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:43:48 JST Tock

     in reply to

     • My camera shoots fascists

     @Mikal @lauren I don't trust Google to honor this permission. What is stopping them right now from saying, "screw it, capture all their messages anyway, let our lawyers figure it out?"

     Because that is how all of these AI companies are treating IP works, which have legal protections. PII isn't anything holy right now.

     I'm getting the hell off GMail as soon as I can.

   • Embed this notice
     My camera shoots fascists (mikal@sfba.social)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:43:49 JST My camera shoots fascists

     in reply to

     @lauren
     One more reason to accelerate the de-Google-ification of my life.

     But, FFS, every time you reply to someone with a Gmail address who hasn't turned this shit off, you're basically letting this creepy company ingest your email. And so damn many people use Gmail that it's pretty hard to say, "sorry, I can't respond to you until you switch to something else."

     I fucking hate this.

     Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:46:26 JST Lauren Weinstein

     in reply to

     • JWcph, Radicalized By Decency

     @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.

   • Embed this notice
     JWcph, Radicalized By Decency (jwcph@helvede.net)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:46:28 JST JWcph, Radicalized By Decency

     in reply to

     @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.

     Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:46:29 JST Lauren Weinstein

     in reply to

     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!

   • Embed this notice
     Mark T. Tomczak (mark@mastodon.fixermark.com)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:46:45 JST Mark T. Tomczak

     in reply to

     • JWcph, Radicalized By Decency

     @jwcph @lauren Authentication and online identity are too fundamentally tied to email to make this a practical suggestion for most users.

     If I switch my email providers right now, I literally cannot pay my mortgage.

   • Embed this notice
     JWcph, Radicalized By Decency (jwcph@helvede.net)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:46:47 JST JWcph, Radicalized By Decency

     in reply to

     @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.

     Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:47:11 JST Lauren Weinstein

     in reply to

     • JWcph, Radicalized By Decency

     @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).

   • Embed this notice
     JWcph, Radicalized By Decency (jwcph@helvede.net)'s status on Friday, 18-Jul-2025 00:47:12 JST JWcph, Radicalized By Decency

     in reply to

     @lauren (I know you, personally know these things but a lot of people don't & they need to be told)

     Rich Felker repeated this.