If you’ve been using Gmail for some time now, then you’re probably used to all the smart and personalized features that the email service has brought us over the years. But for those who want to have more control over the data they share to Google, turning off the features is possible but not that convenient. But Google will soon be bringing new settings for these smart features and personalization to make it more convenient and understandable for its users.
On your Gmail soon you’ll be seeing a new setting to control the data that you send and share in your email as well as the Meet and Chat apps. The setting will let you turn on or off allowing smart features in your Gmail, Meet, and Chat to use your data. The smart features include automatic email filtering, smart compose, summary cards above your email for travel, package tracking etc, and extracting event details for your calendar.
The two choices are of course “Continue with smart features” and “turn off smart features”. They have an explanation that if you choose the latter, it will disable the smart features mentioned as well as “degrade the performance” of the services. Obviously, if you want to be able to maximize their smart features you’ll have to give up some part of your privacy although Google says they use automated algorithms and not manual reviews.
The other setting is for the personalization of other Google products through your Gmail, Meet, and Chat data. This is for how other apps like Assistant, Maps, and Travel are able to give you personalized services through the content found in the aforementioned apps. This includes Assistant reminders on your bills, restaurant reservations on Maps, GPay showing your loyalty cards and tickets, etc.
It’s easier now to disable this if you prefer to use the “limited versions” of these other Google products. While these options are not new of course, having them more accessible makes it easier to manage access to your data. Google says these two options will be rolling out to Gmail users in the coming weeks.
