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Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out
(www.malwarebytes.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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Y'all do realize that Gmail has been reading your emails and attachments from the start, right?
Someone please explain why doing that for ads isn't terrible, but how this crosses the line?
The reasons not to trust Google are as old and numerous as the trees.
This crosses a line because information will be exfiltrated. Gemini will be telling someone that I gave bubba a blow.
Your data is exfiltrated and sold for ads. You don't even need to buy an ad, bidders on ads can see your data
They cannot see my data, they can give target parameters like 'show to those who are private banking customers' or 'show to females in the 20s with daddy issues'.
Fun fact: A zip code, gender, and a DOB is enough to have an 85% chance of it being you. It's a very well-studied area. You are de-anonymized with very little data exposed, all of which Google includes in ad auctions.
https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/paper1.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/22/how-just-a-zip-code-can-tell-a-marketer-exactly-who-you-are/
https://georgetownlawtechreview.org/re-identification-of-anonymized-data/GLTR-04-2017/
https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2018/12/07/simulating-zipcode-sex-birthdate/
And then what? I tell google to show my ad to a guy born on some date and in a zip code. What data am I getting?
LLMs waste many more (physical) resources than ads