Use Google Messenger or Gmail? Disable Gemini AI’s Data Tracking

Everyone knows how Google has been involved in censoring factually accurate information that is contrary to various political agendas, including the lockdowns, vaccines, and climate alarmism.

At a World Economic Forum (WEF) event in 2022, a UN official boasted how Google had helped them to “own the science”.

Everyone also knows how Google tracks your activities online.

But what most people are probably unaware of is how Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is essentially a massive data mining operation whose business model involves collecting our data, innovatively repackaging it, and selling it for profit.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been deeply investigating Alphabet’s deep ties to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries—as well as its relationship with Big Brother.

Stay tuned for my reporting on that. (Sign up for my newsletters here, plus get a free e-book exposing how the greatest purveyors of vaccine misinformation are the government and mainstream media.)

In the meantime, my findings have highlighted the importance of understanding how your data is used by various services and protecting your privacy.

You’ll be glad to know that I recently ditched Google Analytics, having finally found a good alternative, so there are no Google tracking code or cookies on my website.

Now, to be clear, I’m not saying that Google’s products are all bad, and some of them certainly can be useful. But it’s important to understand how these Big Tech companies can collect and use your data so you can know how to protect your privacy.

Yesterday, I discovered that Google’s “Gemini” AI, which is incorporated into the Google Messenger mobile phone app, was auto-enabled on my account to track my data, including for the purpose of AI training. This was not something I opted into or enabled. Google just turned it on.

(Yeah, I know there are other apps for texting, and I use Signal and others, but with the discontinuation of Samsung Messenger, we Samsung users were forced onto Google’s app for regular SMS messages through mobile carrier, as opposed to via the internet.)

I don’t know how long ago that auto-enabling happened, but I found it because a “Gemini” chat existed in my messenger chat list. I went to delete it and ended up navigating to a “Gemini Apps Activity” page in my Google account. I just tried navigating back to that page cannot seem to find any way to get to it through menu options. Using the Help knowledgebase, though, I found the URL:

https://myactivity.google.com/product/gemini

I turned off the activity tracking and deleted all data.

Just today, I also happened to learn that Gemini AI is auto-enabled in Gmail, too. (Hat tip to Stew McLaren for this one.) So here’s what you’ll want to do to disable that for your email account:

1. Go to https://mail.google.com/.
2. Logged in, click the gear icon (⚙️) in the upper right to access Settings.
3. Click “See All Settings”.
4. In the “General” tab, scroll down and uncheck the box for “Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet”.

The description for that setting says, “When you turn this setting on, you agree to let Gmail, Chat, and Meet use your content and activity in these products to provide smart features and personalize your experience.”

That’s really irritating because I never turned it on and therefore never agreed to let Google track my activity—it’s another feature that Google just enabled itself by default without notifying me of how it was integrating its Gemini AI into its Gmail product.

Of course, as with Google’s SMS messenger app, I use my Gmail account for limited purposes. My work correspondence is conducted via my own secure email accounts on my site’s server.

Another step I took some years back to protect my online privacy was to switch to the Brave browser, which is built on Chromium, which is open-source software and not to be confused with Google Chrome, which is also built on Chromium but is proprietary.

Brave is a privacy-oriented browser, and since it’s built on Chromium, you can still install extensions from the Chrome Web Store. You can download it for your computer or install the app on your phone here (View Browser > Downloads for all device versions):

https://brave.com

You can sync your bookmarks and settings between devices by opening the upper right “hamburger” menu (☰) and then going to Settings > Sync.

Also go to Settings > Search Engine and ensure your default is set to Brave and not Google.

I used to use DuckDuckGo as an alternative search engine until it started participating in the censorship regime during the COVID-19 lockdown madness. And I just learned by visiting the Brave site this very moment that it’s actually powered by Microsoft’s Bing. It’s “essentially just using Bing with an added layer of privacy.”

Speaking of Microsoft, it’s similarly installing and enabling its AI tool “Copilot” for Windows 11 and Office 365 users. One feature is a “Microsoft Recall” option that constantly takes screenshots of your display and stores them, which you can enable or disable in the Windows settings. I just deleted the Copilot app from my PC entirely and also disabled it in my 365 apps (e.g., Word and Excel).

Under Settings > Privacy and Security, Brave has an option to block Microsoft Recall from screenshotting open Brave tabs, in case you want or need to use the feature but still want to protect your privacy while browsing online.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share those quick privacy tips for my readers! Share your own tips for protecting your privacy online in the comments below.