Google’s AI Is Sifting Through Private Emails by Default, Lawsuit Claims Users Never Agreed
A class-action case says the company turned on Gemini access to Gmail, chats, and video calls without clear notice. The fight continues in federal court.
Big Tech companies keep finding new ways to get deeper into people’s private lives. Google is facing a class-action lawsuit that claims it did exactly that with its Gemini AI tools.
In November 2025, plaintiffs filed Thele v. Google LLC in California federal court. They say that around October 10, 2025, Google quietly switched “Smart Features” on by default for Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Meet. Before that, the features were mostly opt-in. Once flipped, Gemini could scan emails, attachments, messages, and meetings — including bank statements, tax documents, medical notes, and other personal records.
The lawsuit argues this violated users’ reasonable expectation of privacy and several state and federal laws. Plaintiffs say most people never got clear notice and had to hunt through buried settings to turn the tools off.
Google has pushed back hard. The company says Smart Features have existed for years, that it did not change anyone’s settings without notice, and that it does not use Gmail content to train its main Gemini AI models. Google maintains the tools are optional and under user control.
In July 2026, a federal judge dismissed the complaint. The court ruled the plaintiffs had not shown enough specific harm or concrete injury. But the judge gave them leave to amend and refile. The deadline was later extended, and the case remains pending with future court dates still on the calendar.
This pattern is familiar. Large technology firms introduce powerful new tools, set them to run by default, and leave ordinary users to figure out how to shut them off — if they even know the tools exist. Private communications that once stayed between sender and receiver now feed corporate systems. When those systems involve bank records, health information, or family matters, the stakes rise quickly.
Users who want to limit access can still go into Gmail settings and disable Smart Features and related personalization controls. That step is worth taking. Trusting any big tech company to put individual privacy first has proven unwise more than once.
The lawsuit is still alive. Whether it succeeds or not, the underlying issue remains: how much private data should these companies be allowed to process by default, and how clearly must they tell people when they do it.
Sources / More reading
https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/5:2025cv09704/459505/35
https://openclassactions.com/lawsuits/google-gemini-gmail-privacy-class-action.php
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/11/21/google-ai-emails-chats/
https://www.techspot.com/news/110353-google-denies-gmail-reads-emails-attachments-train-ai.html