Gmail will soon give you more control over how your personal data is used

Google, through the Gmail app, has been working at making it safer and easier for people to communicate via email since 2004. And when it comes to security, Google says that Gmail blocks more than 99.9% of “spam, phishing and malware” from reaching your inbox. Google also lets you know about the data it collects “to provide you with helpful experiences.” And by making auto-delete the default setting this year, it means that Android users won’t have to consciously change the settings to automatically get rid of data that they don’t want to share with others, including advertisers.

In the coming weeks, Google will add settings to Gmail that will allow users to continue using some smart features such as the automatic filtering that allows emails to be placed in different categories such as primary, social and promotions. Other smart features that users will be able to enable or disable include Smart Compose. The latter suggests what a user might want to write in an email. Summary cards can remain enabled; these show package tracking numbers, travel plans, and more. In addition, information collected from Google that includes Event details can be used to create entries in the user’s calendar. If a user is concerned that he is allowing Google to collect oo much personal data, these smart features can be turned off and disabled. Not to worry though; they can be turned back on in Gmail.

Other controls will allow a user to personalize Google products with data from Chat, Meet, and Gmail. In other words, Google products like Assistant, Travel, and Maps can use personal data gathered from Chat, Meet, and Gmail to improve the experience of using those products. For example, users can get reminders about the bills they owe via Google Assistant, Google Maps will show restaurant reservations, itineraries can be bundled in Travel, and loyalty cards and tickets can be used quickly with GPay. Users can also choose to disable the above features while using limited versions of other Google products.

Google is trying to continue offering useful features that improve the experience and ease of using Gmail and other Google products. At the same time, the company is giving users the ability to prevent too much personal data from getting into the wrong hands.