By Brandon Vigliarolo
Publication Date: 2025-11-21 15:47:00
Google’s “don’t be evil” ethos is so 2015. These days, the chocolate factory is all about integrating users with bots whether they want to or not. Now Workspace “smart features” that process personal content with AI are rolling out, and many users are finding that the settings are turned on by default.
Tech YouTuber Dave Jones noted this week that he had been handpicked for a number of new smart workspace features without being asked. According to Google’s feature help page, the purpose of having the settings enabled by default is to add Gemini AI across the workspace to bring in all your Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, and Meet data so they can all be cross-referenced.
As Google notes further down on the help page – where it states that the setting is not enabled by default in the EU, Switzerland, UK or Japan due to those regions’ stricter privacy laws and attempts to justify user consent – any user-enabled Smart Workspace features can cause Workspace…
