32
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

I know I should ditch gmail and I'm working on it.

top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Only if you are piping those emails into something like an LLM assistant or search tool, especially if you're not checking the results. And in that case, it doesn't matter what email provider you use.

I can see it maybe messing with search results when you look through your email, but again that's independent of email provider.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

If I got a warning about prompt injections, I would check my browsers add-ons and remove anything that I didn't absolutely trust. Your email likely contains a lot of personal info that can be used for identity theft and other related things.

[-] [email protected] 21 points 3 days ago

Only if you are a llm pretending to be an A.I.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

I guess technically, but the LLM doesn't have access to anything, so the only real consequence would be an inaccurate summary

[-] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yes. Email has always been one of the more vulnerable parts of the computer ecosystem, because any stranger can use it to send a (malicious) file into your computer or server for processing.

Simpler email is safer. Every new feature has bugs. Some bugs are vulnerabilities.

Gmail adding learning models is creating a new risk for you.

How large that risk is, has yet to be discovered.

My armchair opinion is that the new risk is minimal, compared to the rest of the risks of using email. But time will tell.

I'm the meantime, if I still used Gmail, I would turn the LLM features off and let someone else discover how risky it is. (Edit: It's really probably fine, but I'm very risk averse with my email.)

I also agree that it's time for rational people to leave Gmail, if they can. But my reasons are privacy reasons, rather than security reasons.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

As far as prompt injection is concerned, I don't think it's a risk unless you're using some kind of agent to go though emails, which is not a Gmail specific thing.

If we're taking about Google scraping your data the risk is more one of them having an incorrect profile on you, but running a conversational agent is quite expensive, I don't they would have that as a large scale part of their pipeline. Embedding and clarification models likely aren't instruction tuned so prompt injection won't do anything.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Agreed. Architecturally, there's no reason to have a prompt injection risk, of any kind, here.

But, that was true about Log4J, as well - until we learned otherwise.

I tend toward extra caution in this modern era of libraries stacked on libraries.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Sure, it's important to be aware of future potential issues, but there's a huge difference between I get the wrong answer when I ask a chatbot about my email vs remote code execution.

Also, one is a general security vulnerability with email as a whole, like phishing you can get scammed regardless of your email client, vs improperly implemented features in a specific library. I don't think this is a reason to leave Gmail.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

it's important to be aware of future potential issues,

New code tends to have flaws.

I agree that there's no strong reason to expect that the current new implement has a serious flaw. But if I was still using Gmail, I would turn the new feature off.

Anything that can be exploited in a software stack is a higher risk when exposed to the risk cesspool of modern email.

So in summary: chance that this new feature is an injection risk: low.

Risk of harm if there's any security flaws in it: high.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I don't think this is a reason to leave Gmail.

I agree. I left Gmail long ago for other reasons.

Mainly that I've seen nothing in the terms of sevice that says they won't sell what they know about me to employers to help employers low-ball me during a salary negotiation.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

I work in ICT. Leaving Gmail is much easier said than done. It has the best spam filtering bar none and integrates with a whole host of other services that I use daily, like the mobile phone I'm writing this on for example, the one that integrates my calendar, tasks, contacts, photos, websites, YouTube channel, spreadsheets and, oh yeah .. that other thing .. Gmail.

So, if wishing made it so.

What I'd like is a Google Workspace tier that is entirely without AI.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

I've left gmail and had no real challenges with spam filtering or anything else so far. I lost integration between calendar photos drive etc, which has removed some convenience, but that was also kind of the point.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Yeah I keep hearing this argument, yet in real world deployments with just SPF checking, greylisting, and spamassassin my experience has been that it really isn't much of an issue.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Proton is pretty good and covers IMO the most critical parts of the Google ecosystem. I made the move a couple of weeks ago and it has been pretty easy, honestly.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Yea. It is a difficult long process to DeGoogle.

We even have a support group for it, here:

https://lemmy.ml/c/degoogle

We're all at different stages, but swap tips and tricks.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

so this is how i learn that gmail has AI shit integrated, lmao

this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
32 points (97.1% liked)

No Stupid Questions

41516 readers
1610 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS