Google Workspace AI features therapists need to turn off

A Canadian therapist sets up Google Workspace, connects Gmail, and starts seeing clients. Months later they read that Gmail has AI features turned on by default, that those features read message content, and that some of it can travel to other Google products. The next thought is the uncomfortable one: what exactly has been happening to my client email this whole time?

That worry is reasonable, and it deserves a precise answer rather than a scare. The honest version is narrower and more useful than the headline. Most of what Gemini does inside Workspace is governed by your Workspace agreement and stays inside your domain. The setting that actually moves your content somewhere you have less control over is a different one, it has a specific name, and you can find and turn it off in a few minutes.

This is a walkthrough of which Google Workspace AI features touch client email, which ones to turn off, and where each control lives. If you want the broader question of whether Gmail belongs in a therapy practice at all, start with our guide on whether Gmail is PHIPA compliant. This piece picks up where that one leaves off: the specific toggles.

What client email needs protecting from, exactly

Before turning anything off, it helps to know what you’re protecting against. Otherwise you end up flipping switches without knowing whether they matter.

Your obligation is the anchor. In Ontario, PHIPA s.12(1) requires a health information custodian to take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to protect personal health information against theft, loss, and unauthorized use or disclosure. In Alberta, private practice therapists fall under PIPA, with College of Alberta Psychologists standards on top. In British Columbia, PIPA s.34 sets a comparable safeguard duty. Different statutes, same direction: you are responsible for where client information goes.

The phrase that does the work is “reasonable in the circumstances.” For mental health records, the most sensitive category most therapists handle, the bar sits higher than it would for a hardware store’s mailing list. A configuration that lets message content flow into systems you neither chose nor monitor is hard to defend as reasonable, even if nothing ever goes wrong.

So the question for each AI feature is simple. Does it keep client content inside the boundary you’ve agreed to and can account for? Or does it let that content travel somewhere you can’t see?

Two boundaries that get confused

Google Workspace has two different data stories, and conflating them is where most of the fear comes from.

The first is Gemini and the AI features inside the core Workspace services. When these process your content to draft a reply or summarize a thread, that processing is covered by your Workspace agreement and the Cloud Data Processing Addendum. Google’s stated commitment for these core services is that your content is not reviewed by humans or used to train its generative models outside your domain without your permission. That commitment is the reason core Gemini is a manageable risk rather than an open door.

The second story is personalization that reaches into other Google products. This is the part worth your attention. A pair of settings can let your Gmail content feed features and personalization across Google services that sit outside the Workspace core-service boundary. That’s a different posture from “drafting a reply inside your governed inbox,” and it’s the surface a careful therapist closes.

The practical upshot: you are not trying to stop Gemini from “training on your clients,” because the agreement already addresses that for the core service. You are keeping client content inside the boundary you can account for, and switching off the paths that carry it outside.

The features to find and turn off

What follows is ordered the way you should actually do it. If you manage your own Workspace, the admin controls come first because they cover everyone at once. If you don’t, skip to the Gmail settings and apply them to your own account.

A note before the steps. These settings are not turned off by default in Canada. Google defaults them off for users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Japan, which tells you something about how the company itself reads the privacy stakes. Canadian therapists have to turn them off deliberately.

Step 1: Decide as the administrator first

If you run your own Google Workspace, and most solo therapists who pay for it do, the controls that matter most live in the Admin console at admin.google.com, not in any individual inbox.

The reason to start here is coverage. An organization-wide setting applies to every user and every alias under your domain. It also removes the weak point you create when compliance depends on each person remembering to untick a box. Sign in as a super administrator before you begin. If you’re a one-person practice, that’s you.

Step 2: Turn off cross-product personalization at the org level

In the Admin console, open Menu, then Account, then Account settings, then Smart features for Google Workspace.

This admin control governs whether your users’ Workspace content and activity can be used to provide smart features in other Google products. For an inbox that carries client email, this is the one to turn off. It’s the organization-level version of the cross-product personalization toggle, and setting it here means no individual user can re-enable the cross-product flow on their own.

Save the change. Google notes that settings like this can take up to 24 hours to apply across an organization, though it’s often faster.

Step 3: Set Gemini access deliberately

In the Admin console, open Menu, then Generative AI, then Gemini app, then Service status. From there you can turn the Gemini app On or Off for everyone, or scope it to a specific organizational unit or group.

This is a judgment call rather than a clear “off.” Gemini for Workspace is a core service, governed by the same agreement and data processing terms as the rest of your Workspace. Keeping it on does not hand your client email to Google’s public models. The decision is about whether you and your team should have the feature available, and whether you’ve read what it does, not about plugging an external leak. If you’d rather not have AI drafting in your inbox until you’ve evaluated it, turn it off. If you want it, leave it on knowing the core-service protections apply.

For finer control over individual Gemini features across Workspace apps, the Admin console also offers Menu, then Generative AI, then Gemini for Workspace, then Feature access.

Step 4: Turn off smart features and personalization in Gmail

If you don’t run an Admin console, or you want to confirm your own account directly, the equivalent controls live in Gmail.

Open Gmail, click Settings (the gear), then See all settings, then open the General tab. Scroll to the option labelled Smart features and personalization and untick the box. This governs whether Gmail, Chat, and Meet use your content to provide smart features like suggested replies and filtering.

Turning this off changes how your inbox behaves. Some conveniences disappear. That trade is yours to make, and for an inbox full of clinical correspondence, many therapists decide the quieter inbox is the better deal.

Step 5: Turn off smart features in other Google products

On the same General tab, there’s a second, separate checkbox: Smart features and personalization in other Google products. Untick this one too.

This is the setting that matters most for the worry you started with. It controls whether your Gmail content is used to personalize your experience across other Google services, the path that carries content outside the Workspace core-service boundary. One detail to know: this toggle can only be changed from a web browser, not the mobile app. So do it from a computer.

If you handled Step 2 in the Admin console, the org-level control already covers the cross-product flow for everyone. Confirming it here on your own account is still worth the thirty seconds.

Step 6: Record what you set and when

Make a short note of the configuration you chose and the date you applied it. A line in whatever you use for practice records is enough.

This isn’t busywork. PHIPA s.12(1) asks for reasonable steps, and a custodian who can show the privacy settings they applied, and when, is in a far stronger position than one relying on memory. The point isn’t to predict a complaint. It’s that if a question ever comes, the answer already exists in writing instead of depending on what you think you remember configuring two years ago.

Where this gets complicated

The clean six steps above hide a few edges worth naming honestly.

Turning off smart features removes useful things. Suggested replies, automatic filtering, and event detection all lean on the features you just disabled. This is a real trade, not a free win. Decide it on purpose: for an inbox of clinical email, the reduced surface is usually worth more than the autocomplete.

These settings are not the whole compliance picture. Switching off cross-product personalization is one safeguard among several. It does not encrypt the message body, it does not give you an audit trail of what you sent, and it does not change where Gmail stores message content. It closes one specific path. The encryption question is a separate problem covered in our guide on whether Gmail is PHIPA compliant.

Settings drift, and so do labels. Google changes its product surfaces and the exact wording of these controls more often than anyone would like. The paths in this article were verified in June 2026. If a menu doesn’t match, search Google’s admin and Gmail help for “smart features” and “Gemini” rather than assuming the feature moved out of reach.

“PHIPA compliant” was never a setting. No Ontario regulator certifies a configuration as compliant, and no checkbox transfers your responsibility. Under PHIPA s.17(1) a custodian stays accountable for personal health information in its custody or control, including what a service provider acting as your agent does with it. Turning these toggles off is you discharging that accountability, not Google taking it off your plate.

When a privacy question touches a real client situation, a possible breach, or a complaint, talk to a privacy professional or your liability advisor. This article orients you; it doesn’t replace advice on your specific facts.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google use my Gmail client email to train its AI?

For the core Workspace services, Google’s stated commitment is that your content isn’t used to train its generative models outside your domain without your permission, and isn’t reviewed by humans for that purpose. The exposure to manage is the “smart features and personalization in other Google products” setting, which can route your content into personalization outside that core-service boundary.

What’s the difference between the two smart features checkboxes in Gmail?

The first, “Smart features and personalization,” controls features inside Gmail, Chat, and Meet, such as suggested replies and filtering. The second, “Smart features and personalization in other Google products,” controls whether your Gmail content personalizes your experience across other Google services. For client email, turning off the second one matters most.

Should I turn Gemini off completely?

Not necessarily. Gemini for Workspace is a core service governed by your Workspace agreement and Cloud Data Processing Addendum, so it doesn’t expose client email to Google’s public models. Treat it as a feature decision: turn it off if you’d rather not have AI in your inbox yet, or leave it on knowing the core-service protections apply.

Do these settings make my Gmail PHIPA compliant?

No single setting does that. PHIPA governs your conduct as a custodian, not Google’s product. Under PHIPA s.12(1) you must take reasonable safeguards, and under s.17(1) you stay accountable for your agents. Turning off cross-product personalization is one reasonable safeguard among several, not a compliance certificate.

I see clients in more than one province. Does this change anything?

The Google steps are the same everywhere. The law behind them shifts: Ontario clients engage PHIPA, Alberta clients engage PIPA and College of Alberta Psychologists standards, BC clients engage PIPA, and email crossing provincial lines can also engage PIPEDA. The safeguard direction is consistent across all of them.

Close the path before you forget it’s open

You don’t need to migrate off Google Workspace to handle this. You need to know which two settings carry client content outside the boundary you can account for, turn them off, and write down that you did. Six steps, most of them one click, and the uncomfortable question you started with has a documented answer.

What turning these toggles off doesn’t do is encrypt the email itself or log what you sent. If you want your Gmail encrypted for Canadian mental health privacy law, with every send recorded in a Canadian audit trail, and without leaving the inbox you already use, join the Curio waitlist.

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This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Privacy regulations vary by province and are subject to change. Verify current requirements with your provincial regulatory body and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for your jurisdiction.

Curio is designed to encrypt outbound email and maintain a Canadian audit trail. It is not a substitute for professional legal or compliance advice. Consult a qualified privacy professional for your specific situation.