For Opt Out October EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense team put together instructions for how to opt out of a lot of AI training.
Links below go to the instructions on the company/product site. We guide simplify it below the list.
Become an EFF member for less than the cost of DeleteMe :)
Chatbots
Social networks
Browsers
Phones
- Android (Gemini, Google Messages, Google Photos, Gboard)
- iOS (Siri, Writing assistance, Math assistance, Image creation)
Google
Other software
Tell Chatbots Not to Train on Your Conversations
AI chatbots collect loads of data about how you use them, and much of that gets used for training to “improve models,” which can also sometimes mean some sort of human review step. Thankfully, most chatbots allow you to turn this off if you don’t want the content of your chats being used for purposes beyond the chat itself.
Because these directions tend to change often, and sometimes are completely different depending on which platform you’re on, we’ve collected the links to each specific tool’s documentation:
Disable AI Training on Social Networks
Disabling AI training on social networks gets tricky. After all, public posts on a variety of social networks were a huge part of the training data sets with LLMs, and the fact they’re public means they can and should be easy to scrape. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have any sort of control.
In most cases, including sites like Instagram and Facebook, your best option is to set your account type to private (this also helps prevent outside companies from easily scraping your posts too). But other social networks do offer some level of control.
LinkedIn
- Click your profile image, then Settings & Privacy and select the Data Privacy option.
- Click “Data for Generative AI Improvement” and disable the option to “Use my data for training content creation AI models.”
Find more information here.
Snapchat
- Tap the gear icon and choose Settings > Privacy Controls, then “Manage My Information.”
- Disable the option for “Snap using your Public Content to train generative AI models.”
Find more information here.
Twitch
- Click your profile image in the top right and select Settings.
- Click the Security and Privacy tab and uncheck the box for “Training for Generative AI.”
Find more information here.
X
- Open the navigation panel, scroll down to Settings and privacy.
- Click “Privacy and safety.”
- Click the “Grok & Third Party Collaborators” option under “Data sharing and personalization.”
- Uncheck any options you do not want enabled.
Find more information here.
Un-AI Your Browser
AI has been integrated into many browsers in numerous ways. While it’s becoming increasingly difficult to turn these features off in some browsers, you do have a modicum of control (and if that’s not enough for you, consider switching browsers entirely). Here’s what you can do:
Chrome
- Click the three-dot icon in the upper-right, then select Settings. Click the “AI innovations” option in the sidebar, then go through and turn off any AI-related options available on that page that you do not want to use.
Edge
- Click the three-dot icon in the upper-right, then select Settings. Click the “Copilot and AI” and disable any AI tools you do not want to use.
Firefox
- Click the three-line icon in the upper-right, then select Settings. Click the “AI controls” tab, then enable “Block AI enhancements,” to turn everything off, or go through and select individual AI tools if you find some of them useful.
Turn Off Android and iOS AI Features
Phones are getting more and more AI features that depend on collecting your personal data, and it’s increasingly difficult to disable them. But it’s still possible, as long as you’re willing to live with some compromises.
Android
There are a wide variety of Android phones out there and several different manufacturers that implement their own AI features, so you might need to dig around to find specific directions for your device. But if you have a Google Pixel or other phone that supports Gemini, here’s what you can do:
- Gemini: Up until September 2026, the easiest way to get Gemini out of your Android phone was to roll back to Google Assistant. But that’s no longer possible, which means the only option to disable Gemini as a voice assistant is either to turn the feature off entirely or find an alternative.
- Google Messages: Open Google Messages and tap your profile icon. Select Messages settings > Gemini in Messages, and disable the option for “Show Gemini button.” to at least remove the button so you don’t accidentally tap it.
- Google Photos: Open Google Photos and tap your profile icon. Tap Photos Settings > Preferences > Gemini features in Photos, then disable the “Use Gemini in Photos” options.
- Gboard: Start typing something in any app, then click the gear icon that shows above the keyboard row. Tap Corrections & Suggestions, and disable the option under “Writing tools.”
Google seems to keep adding more AI stuff in every update and it’s hard to keep up. For some more guidance, check out these guides.
iOS
With the release of iOS 27, removing AI from an iPhone (or iPad) has gotten more complex than it was previously, but it’s still doable. We detail this process more in-depth here, but here’s the short version, which requires that you roll back to a previous version of Siri and then implement some other changes:
- Open up Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions
- If you have never done so, enable the toggle for “Content & Privacy Restrictions.”
- Tap the Siri option, then “Allowed Siri Version.”
- Select “Siri Classic” if you don't want to use Siri AI anymore.
- Here, you can also control other AI features. You can disable “Writing assistance,” “Math Assistance,” and “Image creation.”
Find more information here.
Special Google-Related Extended Cut
We’ve already covered Android, Chrome, and Google Search, but let’s dig through some of the company’s other tools.
Gmail
Gmail packs all its AI features into one single settings toggle, and disabling it will turn off a whole slew of features you may have been using for years, like “smart compose,” automatic filters, and even spellcheck. Still, if you want to disable it, you can do so:
- Click the cog icon in Gmail and select “See all settings.”
- On the General tab, scroll down to “Smart features,” and uncheck the box. You’ll now also see many other settings turned off with a notice to “Turn on smart features and personalization.”
Find more information here.
Google Workspace
The same goes for Google Workspace. You can disable Google Gemini features in Workspace, but be prepared to lose out on some features, like showing events from Gmail in the calendar automatically and personalized search results in Workspace. You can get to this setting from a few different places, but we’ll show directions from Google Drive.
- From Google Drive click the cog icon, then “Settings.”
- Select the “Privacy” tab, then “Manage Workspace smart feature settings.”
- Disable “Smart features in Google Workspace” and “Smart features in other Google Products.”
Find more information here.
Wrangle the Rest of Your Software
Of course, there’s an endless amount of software out there with AI stuff in it, like Zoom, Adobe Acrobat, and Notion, so there might be something you use everyday that’s not included here. Take a few minutes to dive deep into those settings to see if you can find ways to disable AI training or features, and be sure to share what you learn with others.
Consider Local Models
Maybe you don’t dislike AI so much as you hate the idea of all the major tech companies getting your data. Local models that you can control might be a good solution for your needs. With open weight models, you can run models similar to the big public ones entirely on your desktop or laptop, though the results may be slower and less sophisticated than what you get from models running on someone else’s server.
Running a local model typically involves choosing a local inference engine. Some examples include KoboldCpp, LM Studio, Ollama, or Llamafile. In addition you will have to choose an open weight model that can fit in your computer’s memory. These sorts of tools allow you to run models on your own computer, where you can then use it however you see fit, like for speech to text, grammar checking, or whatever else you dream up.
Other local options include purpose-built software that runs locally, but doesn’t require you to find and choose a model yourself. Examples of this sort of AI tool include the transcription tool OATS or the chat and image tool Off Grid AI Desktop.
Did you take a few steps to opt out of AI training? Here’s a special merit badge you can only get if you succeeded in opting out. Share it on social media! Tell your friends what you’ve accomplished and help them opt out too!
