Sending and receiving emails, has always been an integral part of very many businesses. This is because businesses rely (almost entirely) on emails for internal communication with employees, as well as external communication with clients and vendors. This is generally true across all sectors and industries, and most people don’t think twice about the emails they fire off throughout the day, or the attachments that frequently go along with those messages. Sadly, even with its level of importance and the improvement of email security since its inception (such as the implementation of encrypted passwords), it is far from being a completely secure means of transmitting important information, as emails are still prone to interception by prying eyes.
Thanks to Gmail however, there might be better days ahead.
Gmail’s Confidential Mode
Gmail’s Confidential Mode was added as part of the service’s (Gmail’s) new interface back in August 2018. Confidential Mode was designed to give users more privacy and security options when sending emails and is available to everyone.
Confidential Mode allows you to send Confidential Emails. These differ from the regular emails we’re used to sending because they are hosted on Google’s servers rather than being sent directly to the target’s inbox.
The recipient of a confidential email is sent a link which they must click on, taking them through to view the contents of the email in their browser. These emails can expire and so can only be seen for a period of time designated by the sender – they also can’t be forwarded, copy/pasted, downloaded or printed.
The intention of this feature is to allow users to have some level of control over emails after they have been sent if they contain sensitive information. You can also recall emails in Gmail too if you’ve sent something by mistake, but you’ll need to activate this feature.
How to send Confidential Emails in Gmail
If your Gmail account has an administrator or belongs to a specific domain, such as a work email address, you may need the administrator to turn on the option of confidential emails before they can be used.
- Log on to your Gmail account and click on ‘Compose’ at the top left.
- When composing a new email, you will see this button at the bottom of the page.
- Clicking this button will enable Confidential Mode and provide you with the following options.
- Here you can select how long you’d like this email to be accessible for and if you’d like to add an SMS passcode to it too
- Once you have selected your options, press Save at the bottom right
- You will now see this message at the bottom of your email to confirm your choices.
Although there is some concern (according to Forbes) about this new feature becoming a tool for cyber-bullies and harassers, it does little to take away the reality of its convenience, when used for legitimate purposes.
I personally, feel a lot more confident sending sensitive information via emails.
Do you?
