Are you one of those businesses that include an automated footer in your outgoing email stating that the "information contained in the email is company sensitive information and cannot be shared outside its intended use"? Or perhaps you occasionally want to send confidential information, but don’t want to risk the recipient accidentally forwarding it to the wrong person?
Sending important, private messages via email is riddled with risk. Not only could someone forward your missive to someone you don't trust, but they could also hold onto it forever to one day use it against you.
Fortunately, Gmail has introduced a new feature to protect your sent messages. Google is adding a Gmail confidential mode to its list of features. Why would you need or use this feature? You can now send confidential information via email without worrying that the recipient will forward, copy, print or download the email. You will also be able to revoke previously sent messages or create expiration dates so the email can only be seen for a set amount of time. For added security, users can set SMS passcodes wherein recipients will get a passcode by text message to be able to access the email sent using the confidential mode. This will make it much easier to protect sensitive content.
This new functionality isn’t useful for everyone and certainly isn’t intended for everyday, general use. This is one of those features that sounds great on the surface but comes with some usability concerns. If the recipient views an email sent via confidential mode, they don’t see the body of the email unless they are also a Gmail user and view the email in their own Gmail account. If they are not using Gmail to view the message, all they get is a link to the message. They then need to go to the link, while logged into their Google account to view the message. If you select the SMS passcode option, they will need to be able to receive an SMS text with the passcode. So unless your recipient is tech savvy and patient enough to go along with these conditions, you'd be creating confusion or irritation.
For instructions on sending and opening confidential emails, visit https://tinyurl.com/y8jvf48m
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