Update: May 29, 2019 — Google has announced that Gmail confidential mode will become generally available for all G Suite users from June 25, 2019. It will be set to default ON, but you can choose to disable this feature.
Earlier: In general, the control over your email is lost once you click on send! Having said that, Gmail’s new Confidential Mode tries to give you a bit of control back by offering message expiration dates.
What is Confidential mode?
With confidential mode, it’s easier to protect sensitive content in your emails by creating expiration dates or revoking previously sent messages, and removing options for recipients to forward, copy, print, and download.
To make it more simple, this mode lets you add ‘expiration date’ to emails, post which the email is no longer viewable by the recipient. This mode helps reduce the risk of confidential information being accidentally shared with the wrong people.
Additionally, you can also require additional authentication via text message to view an email.
In case of Admin can opt-in to the beta by going to the Admin console and navigating to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Gmail > User settings. Here they will be able to select the option to Enable confidential mode.
At present, the Gmail confidential mode will:
- Allow users to set an expiration date for messages or revoke access at any time.
- Disable options to forward, copy, print, and download the email body and attachments.
- Allow users to set SMS passcodes wherein recipients will get a passcode by text message to be able to access the email sent using confidential mode.
- Let users choose to remove access early before the expiration date.
Additionally, if your users send or receive messages in Gmail confidential mode, Vault will retain, preserve, search and export confidential mode messages.