‘Confidential Mode’ in Gmail, a new feature that launches self-destructing emails.
Gmail has recently made public, a new feature that is termed as ‘Confidential Mode’. The receiver is sent emails that are self-destructed after some particular extent of time, by special configuration. Through this feature, after the email is sent, access to it could also be restricted.
Once the confidential mode is fixed and an email is sent, the configurations like the expiry of the mail, the self-destruction and the requirement of a password for it, can all be set. All the email providers support this feature, the actual mail that is confidential is not sent, instead, a mail with a link to the Google servers, which would in turn host the email is sent. The expiration for the emails ranges from a day to 5 years.
Google asks one to login in order to confirm the identity, the very moment the receiver gets on that link. This is done to ensure that it is the person who was intended for the email. Id the login credentials are fine, the email is visible, and otherwise, the success is totally blocked.
The availability of the mail to the receiver is exclusively under the command of the sender. As the Google servers host the email and not the user’s email programs, it becomes all the easier for this feature to function smoothly.
The feature is accessible through the web and the mobile app version of Gmail. For the ‘Webmail’ users, a normal email is to be composed, then the lock button is to be clicked which would, in turn, open the settings page where the rest of the configurations like expiry date and the password requirement could be made and the ‘Confidential Mode’ is set.
Whereas for the mobile app users, after the mail is composed, the (…) menu is to be selected, then the confidential mode is to be selected which would further open up the configuration settings.
It’s needless to comment on the utility of the feature but it must be taken into consideration that a screenshot of the mail could easily be clicked, so the entire thing is not as secure as it seems.
According to sources, this could be the means for some potential phishing acts.
