Living in the future means we often get news a day after, but as it’s Safer Internet Day in the US, Google has today announced they will begin notifying you about emails that aren’t able to be sent securely.
Google routinely encrypts your emails sent using Transport Layer Security (TLS), but not all email services are created equal and so some emails aren’t encrypted and from today Google will be telling you all about it. When you send an email to a recipient using a service that doesn’t support TLS, a popup will appear to make sure you know about it before you send.
Further, Google is watching incoming mail and will alert you if the sender of an email you just received can’t be verified. If Google isn’t sure about the sender, you’ll see a change in their avatar from a profile photo, avatar or their corporate logo to a question mark.
With more than a billion active monthly users of Gmail, Google has a vested interest in keeping market share and to do that offering the best security tools available is one way to do it. These latest updates are more about making you think before you send or read an email, but if you really are putting on that tin-foil hat, perhaps it’s time to look at PGP or other encrypted email services out there.
