In today’s digitally-driven world, prioritizing privacy is paramount. Gmail offers a solution through its confidential mode feature, catering to both administrators and regular users alike.
For administrators: Gmail confidential mode is available across all Google Workspace editions. This mode empowers users to safeguard sensitive information by preventing unauthorized or accidental sharing. Users are restricted from forwarding, copying, printing, or downloading messages or attachments. Additionally, administrators have the flexibility to set message expiration dates, revoke messages at their discretion, and enhance security by requiring a verification code via text to access messages.
However, note that screenshots or photos of the messages can be taken.
You can turn Gmail confidential mode on or off for your organization by following these steps:
- Sign in to your Google admin console.
- Go to Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > User settings
- In user settings, scroll to Confidential mode.
- Uncheck or check the Enable confidential mode accordingly.
- Save your changes.
On the other hand, to turn Gmail confidential mode on or off for an organizational unit, you will have to select the organizational unit on the left after going to User settings. Scroll to confidential mode and check or uncheck the ‘Enable confidential mode’ box accordingly. Click Save.
You can also block incoming confidential mode messages from your domain, by following these steps:
- Sign in to your Google Admin console
- Go to Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Compliance
- Select the Content compliance setting and click Configure. If compliance rules already exist for other types of mail, point to any rule and click Add another rule.
- In the Add setting dialog, enter the following information:
- Enter a name for the rule
- In the Email messages to affect, check the Inbound box.
- From Add expressions, choose If any of the following match the message.
- In Expressions, click Add, and then select Metadata match.
- From the Attribute drop-down, choose Gmail confidential mode, and for Match type, choose Message is in Gmail Confidential mode.
- Click Save.
- After that, choose ‘Reject message’ in the next section, which identifies what to do if the expressions match.
- Set a custom rejection message which is automatically sent to the blocked message sender.
- Click Save.
It is to be noted that changes can take up to 24 hours to happen.
For Gmail Users:
With Gmail’s confidential mode, you can protect sensitive information in your messages and attachments from unauthorized access. You can set an expiration date for messages or revoke access whenever needed. Note that, recipients of the confidential message won’t have the options to forward, copy, print, and download.
You can send messages and attachments confidentially by following these steps:
- Log in to your Gmail account on your computer.
- Click compose.
- Click Toggle confidential mode on the bottom right of the window.
(If confidential mode is already turned on, go to the bottom of the email, then click Edit.
- Set an expiration date and passcode. This is applicable to the message text as well as attachments.
When selecting “No SMS passcode,” recipients using Gmail can access the email directly, while non-Gmail recipients will receive a passcode via email. Alternatively, opting for an SMS passcode will send the passcode directly to recipients via text message (you’ll need to provide the recipient’s phone number).
If you wish to revoke access early, simply open the confidential email and click on ‘Remove Access.’
You can view a confidential email sent to you until its expiration date or until the sender revokes access. However, you won’t have the option to copy, paste, download, print, or forward the message text or attachments. Depending on the settings, you might need to enter a passcode to access the email.