People want their privacy online. Companies hear the message\nloudly and clearly. Some of them have gone the extra mile to protect their\nusers. Others have slapped misleading labels on things and hoped the casual\ninternet user wouldn\u2019t really check. It\u2019s deceptive at best and malicious at\nworst. If you\u2019ve been relying on confidential mode, you\u2019re in for a rude\nawakening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How\nConfidential Mode Works<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Confidential mode is an optional feature in Gmail that allows\nusers to put a password on an email or employ a self destruct mode that claims\nto eradicate the email after a certain amount of time. Confidential mode knocks\nout some of the features present in a traditional email. It takes away the ease\nof copying, forwarding, downloading or printing messages and their attachments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Users will also be able to require SMS code verification to\naccess confidential mode emails and be given the ability to revoke access to\nthose emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve ever used something like the Wickr app for private\nmessaging, it sounds like Google took a page from their book. It\u2019s easy to talk\nabout how great all of these features sound in theory. In reality, they do\nabsolutely nothing thanks to Google\u2019s somewhat terrifying privacy policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why\nConfidential Mode Isn\u2019t Private<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite all of these futuristic sounding features,\nconfidential mode doesn\u2019t actually do much. All of these fancy new buttons and\noptions might serve wonderfully as an added bonus to end-to-end encryption, but\nconfidential mode provides no such thing. Without encryption, how can anyone\nascertain that something is truly private?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Combine the lack of encryption with the fact that Google can\nstill read and record absolutely everything you send anyway, and confidential\nmode is a disaster. Confidential mode doesn\u2019t even constitute a person\u2019s\nreasonable expectation of confidentiality, let alone privacy. When broken down,\nconfidential mode\u2019s features aren\u2019t much different from the features utilized\nby apps like Snap Chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google has a long and complicated history of being\nintrusive, collecting data, and profiling their users. They save everything\nabout you \u2013 including your confidential mode emails. This should be alarming to\nanyone who values their privacy online. Google is doing more than just\nmisleading users \u2013 it\u2019s outright lying to users who aren\u2019t tech savvy or\nfamiliar with privacy trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Encryption\nis Necessary for True Confidentiality<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply put, the only way to keep things out of the hands of\npeople who have no right to see them is by encryption. Encryption is like a\ndigital lock and key. End-to-end encryption guarantees that no third party,\neven the service provider through which the information is exchanged, will have\naccess to the contents of the email. Google\u2019s unwillingness to offer\nencryption, but instead make a spectacle of the charade of encryption, should\nbe off-putting to anyone who expects privacy online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n