Encryption of emails on Gmail will be available during a test phase, but under several conditions and only for users of the Workspace suite.
Google announced on December 16 a test phase for the encryption of its end-to-end emails (end-to-end encryption in English, or E2EE). This beta version will allow users of the Workspace professional suite to secure their message, but only subscribers to the Enterprise Plus, Education Plus and Education Standard versions will be able to request to try encryption. Eligible individuals can join the program on Google’s business site through January 20, 2023.
The principle of encryption is to ensure that only members of the same discussion can access its content – whether text, sound, video, image or any file. The body of the mail as well as the attachments are completely unreadable for the owner company, here Google.
This option will be activated by clicking on a “padlock” button to the right of the recipient. The upper banner of the mail window will turn blue, indicating that the message will be confidential. Encryption covers the message body and attachments, but not the subject or recipient lists.
An expensive technology
This option is already available for users of Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Google Meet and Google Calendar (beta).
Email encryption is a paid technology, few companies offer this service and some have established themselves as secure messaging references like Proton Mail. It’s also a revenue issue for Google, since the company captures keywords in emails for ad targeting. Little chance, therefore, that this service will be deployed for the general public one day.
