How to use the confidential mode of Gmail and send emails that cannot be copied and self-destruct

Reminders about privacy never hurt and more so in these times. Many of the commonly used tools include measures focused on protecting the users, but they are not in the foreground and many are unaware. One of them is the confidential mode of Gmail, a function that has the purpose of being able to send messages and attachments while avoiding unauthorized access once they have been delivered to the destination email address.

To do this, the confidential mode allows you to set several safeguards. By activating it, the user can schedule messages to be deleted from the recipient’s inbox after a period of time that can be one day, one week, one month, three months or five years.

Once the period has elapsed, when the receiver tries to access the message, they will only find a notice indicating “this message has expired”, without being able to view the content or download any attachments it may have.

Emails in confidential mode are automatically protected with a password, generated by Google, that the sender can decide if it is sent by SMS or not. In the first case, any recipient of the message, regardless of whether they use Gmail or another email client, must enter the password received by SMS, which requires adding the recipient’s phone number when sending the email.

But if you choose the option No SMS password, the user who does not use Gmail will be sent a password by mail and he/she will be able to open the message directly.

To protect the confidential status of email, the options for copy, paste, download, print and forward the message text or attachments will be disabled, although this does not prevent you from taking a screenshot of the content.

Finally, the confidential mode also allows revoke access to an email and make it inaccessible for the recipient at the time we want, even if the established expiration date has not been met. To revoke a recipient’s access to sent confidential mail, the user must follow these steps:

• Open Gmail in the computer.
• In the menu on the left, click Sent.
• Open confidential mail.
• Click on remove access.

Access to Confidential Mode is easy and available on every new message you compose. You have to click on the padlock icon with a clock that appears in the toolbar next to the Submit button.

When doing so, a window opens in which the expiration of the email is configured and if it requires a password by SMS or not. Once the parameters have been established, click on Save, compose the confidential message and send it.