The technological boom is causing the vast majority of daily activities or tasks to be carried out through an online platform, since this favors the good performance of the tasks that are carried out both in organizations and in our homes.
However, this same trend has led to the issue of online security being a topic of great concern for the vast majority of users, because there are viruses such as Ransomware that tend to infect large companies or private users .
For this reason, the need arises to support or protect all the information that is handled, since it is very common to have to send data or information via email. In that case, Gmail has a tool that will allow you to send any information confidentially, both to configure it from your PC and your Android mobile .
Index( )
- What is confidential mode in an email?
- How to enter confidential mode to send messages
- From Windows PC or Mac
- On your Android or iPhone cell phone
- What steps should I follow to read emails sent in safe mode?
- How to attach images and files in safe mode
- Other settings for private mode that you can apply to Gmail
- Expiration of the message
- Request password
- Standard configuration
- Remove private mode
What is confidential mode in an email?
This is a method used to send sensitive information to another user , but in a secure way; In other words, you will have the guarantee that what is sent will reach the recipient without this information being leaked.
Since only the receiver will have the ability to open the mail with the documents or information that is sent, and you can even put a limit or expiration time of the message, it is something similar to sending emails and then self-destruct .
Another security factor that you should consider is that you will be able to generate a password or key that will be requested from the recipient of the message, so the level of confidentiality will increase more and more significantly with each item added. So don’t hesitate to use it to ensure the confidentiality of all your files.
On the other hand, if you want to increase the security level even more, it is always possible to encrypt folders and files , beforehand and then send the information with double security. Since this process basically consists of hiding a file or document , preventing it from being seen by other users.
Joining these two options will always be a good option, if you need to send very sensitive or delicate information via email, such as passwords to bank accounts or access to pages that handle important customer information, among others. So start implementing it now, to guarantee the confidentiality of your information and the contacts you have added.
How to enter confidential mode to send messages
The configuration of the confidential mode consists of adding the data of the receiver, that is, of the person who will receive the message. For this you will need their email address and additionally a contact mobile phone number if you consider it necessary.
In this case, the user who receives it must enter the email and request the code with the message that will arrive on their mobile device and by accessing the code they will be able to view what the email contains. In case you do not want to enable this option, the message will arrive directly, but the receiver will not be able to forward or edit the content that is in it.
From Windows PC or Mac
We simply go to Gmail, enter the email from which we want to send the message in safe mode and click on ‘Compose’. Once this window opens, in the lower section of inserting files, we go to the lock icon with a clock, and click. There we can modify message settings and save them to be sent.
On your Android or iPhone cell phone
Setting confidential mode is a very simple procedure, the first thing you have to do is enter your Gmail account from your smartphone and compose or write the email with the information you need to send.
Later you must select the three points that are in the upper right part of your screen. You will see that several options appear, among which Confidential Mode stands out , when you enter the section you will notice that there are several characteristics that you can modify, such as the expiration date and configure a password.
What steps should I follow to read emails sent in safe mode?
It is a very simple process that consists of the following steps:
- We enter Gmail and enter our data to open the mail.
- Once opened, we should find said message on the main ‘Inbox’ reel. If this is not the case, it is possible that Gmail has marked it as spam, so we go to the section and review.
- Once the email is viewed, it will give us a message that tells us that it is in confidential mode. We open the mail, and we can see the message.
With the current version of Gmail we can open confidential emails by following the same steps as with emails sent in normal mode. However, there are other email clients that require you to enter your Google credentials or even, if the sender has established it, you will have to enter a password sent by SMS.
How to attach images and files in safe mode
This mode does not disable the option to attach files or images for the sender, so the process for performing this task is the same as attaching files in normal mode . We simply click on the paper clip icon or the image icon, find the files in our file explorer, select and they will upload without problems.
The receiver will only have access to preview the files, without being able to download them. Likewise, it should be noted that the options to attach or download files are disabled for those who receive the mail in this mode.
Other settings for private mode that you can apply to Gmail
The private or confidential mode of Gmail gives us access to modify options regarding the mail to be sent, in order to personalize our message so that it can correctly meet our needs.
Expiration of the message
This option is established for a better management of privacy, limiting the availability of the message to a certain period of time.
When opening the Confidential Mode window, we see a section that says ‘Set expiration’ and under it a drop-down bar. We can modify the expiration limit with the default Gmail options, or enter a specific date.
Request password
In the options tab, we will see another section called ‘Require password’ where we can write a password to be registered and press the option ‘Password by SMS’; or, on the contrary, choose the option of ‘No password by SMS’, which will give direct access to the message to the recipient.
Standard configuration
Gmail’s confidential mode comes with a default configuration that could be adapted to our needs. The expiration is set to one week and the SMS password option is automatically disabled.
Remove private mode
Once we save the settings made in Confidential Mode, the message window will be marked in blue, and a message will appear that specifies the expiration date of the message and the implications of this mode.
To remove the private mode we simply click on the ‘X’ of this message , and the composition window will return to its initial color, which indicates that the private mode has been deactivated.
