Google Updating Gmail to Allow Enterprise Users to Send End-to-End Encrypted Emails Across Platforms

Google is enabling its enterprise users to easily send end-to-end encrypted emails via Gmail. Announced on Wednesday, the Mountain View-based tech giant said that it has made progress in implementing the Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) protocol in an easier way to allow users to send encrypted email to others on Gmail as well as on other email clients. The company said this will allow even those businesses that do not have large IT infrastructure to send encrypted emails with ease.

Gmail Is Making It Easier to Send Encrypted Emails

In a blog post, Google detailed the new privacy feature for its email client. With this, eligible users will be able to send end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) emails to any user on any email inbox with a couple of steps. Notably, this is not being implemented from just Gmail's side, but the emails are protected using encryption keys controlled by the user. These keys will not be available to Google servers to ensure privacy and security.

The tech giant said that this new capability will require minimal effort for both IT teams and end users, and it will be added largely from Google's end. The encryption feature is currently being rolled out in a phased manner in beta. At release, enterprise users will only be able to send encrypted emails to Gmail users in their own organisation. However, in the coming weeks, the company will expand it so that all email clients can receive end-to-end encrypted emails.

When the recipient of the email is a Gmail user, the client will automatically decrypt it in the inbox without requiring the user to take any additional action. However, if the recipient is not a Gmail user, they will get an invitation from Google to use a guest Google Workspace account, and they can view the email in a restricted environment.

Google said that beyond E2EE protection for emails, it is also adding several other security features in Gmail. These include the CSE default mode that allows IT admins to set E2EE messages as the default setting, Classification labels to help users understand email sensitivity, and the data loss prevention (DLP) tool to allow users to automatically apply labels to emails and take actions based on the selected label.