How to Encrypt Emails in Gmail, With Photos

Encryption is an essential component of modern life and something that all email users, especially businesses and employees, should grasp. By doing this, you can secure the information that you send and protect important communications. But, can you encrypt emails in Gmail, even if you don’t have a company email? Yes! We’re going to show you how.

Why Should You Encrypt Emails in Gmail?

Why is it so crucial to encrypt all emails? Doing so can protect your precious information, even if you’re not sending any critical information in a certain message. Hackers want to access valuable information like your credit card info or passwords so they can steal passwords to certain accounts. By encrypting your email, they’d have to sort through thousands of codes and other information for anything useful, making it harder for them to hack you.

What is Email Encryption?

Email encryption is simply a process that obscures the content of your emails, helping prevent unauthorized parties from reading them. When you send an encrypted email, your private information, including items like passwords and bank account details, won’t be exposed.

Luckily, all of the emails that you send through Gmail are automatically encrypted using the TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol. But, in case you’re sending emails to a service that doesn’t use TLS, here’s how to encrypt emails in Gmail for all recipients.

Step 1: Log In to Google

First, before you can send an encrypted email, you’ll want to log in to your Google email account. From there, you’ll want to compose a new message.

Step 2: Compose a New Message

As you usually do, you’ll compose an email, including your message, a subject, and to whom you’re sending the message. Once you’ve completed what you want to say in the message, you’ll need to set up the encryption.

Step 3: Locate the Confidential Button

To set up the email to be encrypted, your next step is to locate the confidential button. If you’re creating your email on a desktop or laptop, you’ll see it as a lock with a clock on it. Once you find that, you’ll need to click on it so the encryption pop-up shows.

If you’re sending an email via an app on your phone, you can still send an encrypted email, but you’ll need to press the three dots in the top right-hand corner, and choose the “Confidential mode” option.

Step 4: Fill Out the Pop-Up

This next step is simple but will be dependent on what you want to accomplish. First, you’ll want to set the expiry date — one week, one month, three months, or five years. Setting this date will mean that your email expires after that allotted time.

Next, you’ll choose whether you want your recipient to use an SMS passcode. This is not required but can add an extra level of security. If you have the person’s phone number, you can set up the SMS passcode for them to receive it via SMS. If not, the recipient will receive the password via email.

Step 5: Click Save

After you’ve filled out the pop-up, you’ll simply click save and you now have an encrypted email!

Step 6: Send Your Email

Last but not least, you can send your email. Once your recipient opens it, they’ll notice it is an encrypted email, as there will be a timer attached to it, and they won’t be able to download or forward the email. And yes, you can also schedule confidential emails, you just need to follow the steps to send an email later.

How To Enable S/MIME Encryption in Google Workspace.

Paid Gmail (Google Workspace) accounts Use S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension), but you can only use this service if both you and the recipient have it enabled. This is usually the case for employees whom all have Google Workspace.

To set this up, you’ll need to be in your Google Admin console, then go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > User settings. Then you’ll navigate to the domain or organization you want to set up with S/MIME, scroll down, and click “Enable S/MIMEencryption”. Then, Google will provide customized advice for the emails you plan to send, and you’ll set up the encryption accordingly. From there you’ll click save, and encrypted emails will be set up. Usually, you won’t need to do this on your end, especially if your company or business has tech support or tech employees. But it’s good to know just in case you have to!

How to Encrypt Emails in Gmail

While you’ll need to follow these steps each time you want to send an email in Gmail, encrypting your emails keeps you, and the receivers of your emails, safe. So, it’s always a great idea to follow the directions above to keep your emails safe from hackers.

For a quick visual walk-through of encrypting an email in Gmail, check out this video from FixMaster.

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The image featured at the top of this post is ©In Green/Shutterstock.com.