all-in-one privacy solution":["Proton Unlimited es una solución de privacidad todo en uno"],"Black Friday":["Black Friday"],"No ads. Privacy by default.":["Sin anuncios. Privacidad por defecto."],"People before profits":["Primero las personas, luego los beneficios"],"Security through transparency":["Seguridad con transparencia"],"The best Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } deals":["Las mejores ofertas de Proton Mail en el ${ BLACK_FRIDAY }"],"The world’s only community- supported email service":["El único servicio de correo electrónico del mundo respaldado por la comunidad"]},"specialoffer:limited":{"${ hours } hour":["${ hours } hora","${ hours } horas"],"${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } and ${ secondsLeft } left":["Tiempo restante: ${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } y ${ secondsLeft }"],"${ minutes } minute":["${ minutes } minuto","${ minutes } minutos"],"${ seconds } second":["${ seconds } segundo","${ seconds } segundos"],"Limited time offer":["Oferta por tiempo limitado"]},"specialoffer:listitem":{"Create multiple addresses":["Cree múltiples direcciones"],"Hide-my-email aliases":["Seudónimos de hide-my-email"],"Quickly unsubscribe from newsletters":["Cancele suscripciones a boletines rápidamente"],"Use your own domain name":["Use su propio dominio"]},"specialoffer:logos":{"As featured in":["Tal como aparece en"]},"specialoffer:metadescription":{"Get an encrypted email that protects your privacy":["Obtenga un correo electrónico cifrado que protege su privacidad"]},"specialoffer:metatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday Sale - Up to 40% off":["Oferta de Black Friday de Proton Mail: hasta un 40% de descuento"]},"specialoffer:newmetadescription":{"Get up to 40% off Proton Mail subscriptions this Black Friday. Find great deals on our secure end-to-end encrypted email plans.":["Aproveche las rebajas de Black Friday y obtenga suscripciones de Proton Mail con hasta un 40 % de descuento. Encontrará las mejores ofertas en planes de correo electrónico seguro cifrado de extremo a extremo."]},"specialoffer:newmetatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday sale | Up to 40% off secure email":["Rebajas de Black Friday en Proton Mail | Hasta un 40 % de descuento en correo electrónico seguro"]},"specialoffer:note":{"* Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["*Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante el primer año"],"*Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["*Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante los primeros 2 años"],"30-day money-back guarantee":["Garantía de devolución de dinero de 30 días"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first 2 years":["Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante los primeros 2 años"],"Billed at ${ TOTAL_SUM } for the first year":["Con un costo de ${ TOTAL_SUM } durante el primer año"],"You save ${ SAVE_SUM }":["Ahorre ${ SAVE_SUM }"]},"specialoffer:off":{"${ DISCOUNT } off":["-${ DISCOUNT }"],"${ PERCENT_OFF } off":["-${ PERCENT_OFF }"]},"specialoffer:testimonial":{"I love my ProtonMail":["Amo mi Proton Mail"],"My favorite email service":["Mi servicio de correo electrónico favorito"],"Thanks Proton for keeping us all safe in the complicated internet universe.":["Gracias Proton por mantenernos a salvo en el complicado universo de Internet."],"You get what you pay for. In the case of big tech, if you pay nothing, you get used. I quit using Gmail and switched to @ProtonMail":["Obtiene aquello por lo que paga. En el caso de la gran tecnología, cuando uno no paga nada, se acostumbra. Dejé de usar Gmail y cambié a @ProtonMail"]},"specialoffer:time":{"Days":["Días"],"Hours":["Horas"],"Min":["min"]},"specialoffer:title":{"And much more":["Y mucho más"],"Make your inbox yours":["Personalice su bandeja de entrada"],"Safe from trackers":["A salvo de rastreadores"],"Stay organized":["Mantenga el orden"],"Black Friday email deals":["Ofertas en correo electrónico del Black Friday"],"Don’t just take our word for it":["No confíe solo en nuestra palabra"],"Our story":["Nuestra historia"],"Transfer your data from Google in one click":["Transfiera sus datos de Google con un solo clic"]},"specialoffer:tooltip":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, connect up to 10 devices, access worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Acceda a contenido bloqueado y navegue de forma privada. Incluye ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } servidores en más de ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } países, conecta hasta 10 dispositivos, acceda a servicios de transmisión en todo el mundo, malware y bloqueador de anuncios, y más."],"Easily share your calendar with your family, friends or colleagues, and view external calendars.":["Comparta su calendario con familiares, amigos y compañeros fácilmente y consulte calendarios externos."],"Includes support for 1 custom email domain, 10 email addresses, 10 hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Incluye compatibilidad con 1 dominio de correo electrónico personalizado, 10 direcciones de correo electrónico, 10 seudónimos de hide-my-email, posibilidad de compartir calendario, etc."],"Includes support for 3 custom email domains, 15 email addresses, unlimited hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Incluye compatibilidad con 3 dominios de correo electrónico personalizado, 15 direcciones de correo electrónico, seudónimos ilimitados de hide-my-email, posibilidad de compartir calendario, etc."],"Manage up to 25 calendars, mobile apps, secured with end-to-end encryption, 1-click calendar import from Google, and more.":["Administre hasta 25 calendarios, apps móviles, protegido con cifrado de extremo a extremo, importación de calendario con 1 clic desde Google y más."]},"Status Banner":{"At the moment we are experiencing issues with the Proton VPN service":["En este momento, tenemos problemas con el servicio Proton VPN."],"Learn more":["Más información"]},"Status banner":{"Learn more":["Más información"],"Please note that at the moment we are experiencing issues with the ${ issues[0] } service.":["Tenga en cuenta que, en este momento, estamos experimentando problemas con el servicio ${ issues[0] }."],"We are experiencing issues with one or more services at the moment.":["En este momento, tenemos problemas con uno o más servicios."]},"suggestions":{"Suggestions":["Sugerencias"]},"Support":{"Sub category":["Subacategoria","Subcategorías"]},"Support article":{"${ readingTime } min":["${ readingTime } minuto","${ readingTime } minutos"],"Category":["Categoría","Categorías"],"Didn’t find what you were looking for?":["¿No encontró lo que buscaba?"],"General contact":["Contacto general"],"Get help":["Obtener ayuda"],"Legal contact":["Contacto legal"],"Media contact":["Contacto para medios"],"Partnerships contact":["Contacto para colaboradores"],"Reading":["Lectura"]},"Support categories":{"Browse Proton product support":["Explore el soporte de productos de Proton"]},"Support category":{"There is no article in this category yet.":["Todavía no hay ningún artículo en esta categoría."]},"Support troubleshooting":{"--- Select ---":["--- Seleccionar ---"],"App version":["Versión de la app"],"Browser":["Navegador"],"Check if this helps":["Compruebe si le sirve"],"Choose a category for your question":["Elija la categoría de su pregunta"],"Choose a product":["Elija un producto"],"Did this solve your issue ?":["¿Resolvió su problema?"],"Faster assistance is just a few clicks away — please make your selections":["Obtenga ayuda más rápidamente con tan solo unos clics. Haga su selección."],"No, contact support":["No, contactar a soporte"],"Proton account":["Cuenta de Proton"],"Proton Bridge":["Proton Bridge"],"Proton Calendar":["Calendario de Proton"],"Proton Drive":["Proton Drive"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Proton Mail":["Correo de Proton"],"Proton Pass":["Proton Pass"],"Proton VPN":["VPN de Proton"],"Thank you for your feedback":["Gracias por sus comentarios"],"Troubleshooting":["Solución de problemas"],"What can we help with ?":["¿En qué podemos ayudar?"],"Yes":["Sí"]},"support_modal_search_query":{"Search query":["Consulta"]},"support_search_button":{"Search":["Buscar"]},"support_search_i_am_looking_for":{"I'm looking for":["Busco"]},"SupportForm":{"For a faster resolution, please report the issue from the Bridge app: Help > Report a problem.":["Para una resolución más rápida, reporte el problema desde la app Bridge: Ayuda > Reportar un problema."],"Information":["Información"]},"SupportForm:option":{"Account Security":["Seguridad de la cuenta"],"Contacts":["Contactos"],"Custom email domain":["Dominio de correo electrónico personalizado"],"Email delivery and Spam":["Entrega de correo electrónico y spam"],"Encryption":["Cifrado"],"Login and password":["Inicio de sesión y contraseña"],"Merge aliases and accounts":["Combinar alias y cuentas"],"Migrate to Proton":["Migrar a Proton"],"Notifications":["Notificaciones"],"Other":["Otros"],"Plans and billing":["Planes y facturación"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Sign up":["Regístrese"],"Storage":["Almacenamiento"],"Users, addresses, and identities":["Usuarios, direcciones e identidades"]},"SupportForm:optionIntro":{"Select a topic":["Seleccione un tema"]},"swiss_baseed_feature":{"Swiss based":["Con sede en Suiza"]},"Testimonial":{"Awards":["Premios"],"Customers":["Clientes"],"Featured":["Destacados"],"Go to testimonial source":["Ir a la fuente testimonial"],"Reviews":["Reseñas"],"Videos":["Videos"]},"Text":{"Find the plan that's right for you":["Encuentre el plan adecuado para usted"],"If you need help, check out our ${ supportLink }.":["Si necesita ayuda, consulte nuestra ${ supportLink }."],"The page you’re looking for might have been removed, or it could be an\nold link.":["Es posible que la página que busca haya sido eliminada o que sea un\nenlace antiguo."]},"Title":{"On this page":["En esta página"],"Related articles":["Artículos relacionados"],"Share ${ thisPage }":["Compartir ${ thisPage }"],"Thank you!":["¡Gracias!"],"this page":["esta página"]},"Tooltip":{"More information":["Más información"]},"tooltip_calendar":{"Create up to 20 custom & shareable encrypted calendars. On top of that, add up to 5 calendars from friends, family, colleagues, and organizations.":["Cree hasta 20 calendarios personalizados, compartibles y cifrados. Agregue hasta 5 calendarios de amigos, familiares, colegas y organizaciones."]},"tooltip_vpn":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, highest VPN speed, ${ TOTAL_VPN_CONNECTIONS } VPN connections, worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Acceda a contenido bloqueado y navegue en privado. Tendrá a su disposición más de ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } servidores en más de ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } países, VPN de máxima velocidad, ${ TOTAL_VPN_CONNECTIONS } conexiones VPN, servicios de streaming en todo el mundo, bloqueadores de malware y de anuncios, y mucho más."],"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, highest VPN speed, 10 VPN connections, worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Acceda a contenido bloqueado y navegue en privado. Tendrá a su disposición más de ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } servidores en más de ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } países, VPN de máxima velocidad, 10 conexiones VPN, servicios de streaming en todo el mundo, bloqueadores de malware y de anuncios, y mucho más."]},"version_history_label":{"Version history":["Historial de versiones"]},"version_history_tooltip":{"Store up to ${ versionHistoryNumber } versions of each file for up to ${ years } years":["Comparta hasta ${ versionHistoryNumber } versiones de cada archivo hasta durante ${ years } años"]},"vpn_features_link":{"View VPN plans":["Ver planes de VPN"]},"vpn_features_useCase":{"Access blocked content and browse privately":["Acceda a contenido bloqueado y navegue de forma privada"]}}},"unleashApi":"https://account.proton.me/api"};
// We need to import data (the framework context) from the server
// This Astro feature with define:vars works well but creates an inline script
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Gmail confidential mode is not secure or private | Proton
Without end-to-end encryption, Gmail confidential mode is little more than a marketing strategy. Learn why privacy experts call Google’s privacy features “misleading.”
When we launched Proton Mail nearly five years ago, we pioneered a new kind of email service: one that gives you control of your own data. All emails are end-to-end encrypted(new window) and zero-access encrypted(new window), meaning not even we can read them. We also offer the ability to set expiring emails, which self-destruct after a period of time chosen by the sender.
Several years later, Google tried to integrate some of these same features into Gmail with “confidential mode.” Even though Google launched confidential mode over a year ago, people are still confused about what it does. Is it actually secure or private? Is it encrypted? When you turn it on, does it prevent Google from reading your messages? The answer to these questions is ‘no.’ In fact, the decision to call it “confidential” suggests a level of security and privacy that doesn’t exist in Gmail confidential mode.
Gmail’s confidential mode does not mean your messages are end-to-end encrypted. Google can still read them. Expiring messages aren’t erased for good, and the recipient can always take a screenshot of your message. Let’s take a closer look at how confidential mode works and why it isn’t so confidential after all.
What does Gmail’s confidential mode do?
Gmail unveiled confidential mode in April 2018 with its last major inbox redesign. The feature lets users optionally activate confidential mode from within the composer.
When you turn on confidential mode, a panel appears which gives you two options. The first lets you choose when you want the email to expire so that the recipient can no longer read it (you can also revoke access to sent mail at any time). A second option allows you to require the recipient to enter a passcode to access the message. Google generates the passcode and sends it to the recipient’s phone via SMS, so you need to know your recipient’s phone number. Additionally, emails sent in confidential mode cannot be forwarded, copied, downloaded, or printed.
The problems with confidential mode
Gmail’s confidential mode does not make emails private because Google can always read them. When you send an email with confidential mode turned on, Google keeps the email contents on its servers. If you send a confidential email to other Gmail users, they can read the email in their inbox, but emails to outside users contain only a notification that a sender “has sent you an email via Gmail confidential mode” along with a link to a page on google.com. (This is similar to Proton Mail’s Password-protected Emails(new window) feature.)
Once the email expires, it is no longer accessible to the recipient. But the message remains in the sender’s sent folder, which Google can also read. This is not an expiring email. It can still be accessed by Google and potentially exposed to governments or hackers. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation pointed out(new window), “Because messages sent with Confidential Mode are still retrievable—by the sender and by Google—after the ‘expiration date,’ we think that calling them expired is misleading.”
The passcode option is a further privacy invasion. If you choose to set a passcode for your recipient, you must turn over their private phone number to Google. If you are sending a message to a Gmail user, Google likely already knows their phone number from reading their emails or from other Google products. But if you send a passcode-protected email to a non-Google user, you have just allowed the company to link that individual’s phone number to their email address as well as whatever sensitive information is in your message. This is an effective way for Google to gather information about people, who likely have refused to use their service to avoid just such data collection. It also means Google knows quite a bit about your supposedly confidential email.
The other supposed security benefit of confidential mode is the inability of the recipient to forward, copy, download, or print the email. “This helps reduce the risk of confidential information being accidentally shared with the wrong people,” Google says. While it’s true this may reduce the risk of accidental data exposure, it is not real security. The recipient can simply take a screenshot of the email. “I was able to easily make a screenshot and paste it into a new email and send it to a friend,” wrote one reviewer(new window) for Inc. “It takes about 10 seconds. Anyone who uses MS Paint can figure it out.”
How Proton Mail is different from Gmail confidential mode
When you send an email from your Proton Mail email address to another Proton Mail user, the message is encrypted on your device using the public key of your recipient. This happens automatically, every time. When you hit send, the email travels to your recipient in encrypted form. The recipient then decrypts the message with their corresponding private key.
Because we do not have access to the recipient’s private key, we are never able to read the message. We do have access to metadata, like the email addresses, timestamp, and subject line. (It’s a bit like locking a vault with your friend’s key and then mailing it to them. You can read a full explanation of how end-to-end encryption works(new window).)
Proton Mail also lets you send end-to-end encrypted emails to non-Proton Mail accounts (such as your friends and family on Gmail, to prevent Google from reading your messages to them). Similar to Gmail confidential mode, this works by using a passcode as well. The difference is that with Proton Mail, you can choose the password yourself and communicate it to your recipient however you’d like. Moreover, the message is end-to-end encrypted, and we cannot read it.
Finally, Proton Mail also offers the ability to send expiring emails, except in our case, the emails really do disappear after the expiration time. This works both for emails sent to other Proton Mail users and to non-Proton Mail addresses (provided you set a password for the latter).
Of course, it is possible to forward, copy, download, and print Proton Mail emails. But again, this is also possible in Gmail confidential mode just by taking a screenshot. To advertise this benefit as a “security feature” misleads users into a false sense of security.
Without end-to-end encryption, Gmail’s confidential mode is little more than a marketing trick designed to pacify users concerned about privacy. Fortunately, you don’t need to settle for fake privacy. You can join the more than 10 million people using Proton Mail to secure their communications.
Proton Mail and Proton VPN are funded by community contributions. If you would like to support our development efforts, you can upgrade to a paid plan(new window). Thank you for your support.
Secure, seamless communication is the foundation of every business. As more
organizations secure their data with Proton, we’ve dramatically expanded our
ecosystem with new products and services, from our password manager to Dark Web
Monitoring for cr
On the subject of cybersecurity, one term that often comes up is brute force
attack. A brute force attack is any attack that doesn’t rely on finesse, but
instead uses raw computing power to crack security or even the underlying
encryption.
In this a
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has become notorious as
the legal justification allowing federal agencies like the NSA, CIA, and FBI to
perform warrantless wiretaps, which sweep up the data of hundreds of thousands
of US citi
In response to the growing number of data breaches, Proton Mail offers a feature
to paid subscribers called Dark Web Monitoring. Our system checks if your
credentials or other data have been leaked to illegal marketplaces and alerts
you if so. Often
Your email address is your online identity, and you share it whenever you create
a new account for an online service. While this offers convenience, it also
leaves your identity exposed if hackers manage to breach the services you use.
Data breaches
Our mission at Proton is to help usher in an internet that protects your privacy
by default, secures your data, and gives you the freedom of choice.
Today we’re taking another step in this direction with the launch of our open
source password manage