Earlier this year, Google started beta testing Gmail"s confidential mode for its G Suite customers. The feature was previously available to all users as an opt-in, but the company now seems confident enough about it that it"s announced the decision to turn confidential mode on by default for all users starting June 25.
Confidential mode, which has been available for personal accounts for almost a year now, adds a new layer of information rights management to emails. What this means is that you can set an email to automatically expire at a certain date or to revoke a recipient"s access to it at a later date. Confidential mode emails are also restricted from being forwarded, copied, downloaded or printed. This includes any attachments included within the email.
There"s even the option for something akin to two-factor authentication, whereby any email can be set up so that the recipient cannot open it unless they insert a special unlock code that"ll be sent to the recipient"s phone, making it less likely that an email sent to a hijacked account can be accessed by anyone other than the intended recipient.
The feature will be turned on by default in the admin console for G Suite starting June 25. If you can"t wait that long and want to try it out immediately, your admin can also turn it on via the ongoing beta. There will also be an option to disable the feature within the admin console.