To send a self-destructing confidential message in Gmail, you can use the Confidential Mode feature in Gmail that allows you to put an expiration date for your email or revoke it within a few clicks. This is to protect your sensitive information – such as account passwords, user data and personal information and more. When the Confidential Mode is activated, your email and attachments are not allowed to be forwarded, copied, printed or downloaded by recipient. As well, you can change your mind at any time about deciding to give access to them.
For writing a message in this mode, open Gmail and click Compose to create a new message. Select the lock icon with a clock at the bottom of your compose window to enable Confidential Mode. When it does, you can choose how long the message should be available —contacts have one day, one week or one month to read an iMessage; by default, screenshots are blocked on both ends — and after that time period has elapsed, the message is deleted from Apple’s servers. Once that selected amount of time is up it fades away from the recipient.
You may also want to go further and require a verification passcode. If the SMS Passcode option is selected, the recipient will receive a one-time verification code on his or her phone that he or she must input to read your message. If you choose No SMS Passcode, people with Gmail can enter the message right away while everyone else will be emailed a secure link to see its contents.
After you select your expiration setting and a passcode, tap Save and send the message. The recipient will receive a notice that the email is from Confidential Mode and he or she won’t be able to forward or cut and paste its content. If you change your mind, and decide later to revoke access, all you need to do is open the message in your Sent folder and select Remove Access — this will stop the recipient from being able to view it right away.
That can be ideal if you want close control over how sensitive information is safely shared or kept hidden from prying eyes. But it’s something of a misnomer: Gmail Confidential Mode can’t actually protect anyone’s emails (Attachments included) from being hacked, intercepted or just plain seen, because the technology behind Confidential doesn’t really include encryption. That would require emails to be encrypted in their entirety end-to-end and only readable by recipients who are authenticated (as opposed to unauthenticated web visitors), so they couldn’t take screenshots of messages or print them out. Instead, consider it more like a way to keep your personal information out of anyone else’s hands and I don’t mean secure company mythology headcanon or blow up in their face emailed secrets after so many hours.
Steps in simple manner :
Launch your Gmail account and then select Compose to open a new email.
In the compose window, you’ll find the lock shaped icon with a clock (it is similar to Outlook’s Do not forward button) at the bottom of it — click on this button to enable Confidential Mode.
In the Confidential Mode settings pop-up, select an expiration date for your email (ranging from 1 day to 5 years).
(Optional) Enter the recipient’s phone number to have extra security by letting passcode come through SMS. This means the recipient has to type in a code that is sent by SMS to access the message. It opens for Gmail users if you skip this.
Click Save to save settings, then write your message and click Send.
To remove access before it expires, navigate to the sent confidential email in your Sent mail folder and click Remove Access
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