Best answer: Unfortunately, this is not possible for most of us. Only paid Google accounts can use the built-in encryption, and the rest of us need additional software. However, it is still not easy.
Encryption is important when it comes to your private conversations. You probably have nothing to hide and I get that – I don’t really care if anyone knows that I texted my wife to remind her to bring butter home or if I emailed a company for tech support. But I still want encryption as an option, and so do you.
Web-based email like Gmail just isn’t encryption-friendly. I’m talking about end-to-end encryption here, where email is protected so that only the intended recipient can open it. Gmail is encrypted in transit using the TLS standard, but once it reaches a server, it’s there in plaintext. Think of email as the modern version of a postcard.
(Image credit: Jay Bonggolto / Android Central)
There are two ways to enable encryption in Gmail, but one is only available to paying customers. For Enterprise or Education accounts, you can enable S/MIME.
You will need access to the Google Admin Console with administrative credentials where you can enable hosted S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) for the account and each message will be skilled encrypted along with any attachments.
The recipient must also have S/MIME enabled on their end, otherwise it will be treated as a regular email. S/MIME is a standard, so many large companies use it for email and programs like Outlook fully support it, but it’s still not an ideal situation.
The free way
(Image credit: Mail Envelope)
While you can enable encryption in Gmail through third-party software, the recipient must also use the same third-party software. That’s not something specific to Gmail or Google: if you encrypt something on one side, you need to be able to decrypt it on the other side to access it.
Fortunately, it is very easy to enable it using software that uses the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption method. A good and easy way to do that is to install the Mailvelope browser extension and go through a simple installation process. The rest is automatic.
As mentioned, the recipient must also be able to decrypt a message using PGP and have your public key “on file”. The easiest way is they also install Mailvelope, but there are other free software that can encrypt and decrypt using PGP.
Another downside is that this only works for desktop Gmail – you don’t use it on your phone.
A better way
(Image credit: Jay Bonggolto / Android Central)
The best way to have a private conversation is to use software that has end-to-end encryption by default.
I use Signal, but WhatsApp, Telegram and other third-party messengers are cross-platform and keep everything secure. It’s probably easier to get someone to install WhatsApp than it is to try and use encryption with web-based email.
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