Gmail confidential mode is not secure or private

Post by hrwo3123 » Fri, Jun 21, 2019, 4:55 PM UTC

mulmen wrote: post #51

dewey wrote: post #30

> It can still be accessed by Google and potentially exposed to governments or hackers. The article makes the classic mistake of assuming everyone has the full security apparatus of a country after them. This feature is obviously not built as an alternative to Signal or for the Snowdens of this world. These probably know better than using unencrypted email already. For the average user it's an improvement of the curr…

So you reference Snowden then pretend dragnet surveillance doesn't exist? If you are on the internet the NSA is spying on you and everyone else. This is not an improvement because it makes guarantees that simply aren't true. These compromises are made to further Google's bottom line, not protect users. Don't pretend this is some kind of incremental improvement. It's a marketing gimmick.

Post by Avamander » Fri, Jun 21, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #133

dheera wrote: post #3

"Options for recipients to forward, copy, print, or download this email's contents will be disabled." I simply don't understand how they think they can get away with this foolishness. I can forward, copy, print, or download ANYTHING that passes over my ethernet cables. Your silly UI will ultimately never stop me from wiresharking my own cables in my own home and doing whatever the hell I want with any bits of informa…

> Your silly UI will ultimately never stop me from wiresharking my own cables in my own home and doing whatever the hell I want with any bits of information that enter my space. Their silly UI won't, but what about HTTPS? Won't wiresharking your own cables only get you the ciphertext from the HTTPS session which would be useless to you without the ephemeral key?

Post by UnFleshedOne » Fri, Jun 21, 2019, 5:03 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #66

dheera wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So open the e-mail on a Kindle, or put an antiglare screen in front of your phone, or just take a picture of one phone with another phone if the screenshot button doesn't work . I do remember some app not "letting" me screenshot something with stock Android, which I felt to be a violation of my freedom. Obviously in my case just use a modified Android ROM without the silly anti-screenshotting logic, or screenshot it…

> I do remember some app not "letting" me screenshot something with stock Android, which I felt to be a violation of my freedom. Bank apps tend to do that. When I first hit this issue, it also felt like a violation of my freedom, and it was also very annoying because I badly needed to make that screenshot.

Post by icedchai » Fri, Jun 21, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

privateSFacct wrote: post #124

Wow, marketing spam from a competitor. We send confidential docs regularly to users, who need access to those docs for perhaps 1 week at most. No one wants / needs to keep these around, but no one goes through their email carefully to delete these items. If that users email was hacked -> they have a big problem. If we can mark the items for a 3 week retention and then expire those items for them, that great - and thi…

Post by notimetorelax » Fri, Jun 21, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #147

privateSFacct wrote: post #124

Wow, marketing spam from a competitor. We send confidential docs regularly to users, who need access to those docs for perhaps 1 week at most. No one wants / needs to keep these around, but no one goes through their email carefully to delete these items. If that users email was hacked -> they have a big problem. If we can mark the items for a 3 week retention and then expire those items for them, that great - and thi…

These sort of features are really just security theater. If someone really wants to share your "confidential" docs they'll screenshot every page to do it.