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Edit: Removed my original write-up to double-check something, lost the write-up, retyped a tl;dr version. This is aimed at Enterprise, not individuals looking
by B-Con 7y ago
Edit: Removed my original write-up to double-check something, lost the write-up, retyped a tl;dr version.
This is aimed at Enterprise, not individuals looking for a Signal-like messaging platform.
"Confidential" e-mail implementations already exist in many places. Plenty of messages need to be e-mailed but the contents can't be inlined due to compliance. eg, medical systems send e-mail updates that are just a plain message but the e-mail is just a link to an auth portal and behind that is the actual message. Not great user experience.
But here, is G-Mail already has Google-grade auth and the same auth as Google Vault, so the document can be stored in Vault and in the e-mail the link and payload itself can be automatically swapped when sending or receiving. Smother user experience. eg, vertical product integration.
This is clearly targeted at Enterprise (G Suite, plus half the questions are about compliance). By default, Apps users are able to use this feature, although it can be disabled at the domain level by admins. It is not the actual sending of e-mails in this manner that's the default.
Put another way: If you don't see the point of the feature, you aren't the target audience. It's not trying to be Signal.
I just don't smell anything nefarious here.
Disclaimer: Am Googler, but unrelated to the project. Just heard about it now and have enough experience in this area that the feature's context seemed clear to me.
- fhbdukfrh 7y agoYou cannot be a employee of Google and "100% unrelated to this project". I understand you're not involved with it directly but you've obviously bought into the company, their mission and their methods. As far as tinfoil hats (thanks for the assumption that anyone skeptical of Google's intentions is a crackpot) if this was not a net gain for them and merely a feature for enterprise compliance, why are they turning it on fit all Google apps clients by default? Under your charitable scenario they could offer it to those who need it without impacting us crazies.
- B-Con 7y agoThat's close enough, in big company dynamics being in an unrelated arm can be farther away than some members of the public. Feels like a nit. I didn't imply every skeptic was donning tinfoil, but I saw a couple claims here and elsewhere in that range. The default setting is to allow e-mails to be sent confidentially, not to actually send them confidentially. Seems like a typical default. Here's a new feature, by default you're allowed to use it unless domain admins want to disable it.
- joshuamorton 7y agoI think you misunderstand what default means in this context. The admin console setting for "people in my org" is on by default. Individual emails aren't confidential by default. (I also work at Google, and technically on Gmail, although not on the product).