Reply to post: Re: We're the only one...

Re: We're the only one...

Except of course, the account points out that the far end are demanding clear messaging and Google want to advise senders that their message to such far ends will be sent clear because of this far end situation.

So however much you might like to troll Google do have a fail for this one.

I disagree, the OP was merely (and correctly) pointing out that Google talking about email security is more smoke and mirrors than reality. Let me clarify.

Why do we want email security? Because we want EVERYONE (not just any evil government agency, but EVERYONE) to keep their fingers out of our private life.

What is the very first thing that happens when email lands at Google, via encrypted means or not?

It gets read by Google. There are two problems with that:

1 - despite all the frantic flag waving post Safe Harbor, the fact remains that Google is a US company which can give you at best a vague idea where your data resides. It is thus subject to US "please come and get it if you can make a profit of it" laws which have more or less abandoned the rights as once envisaged by their own Fourth Amendment, let alone our still more or less functioning EU derivatives of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights no 13.

2 - YOU may have agreed to Google's terms, but *I* have not, and neither have any of the other people that send you email. Google scans your inbox, which will include people not using Gmail - it does so without a SHRED of permission of the senders, but Google uses you to scrape data off your correspondents. You may find it interesting in this context to know that only Google gives itself the right to hang on to that data forever, even Facebook does not do that. Google have taken great care to remove the word "perpetuity" from later versions of their Terms of Service, but the net effect of what you agree to still amounts to the same: you have agreed to have a spotty nerd from Silicon Valley peek over your shoulder and keep whatever he finds, forever.

So, back to the original topic: Google talking about email security is cute, but it does not make them safer. As a matter of fact, if you're an EU company using Gmail or one of the various groups in UK government that have unwisely switched to Google (Cabinet Office and, unbelievably, part of HMRC) you may actually be breaking Data Protection laws now that US protections as prescribed by Safe Harbor are no longer considered "adequate".