Gmail to warn you if your friends aren’t using secure e-mail
Found on Ars Technica on Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Google has confirmed a number of changes to Gmail with the arrival of two new features that will let you know if the people you’re corresponding with aren’t hip with TLS encryption.
In 2014, the company announced that its search engine would be using HTTPS as a ranking signal. A year after, it revealed it would be adjusting its indexing system to look for more HTTPS websites.
Of course, this does not enhance your privacy in any way, because the TLS encryption only scrambles the transmission itself, but not the actual content, so Google can still analyze your email for advertising. If you really want to be secure, use end-to-end encryption, like PGP/GnuPG or S/MIME.