[Jaruzel]

> Things like unprintable email is a bad joke. Unprintable? What if I connect to Gmail with mutt? It gives the sense of a false security.

I'm not a GMail user, but can someone explains how this 'security' feature works? If a GMail user creates a 'secure' email and sends it to a non-GMail recipient (so it goes over SMTP/TLS), how is the DRM enforced at the other end. I know MS Outlook has DRM features.. but are they compatible with GMail's ?

[mseebach]

It's not "secure" and it's not "enforced", at least not in the strict senses of those words. It's a protection against accidents and carelessness, sensitive information being reply-all'd around in long threads that people aren't reading anymore, the accidental forward to an external party.

Many organisations for whom this is an attractive feature, have long had policies around emailing sensitive information, instead links are emailed, and securing access to the information is handled by the application. If the link is forwarded to the wrong person, all they can see is a login screen.

[amoshi]

If you for example send an expiring email, the recipient will receive an email with a link to some online storage where this expiration will be enforced, the email itself won't contain the content.

[shaklee3]

Gmail is the only one that displays it as an email. All other clients and servers will just see it as a link. That's how they handle the self-destruction.