Make Gmail More Secure By Setting It to Use HTTPS Connection

A few days ago, 38 information security experts submitted a public letter to Google, asking it to make Gmail more secure. More specifically, they’ve asked Google “[to] protect users’ communications from theft and snooping by enabling industry standard transport encryption technology (HTTPS) for Google Mail, Docs, and Calendar.”

Google responded saying it is “looking into whether it would make sense to turn on HTTPS as the default for all Gmail users”

If you don’t want to wait for Google to take the decision you can change the connection type to the more secure one (HTTPS) by yourself.

Change the connection type to HTTPS

To use always HTTPS connection in Gmail, do as follow:

Click ’Settings‘ at the top of any Gmail page.
Set ‘Browser Connection‘ to ‘Always use https‘ (see image below)
Click ’Save Changes.’

A Screenshot of the browser conection settings in Gmail

choose ‘always use https‘

After changing the setting you’ll notice that the when in Gmail, the URL always starts with https rather than http (see image below). That indicates that your mail is encrypted when it travels between your web browser and Google’s servers.

A Screenshot of a Gmail page with an arrow pointing at the https at the begining of the address

the URL always starts with https

Might cause some problems

Using HTTPS have some known undesirable side effects. It causes errors to show up in Gmail for mobile application and Google Toolbar, the Gmail gadget for iGoogle doesn’t work, and Gmail Notifier works only after you download a patch (Learn more in Google’s HTTPS setting help page).

In any case, you can always change the setting back to the previous condition.

Get more tips and best practices about Gmail.