Gmail privacy rating

Summary

Gmail scores 41 out of 100 (grade D) on the email providers criteria. It meets 7 of 19 criteria: transparency report, tells users about requests, security headers, open protocols, IMAP support, POP3 support and SMTP submission. It partly meets independent audit, TLS configuration, encrypted mailbox storage and custom domains. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, end-to-end encryption, sign up without personal data, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade B and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade A+.

Score 41 out of 100. How scoring works

Criteria

• ✖No

  Open source ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Is all the source code needed to run the product public?

  Closed source.

• ✖No

  No trackers or telemetry ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?

  Google collects activity data across its services and uses it for analytics and personalized ads.

  policies.google.com

• ✖No

  No ads or data sales ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?

  The free service shows ads.

  policies.google.com

• ◐Partial

  Independent audit ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?

  Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, has third-party SOC 2 audits. Only the SOC 3 summary report is public.

  cloud.google.com

• ✔Yes

  Transparency report ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?

  Publishes counts of government requests for user data and how often data is disclosed, updated twice a year.

  transparencyreport.google.com

• ✔Yes

  Tells users about requests ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?

  Google emails the user before disclosing information unless legally prohibited or in emergencies.

  policies.google.com

• ✖No

  End-to-end encryption ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Can mail be end-to-end encrypted so that the provider cannot read message contents?

  Personal Gmail accounts have no end-to-end encryption. Client-side encryption and S/MIME are limited to some Google Workspace business plans.

• ◐Partial

  Encrypted mailbox storage ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Is stored mail encrypted with a key the provider does not hold?

  Data is encrypted at rest with keys Google holds.

  docs.cloud.google.com

• ✔Yes

  Open protocols ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Can any standard app connect over IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV, without extra software?

  IMAP and SMTP work with other apps.

  support.google.com

• ◐Partial

  Custom domains ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?

  Custom domains require a paid Google Workspace business plan.

  workspace.google.com

• ✖No

  Sign up without personal data ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Can an account be created without a phone number or another email address?

  Sign-up requires a birthday and gender. Adding a phone number is optional in the documented flow.

  support.google.com

• ✖No

  Sender Rewriting Scheme ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Is the envelope sender rewritten with SRS when mail is forwarded, so forwarded mail keeps passing SPF?

  No published documentation on SRS for forwarded mail.

• ✖No

  ARC sealing ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the provider validate and add ARC (RFC 8617) signatures, so authentication results survive forwarding?

  Google's documentation explains ARC but does not state that Gmail validates or adds ARC seals.

  knowledge.workspace.google.com

Automated tests

• ◐Partial

  TLS configuration ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?

  Grade B

  ssllabs.com

• ✔Yes

  Security headers ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?

  Grade A+ (110/100+)

  developer.mozilla.org

• …Not tested yet

  Modern web standards ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?

  Not tested yet.

• …Not tested yet

  Email security standards ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the mail domain score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl email test?

  Not tested yet.

• ✔Yes

  IMAP support ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the IMAP server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 993 and advertise IMAP4rev1 or IMAP4rev2 with IDLE push?

  imap.gmail.com:993 (implicit TLS). IMAP4rev1 advertised with IDLE.

• ✔Yes

  POP3 support ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the POP3 server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 995 and answer CAPA with UIDL?

  pop.gmail.com:995 (implicit TLS). CAPA: USER, RESP-CODES, EXPIRE, LOGIN-DELAY, TOP, UIDL, X-GOOGLE-RICO, SASL.

• ✔Yes

  SMTP submission ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does mail submission work over implicit TLS on port 465 with SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH?

  smtp.gmail.com:465 (implicit TLS). SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH advertised.

• ✖No

  Mail transport security ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Does the mail domain enforce encrypted, authenticated delivery with MTA-STS, DANE, DNSSEC, TLS-RPT and an enforced DMARC policy?

  Passes: SPF, MTA-STS enforce, TLS-RPT. Missing: DMARC none, DNSSEC, DANE none.

Email standards

• ✔Yes: Mail serversMXalt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com, alt4.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com, alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com, gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com, alt3.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com
• ✔Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
• ✖No: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=none
• ✔Yes: RFC 8461 strict transport securityMTA-STSenforce
• ✔Yes: RFC 8460 TLS failure reportsTLS-RPTpublished
• ✖No: RFC 4033 signed DNSDNSSECnot validated
• ✖No: RFC 7672 TLSA records on MX hostsDANEnone
• ✖No: Brand logo record (not scored)BIMInone
• ✔Yes: RFC 6186 and RFC 8314 service records (not scored)SRVclient autoconfiguration published

Capabilities are what each server advertises before login. How these tests work