What is end-to-end encryption?
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) protects a message from sender to recipient: only they hold the keys to read it. The service carrying the message, whether a mail host or a messenger, only sees unreadable data pass through. Gmail doesn't offer it by default; Proton Mail and Signal are built on it. The topic continues in chapter 4 of my book, Vivre sans Google.
Information verified on July 13, 2026
A regular email travels like a postcard: everyone who handles it along the way can read what’s written on it. End-to-end encryption turns that postcard into a sealed letter. The message is locked on your device and only unlocks on the recipient’s. In between, nobody has the key. Not even the company carrying the mail.
That’s where the difference with Gmail plays out. Google does encrypt your emails in transit, but it keeps the key: its servers can analyze the content, to filter spam or sort your messages. An end-to-end encrypted service like Proton Mail can’t do that, even if someone demanded it. It stores data it is unable to read.
One limit, though: this protection covers the content, not the context. Who writes to whom, when, how often? That metadata stays visible. Protecting the content is already huge, but you should know.
Where it plays out: chapter 4 of the book organizes your exit from Gmail, the Encrypted email category presents the alternatives, and the Proton Mail vs Gmail comparison puts the two side by side.
This topic is chapter 4 of my book
It answers these questions, among others:
- how do you migrate twenty years of email without losing a message or a contact?
- which address can no one ever take away from you, and how do you get it?
- and what do you do with the hundreds of accounts tied to your Gmail?
Forthcoming 22/10/2026 from Éditions Eyrolles
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Tech jargon, translated
Every week in The Spark, I break down one tech story through the privacy lens. And what you can do about it, concretely.
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