I’m sure it was prompted by the recent Chinese situation, but more kudos to Google for making SSL the default setting for Gmail and Google Apps. Most people don’t realize that your email typically flies around the hotel room, Starbucks, or your work in an encrypted form. That’s right – it can be easily sniffed by people like me.
With Gmail you’ve been able to turn on SSL (https) for quite some time, but most people didn’t know about that. Actually, some don’t care, but that’s not the point. Your communications should be protected at least from point A to point B.
Now here is the flip-side. If you send an email with Gmail, then it is encrypted from your browser to Google’s servers. However, from there out to Aunt Sally’s AOHell account – it’s the wild west again!