Gmail confidential mode – Set expiration dates for your emails

I've seen several things about this on Mastodon. Here is one comment from there:

"Gmail's upcoming self-destructing emails will require the recipients to click on a link and log in with their #Google accounts to see the content, if they are accessing via IMAP/SMTP.

"Don't be fooled: Google's purpose is not to give us more confidentiality. They want all of their users to access their mailboxes via the Gmail app or their web interface, so they are creating a burden to the recipients and calling it “security” to convince people to adopt it."

-- https://octodon.social/@miramarco/99871209330208151

Personally, as someone who doesn't use GMail, I'm wondering how they intend an email to remain "confidential" if they've sent it to me, outside of their walled-garden. My guess is that they won't send it, they'll require me to use their services to receive email from their users.

So don't be fooled. Google is not your friend, they are a company that makes money by knowing more about you than anyone else does.