Google’s new notifications for Gmail warn you of security risks

Gmail now has a dedicated notification system to warn users if they’re at risk of opening emails from insecure services or opening bad Web links.

In Gmail, if someone sends you an email that was sent from an insecure service, a red ‘unlock’ icon will alert you. Google says that since it rolled the feature out 44 days ago, there has been a 25 percent increase in emails from secure servers.

In Chrome, attempting to visit a less-than-savory Website earns you a notification screen, and Google is bringing that to Gmail. Now when you try to click a link Google knows is bad from your Gmail inbox, it will warn you before you even get to the browser; a helpful feature for those who may not be using Chrome.

For incidents of possible state-sponsored hacks, Gmail has a dedicated pop-up notification. Though it admits that less than 0.1 percent of users ever run into these attacks, Google feels it warrants immediate action on our part to better protect ourselves.