How secure is gmail? How likely is it that someone can intercept and read the emails I send?

Answer 1

Short answer is, secure enough.

Long answer is, even though Google takes precautions to make sure your information is kept private there are always ways around that. To avoid having someone gain access to your personal information stick with the standard security practices, such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, and limiting physical access to your computer. But that goes for everything not just GMail. So yeah as long as you don't just throw yourself out there on the net you are okay.

Answer 2

Google's systems are secure enough. As long as you use a long complex password nobody is likely to get into your account.

However, e-mail itself is completely insecure by it's very nature. The SMTP protocol provides absolutely no encryption and only the most rudimentary authentication, so little as to be totally worthless.

Any e-mail message traversing the Internet can be intercepted and read, at least in theory anyway. The sheer volume of e-mail does provide some level of obscurity but I would never call it security.

The general guidance is that you shuold not put anything in an e-mail that you would not write on the back of a postcard.

Answer 3

How secure is any e-mail...use up all the available characters allowed for a password and it would be really hard to hack.