Disclaimer: All information on Google Client Side Encryption can be found on support.google.com. To read more in depth on CSE, click here.
How Encrypted Files and Folders Work
Google's Client Side Encryption gives you the ultimate control over you or your organizations files and documents. There are many features built into CSE that protect user data from both external and internal threats. Google does not have access to your files and can not perform any scans for threats of Data Loss Prevention.
Client Side Encryption includes encrypted Google Drive Files, encrypted uploaded files such as PDFs, and Microsoft Office files. However, Client Side Encryption does not encrypt the File Title, the File Metadata, Drive labels, linked content outside of Docs or Drive, and User preferences.
You are able to retain, search, and export encrypted files in your Google Drive but you are not able to perform a full text body search since Google can not access your files. Along with the inability to search a files content, you are not able to search by file type, preview the content, or download a preview of any encrypted file.
Google Drive for Desktop still shows encrypted files as shortcuts on Windows and has symbolic links on Mac. When a user selects one of these files a new window will open in the browser. Users are also able to ENCRYPT AND UPLOAD FILES locally as well as read and edit files such as PDFs and Microsoft Office Files.
For mobile devices such as Android and iOS, users can preview and download client side encrypted files in Google Drive. Currently downloading Microsoft Office files on Android is not supported.
The two methods to access your encrypted information are to DOWNLOAD AND DECRYPT and MAKE A DECRYPTED COPY within your Google Drive. This feature is intended to protect the user's data and limit any issues that may come up with additional encryption functionality.
GarbleCloud CSE is an enabler of Google's Client Side Encryption. Each function and capability is done by strict guidelines set by Google to protect user's private data in an effort to create a safer cloud experience. With future updates, GarbleCloud will be able to offer new features that are included in our main application but are not yet available for CSE.