99% of gmail users will never know that the feature exists until they see the warning.  That can only have the benefit of encouraging the correspondent to get their provider(s) to enable the encryption.<p>&gt;  stymies passive surveillance... presence or absence should never be communicated ... to avoid suckering them into a false sense of security.<p>I think you&#x27;re not giving enough weight to the first point.  This really does provide an advantage for individuals who receive their password&#x2F;reset url or some other credentials via email.  At least it wouldn&#x27;t be intercepted on that hop.  Seems like the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.