diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index e057b63..1175e6f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@
 
 .. note:: This version is not yet released and is under active development.
 
+* **BACKWARDS INCOMPATIBLE:**
+  :class:`~cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers.modes.GCM` no longer allows
+  truncation of tags by default. Previous versions of ``cryptography`` allowed
+  tags to be truncated by default, applications wishing to preserve this
+  behavior (not reccomended) can pass the ``min_tag_length`` argument.
 * Added :class:`~cryptography.hazmat.primitives.kdf.hkdf.HKDFExpand`.
 * Added :class:`~cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers.modes.CFB8` support
   for :class:`~cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers.algorithms.AES` and
diff --git a/cryptography/__about__.py b/cryptography/__about__.py
index ee53902..ccbcdfe 100644
--- a/cryptography/__about__.py
+++ b/cryptography/__about__.py
@@ -28,4 +28,4 @@
 __email__ = "cryptography-dev@python.org"
 
 __license__ = "Apache License, Version 2.0"
-__copyright__ = "Copyright 2013-2014 %s" % __author__
+__copyright__ = "Copyright 2013-2014 {0}".format(__author__)
diff --git a/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/ciphers/modes.py b/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/ciphers/modes.py
index e70a9db..f09478f 100644
--- a/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/ciphers/modes.py
+++ b/cryptography/hazmat/primitives/ciphers/modes.py
@@ -97,13 +97,14 @@
 class GCM(object):
     name = "GCM"
 
-    def __init__(self, initialization_vector, tag=None):
+    def __init__(self, initialization_vector, tag=None, min_tag_length=16):
         # len(initialization_vector) must in [1, 2 ** 64), but it's impossible
         # to actually construct a bytes object that large, so we don't check
         # for it
-        if tag is not None and len(tag) < 4:
+        if tag is not None and len(tag) < min_tag_length:
             raise ValueError(
-                "Authentication tag must be 4 bytes or longer."
+                "Authentication tag must be {0} bytes or longer.".format(
+                    min_tag_length)
             )
 
         self.initialization_vector = initialization_vector
diff --git a/docs/hazmat/primitives/symmetric-encryption.rst b/docs/hazmat/primitives/symmetric-encryption.rst
index abc2b07..fffad6e 100644
--- a/docs/hazmat/primitives/symmetric-encryption.rst
+++ b/docs/hazmat/primitives/symmetric-encryption.rst
@@ -317,14 +317,22 @@
         Cryptography will generate a 128-bit tag when finalizing encryption.
         You can shorten a tag by truncating it to the desired length but this
         is **not recommended** as it lowers the security margins of the
-        authentication (`NIST SP-800-38D`_ recommends 96-bits or greater).
-        If you must shorten the tag the minimum allowed length is 4 bytes
-        (32-bits). Applications **must** verify the tag is the expected length
-        to guarantee the expected security margin.
+        authentication (`NIST SP-800-38D`_ recommends 96-bits or greater). If
+        you must shorten the tag the minimum allowed length is 4 bytes
+        (32-bits). Applications wishing to allow truncation must pass the
+        ``min_tag_length`` parameter.
+
+        .. versionchanged:: 0.5
+
+            The ``min_tag_length`` parameter was added in ``0.5``, previously
+            truncation up to ``4`` bytes was always allowed.
 
     :param bytes tag: The tag bytes to verify during decryption. When
         encrypting this must be ``None``.
 
+    :param bytes min_tag_length: The minimum length ``tag`` must be. By default
+        this is ``16``, meaning tag truncation is not allowed.
+
     .. testcode::
 
         import os
@@ -356,11 +364,6 @@
             return (iv, ciphertext, encryptor.tag)
 
         def decrypt(key, associated_data, iv, ciphertext, tag):
-            if len(tag) != 16:
-                raise ValueError(
-                    "tag must be 16 bytes -- truncation not supported"
-                )
-
             # Construct a Cipher object, with the key, iv, and additionally the
             # GCM tag used for authenticating the message.
             decryptor = Cipher(
diff --git a/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_aes.py b/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_aes.py
index 173075d..003b3ba 100644
--- a/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_aes.py
+++ b/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_aes.py
@@ -226,5 +226,5 @@
             "gcmEncryptExtIV256.rsp",
         ],
         lambda key: algorithms.AES(key),
-        lambda iv, tag: modes.GCM(iv, tag),
+        lambda iv, tag, min_tag_length=16: modes.GCM(iv, tag, min_tag_length),
     )
diff --git a/tests/hazmat/primitives/utils.py b/tests/hazmat/primitives/utils.py
index 49b73f0..4640c2e 100644
--- a/tests/hazmat/primitives/utils.py
+++ b/tests/hazmat/primitives/utils.py
@@ -90,7 +90,8 @@
         cipher = Cipher(
             cipher_factory(binascii.unhexlify(params["key"])),
             mode_factory(binascii.unhexlify(params["iv"]),
-                         binascii.unhexlify(params["tag"])),
+                         binascii.unhexlify(params["tag"]),
+                         len(binascii.unhexlify(params["tag"]))),
             backend
         )
         decryptor = cipher.decryptor()
@@ -108,12 +109,13 @@
         encryptor.authenticate_additional_data(binascii.unhexlify(aad))
         actual_ciphertext = encryptor.update(binascii.unhexlify(plaintext))
         actual_ciphertext += encryptor.finalize()
-        tag_len = len(params["tag"])
-        assert binascii.hexlify(encryptor.tag)[:tag_len] == params["tag"]
+        tag_len = len(binascii.unhexlify(params["tag"]))
+        assert binascii.hexlify(encryptor.tag[:tag_len]) == params["tag"]
         cipher = Cipher(
             cipher_factory(binascii.unhexlify(params["key"])),
             mode_factory(binascii.unhexlify(params["iv"]),
-                         binascii.unhexlify(params["tag"])),
+                         binascii.unhexlify(params["tag"]),
+                         min_tag_length=tag_len),
             backend
         )
         decryptor = cipher.decryptor()