By Rebeka Silva r.silva@hngn.com | Jun 03, 2014 10:21 PM EDT
Gmail and other email providers begin encrypting all messages to provide a better sense of privacy to customers. (Photo : Reuters)
The volume of email cloaked in encryption technology is rapidly rising as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other major Internet companies try to shield their users' online communications from anyone trying to view them, according to The Associated Press.
Currently, Google and other companies are now automatically encrypting all email, but that doesn't ensure confidentiality unless the recipients' email provider also adopts the technology, the AP reported. Encryption reduces the chances that emails can be read by interlopers by transforming the text into coding that looks like gibberish until it arrives at its destination.
Google said in an analysis released Tuesday that about 65 percent of the messages sent by its Gmail users are encrypted while delivered, opposed to the 35 percent in December , meaning the recipient's email provider also supports the technology, the AP reported.
The analysis shows Incoming communiques to Gmail are less secure with only 50 percent of them encrypted while in transit, up from 27 percent in December, according to the AP. Yahoo, Facebook and AOL also are encrypting their email services; Microsoft Corp., whose stable of email services includes the Outlook, MSN and Hotmail domains, has started encrypting many accounts as part of transition that won't be completed until later this year.
Google and other Internet services rely on a form of encryption known as Transport Layer Security, or TLS, but security experts say that encryption method isn't as secure as other options, the AP reported.
Less than half of the correspondence from Hotmail accounts to Gmail wasn't encrypted as of late May, Google said, with security being even worse at Comcast.net and Verizon.net, where less than 1 percent of the traffic coming to and from Gmail is encrypted, according to the AP.
The Google report comes a year after the first wave of media reports about the U.S. government's intrusive techniques to monitor online communications and other Internet activity, the AP reported. The National Security Administration says its online surveillance focused on people living outside the U.S. as the agency tried to defuse threats of terrorism.
Google and other Internet companies began encrypting email and other online services in an attempt to reassure users worried about their privacy, according to the AP. The Internet companies are hoping their efforts to thwart government surveillance will make Web surfers feel comfortable enough to continue to visit their services.
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Source : http://www.hngn.com/articles/32929/20140603/gmail-and-other-email-providers-encrypt-email-for-user-privacy.htm
