Gmail users who feel uncomfortable with the thought that their private messages and information are being harvested without their permission may feel better now that Google is ramping up its security to protect its users.
The web giant has announced on Thursday that Gmail users will get added security protection to keep their messages from being intercepted. The security feature was apparently rolled out in response to an earlier revelation that the National Security Agency (NSA) has tapped into the central servers of leading internet companies including Yahoo and Google to extract data such as videos, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs for tracking purposes.
Gmail security engineer Nicolas Lidzborski said in a blog post that Google is making mass surveillance of its users' emails more difficult through a secure communication protocol known as HTTPS so that their emails will be encrypted while being transferred from the their computer to Google servers and to the email's intended recipient.
"Starting today, Gmail will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email," Lidzborski posted on the official Gmail blog. "Today's change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail's servers-no matter if you're using public Wi-Fi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet. In addition, every single email message you send or receive-100% of them-is encrypted while moving internally."
Lidzborski did not mention the NSA in his post but said that beefing up security has been Google's top priority "after last summer's revelations."
Although the added security may bring relief to Gmail users, it does not, however, guarantee that their emails will be 100 percent private. Google, for instance, may still provide information to government agencies including NSA when required by court order.
Still, the move will make it more difficult for the government to snoop on Google's customers without permission. "Google is making it tougher for the government to spy on its customers without going through Google," said Chris Soghoian, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union. "There are still ways for NSA to spy on the bad guys but this will prevent them from spying on 500 million people at once."
