Since the big NSA fiasco, Google has been making inroads on protecting its users' information. The company has managed to increase security on all its online services, and now the company is goading users to use encryption to help keep their messages private.
As per Google, the company is now rolling out a new tool to help protect the messages users send when they are outside of the Google safe zone. As it stands, several email providers don't encrypt or only encrypt some email messages that are sent to a Gmail address, and this is an issue for Google.
To fix this, Google has launched an extension for Chrome that promises to encrypt these messages in order for hackers or the NSA not to see the contents of the emails. Google also went as far as to name the email services that fail to encrypt messages or only encrypt some messages. We have a feeling this could start another round of battles between the Google and Microsoft, as Outlook.com is on the wrong side of the list.
However, Google did say that a number of email service providers have only recently turned on encryption for messages in transit, and others are working to make this happen. This makes us wonder, what's the need for this list if other email service providers have pledged to add encryption methods?
"Many email providers don't encrypt messages while they're in transit. When you send or receive emails with one of these providers, these messages are as open to snoopers as a postcard in the mail.
"A growing number of email providers are working to change that, by encrypting messages sent to and from our services using Transport Layer Security (TLS). When an email is encrypted in transit with TLS, it makes it harder for others to read what you're sending," says Google.
Still, it is good to see companies working together to fight against a common foe. We don't see this very often, and we hope it continues as the constant rivalry and bickering can sometimes remove core values from sight.
