Google enhances encryption for Gmail

Upgrade: Google's Gmail is now more secure on both desktop and mobile devies. Photo: Reuters

Google has enhanced the encryption technology for its flagship email service in ways that will make it harder for the US National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept messages moving among the company's worldwide data centres.

Among the most extraordinary disclosures in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were reports the NSA had secretly tapped into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centres around the world.

Google, whose executive chairman Eric Schmidt said in November he was outraged over the practice, didn't mention the NSA in the announcement, except in a veiled reference to last year's "revelations". The change affects more than 425 million users of Google's Gmail service.

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Yahoo has promised similar steps for its email service in the coming months.

"Your email is important to you, and making sure it stays safe and always available is important to us," Nicolas Lidzborski, Gmail's security engineering lead, wrote in a blog post.

Lidzborski said all Gmail messages a consumer sends or receives are now encrypted.

"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," Lidzborski wrote.

"This ensures that your messages are safe not only when they move between you and Gmail's servers, but also as they move between Google's data centres something we made a top priority after last [northern] summer's revelations."

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Google enhances encryption for Gmail