Google May Push Sites to Use Encryption

A powerful voice at Google wants websites to be more secure.

In a move that experts say could make it harder to spy on Web users, Google is considering giving a boost in its search-engine results to websites that use encryption, the engineer in charge of fighting spam in search results hinted at a recent conference.

The executive, Matt Cutts, is well known in the search world as the liaison between Googles search team and website designers who track every tweak to its search algorithms.

Cutts also has spoken in private conversations of Googles interest in making the change, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person says Googles internal discussions about encryption are still at an early stage and any change wouldnt happen soon.

A Google spokesman said the company has nothing to announce at this time.

Encrypting data transmitted over the Internet adds a barrier between web users and anyone that wants to snoop on their Internet activities, or steal their information.

Google uses its search algorithm to encourage and discourage practices among web developers. Sites known to have malicious software are penalized in rankings as are those that load very slowly, for instance. In total, the company has over 200 signals that help it determine search rankings, most of which it doesnt discuss publicly.

If Google adds encryption to the list, it would give websites a big incentive to adopt it more widely.

This would be a wonderful thing, says Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer at mobile-security company Lookout. He says encryption assures that a users data cant be seen by others while moving across the Internet, that it cant be tampered with, and that it gets to the correct recipient.

Of course, that assumes that the encryption works. Internet users were jolted this week by disclosures that a popular encryption scheme, known as OpenSSL, contained a bug that could allow hackers to steal personal information.

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Google May Push Sites to Use Encryption