More turn to encrypted email amid spying fears

SAN FRANCISCO -- 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 government spies and other snoops.

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.

In an analysis released Tuesday, Google said that about 65 percent of the messages sent by its Gmail users are encrypted while delivered, meaning the recipient's email provider also supports the technology. That's up from 39 percent in December. Incoming communiques to Gmail are lesas secure. Only 50 percent of them encrypted while in transit, up from 27 percent in December.

The volume of email cloaked in encryption technology is rapidly rising as major Internet companies try to shield their users' online communications from government spies and other snoops. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Encryption reduces the chances that email can be read by interlopers. The technology transforms the text into coding that looks like gibberish until it arrives at its destination.

Google and other Internet services rely on a form of encryption known as Transport Layer Security, or TLS. Security experts say that encryption method isn't as secure as other options. But encryption that is tougher to crack is also more complicated to use.

Gmail, with more than 425 million accounts worldwide, was one of the first free email services to embrace TLS. 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.

Less than half of the correspondence from a Hotmail account to Gmail isn't encrypted as of late May, Google said. Security is 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 Google.

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 National Security Administration says its online surveillance focused on people living outside the U.S. as the agency tried to defuse threats of terrorism.

After lashing out at the government spying, Google and other Internet companies began encrypting email and other online services in an attempt to reassure users worried about their privacy. The Internet companies are hoping their efforts to thwart government surveillance will make Web surfers feel comfortable enough to continue to visit their services. The companies make more money from online ads if their audiences keep growing.

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More turn to encrypted email amid spying fears