The volume of email encrypted 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% 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 communiqués to Gmail are less secure. Only 50% of them encrypted while in transit, up from 27% in December.
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. However, 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, whose stable of email services includes the Outlook, MSN and Hotmail domains, has started encrypting many accounts as part of transition.
