Google announced on its official online security blog that
the tech giant is working on a browser extension for Chrome that will encrypt
your emails for you, regardless of what email service you use, as long as you
do so while using Chrome.
Dubbed End-to-End, the browser add-on is currently in
development. Though it’s not yet available for download in the Chrome Web
Store, it will be eventually. In the interim, Google has made the alpha version of the source code for
End-to-End available to developers to toy around with.
“End-to-end encryption means data leaving your browser will
be encrypted until the message’s intended recipient decrypts it, and that
similarly encrypted messages sent to you will remain that way until you decrypt
them in your browser,” Stephan Somogyi, Google’s Product Manager of Security
and Privacy said. With End-to-End, “anyone will be able to use it to send and
receive end-to-end encrypted emails through their existing web-based email
provider.”
Google is also encouraging developers to test the code for
bugs in End-to-End, and mentions that any kinks that are discovered in the code
will result in compensation via the company’s Vulnerability Rewards Program.
This comes after Google published a Transparency Report
which sheds light on email services and websites that offer encryption. Not
long after the report was made public by Google, ISP (Internet Service
Provider) and cable giant Comcast decided that it will reportedly change its
tune in this area, and automatically encrypt its customers’ messages within the
next few weeks.
0 comments:
Post a Comment