It has become a known fact that anything an internet user publishes can and will be scrutinized by the United States government. It is for this reason that earlier this year Google announced that it would soon allow users to encrypt emails, and apparently Yahoo is jumping on the bandwagon. In a measure to beef up Yahoo user security, the company announced that its members would be able to send encrypted emails as soon as this fall.
By choosing to encrypt an email, the user has Yahoo’s assurance that only said user and the messages intended recipient will be able to read the content of the message. It’s important to note however, the encryption process only works when emails are sent to other Yahoo users, Gmail accounts being exception to that rule.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo will use a form of PGP encryption that at this time has yet to be cracked. The PGP adds the next step in security by attributing unique security keys to every individual physical device accessing Yahoo and Google features. Therefore, emails should remain unreadable unless viewed from a device that already has the appropriate security measures embedded. The added security feature is expected to impact an estimated 600 million users.
An added encryption process will no doubt help attract more users to Yahoo and Google’s already impressive numbers. Beefed up security features have been a key selling point in the last year and a half for tech companies looking to attract new customers. Google even announced that sites with better encryption on their pages would show up higher on Google search results. Privacy has become big business and like always, there’s someone who’s looking to cash in.
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