In an attempt to enhance user privacy, Google is now
encrypting global Internet searches. National Security Agency
(NSA) revelations have spurred a company-wide effort to secure user
data and to thwart intelligence agency snoops.
A Google spokesperson
told The Washington Post:
The revelations of this past summer underscored our
need to strengthen our networks. Among the many improvements we’ve
made in recent months is to encrypt Google Search by default around
the world.
The encryption turns search terms into a jumbled up sequence of
characters, making them unreadable. This makes it difficult for
interlopers to target users who search for certain material, and
hobbles the state’s ability to track search history.
The tech giant has already started to roll out its Web search
encryption scheme in China, targeting the nation’s censorship
project, also known as the Great Firewall. According to
Time, “The move represents a shot at Beijing in Google’s
standoff with Chinese authorities over unmet demands that the
company send Chinese users to government-approved sites.”
Google searches constitute a small portion of Chinese searches,
the bulk of which are made through China-based service Baidu. But
Percy Alpha, co-founder of GreatFire.org, a non-profit that
monitors Chinese censorship,
told the Post, “It will be a huge headache for Chinese
censorship authorities. We hope other companies will follow Google
to make encryption by default.”
Because of encryption, Google chair Eric Schmidt expects
worldwide state censorship to
fizzle out. He said in a lecture at John Hopkins University
late last year, “I believe there’s a real chance that we can
eliminate censorship and the possibility of censorship in a
decade.”
Google’s encryption efforts got more attention after Edward
Snowden’s leaks revealed the NSA had been hacking links to Google
and Yahoo data centers, circumventing legal procedures. Since then,
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo all moved to
encrypt these links.
It is unclear whether politicians will make meaningful reforms
to the sprawling surveillance state programs. Legislative efforts
have been slow. But corporations that rake in data are beholden to
their consumers, and are rushing to invest in encryption. Google’s
attempt doesn’t give perfect privacy, but it’s an important
safeguard, and a step towards thwarting the ease of government data
harvesting.
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