14 DAY TRIAL // Along with announcing the new encryption tool that Google has been working on to help less techy users protect their emails, the company has also released a list of email providers that don’t really care about users’ privacy and employ very little encryption.
In the analysis that Google released, it is shown that about 65 percent of the messages sent by its Gmail users are encrypted while they are delivered. This means that the recipient’s email provider also supports the technology. The percentage may sound small, but it’s actually climbing at an impressive rate since just half a year ago the rate stood at 39 percent.
When it comes to incoming messages to Gmail, the situation is worse. In fact, only 48 percent of the emails coming from other providers are secure. Back in December, only 26 percent of emails were safe.
Basically, when your emails are encrypted, they’re complete gibberish until they reach the destination, which should help protect them against prying eyes, such as those of hackers.
However, Google tries to keep you safe since it employs Transport Layer Security (TLS), which isn’t necessarily the best option out there, but it is the easiest since it doesn’t actually require specific actions or knowledge from users. This is why Google is now working on “End-to-End” Chrome extension, which is supposed to help people encrypt their emails in an easy manner with a more powerful standard.
But, this isn’t the case with all companies. In fact, Microsoft’s Outlook, MSN and Hotmail are just going through a transition phase that will see all accounts send encrypted emails by the end of the year. Data from Google indicates that half of the emails sent from Hotmail to Gmail weren’t encrypted.
Comcast and Verizon, two top ISPs in the United States, are even worse at this. Less than 1 percent of the traffic coming and going from Gmail is encrypted, making all users easy targets for anyone looking to take a sneak peek into their conversations.
While shaming others may not have been on Google’s mind when it released the new report, but rather users’ safety, some are feeling guilty.
In fact, Comcast has come forth and declared that it has started its beta testing for email encryption. The trials will begin in the next few weeks, which is nice, even though it’s a few years too late.
This isn’t the first time Google manages to shame competitors into taking action to improve their services.
For instance, as it started rolling out Google Fiber in more cities, offering lightning-fast 1Gbps Internet speeds, other companies have also started to introduce new speed options and better pricing.