Yahoo vows to encrypt all its users' personal data

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFL-CIO News Blog

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo is expanding its efforts to protect its users' online activities from prying eyes by encrypting all the communications and other information flowing into the Internet company's data centers around the world.

The commitment announced Monday by Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer follows a recent Washington Post report that the National Security Agency has been hacking into the communications lines of the data centers run by Yahoo and Google Inc. to intercept information about what people do and say online.

Yahoo had previously promised to encrypt its email service by early January. Now, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company plans to have all data encrypted by the end of March to make it more difficult for unauthorized parties to decipher the information.

Google began to encrypt its Gmail service in 2010 and has since introduced the security measure on many other services. The Mountain View, Calif., company has promised to encrypt the links to its data centers, too. A Google engineer said that task had been completed in a post on his Google Plus account earlier this month, but the company hasn't yet confirmed all the encryption work is done.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131118/DAA5ADOG0.html

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In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, photo, shows a sign in front of Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Yahoo said Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, that it is expanding its efforts to protect its users' online activities from prying eyes by encrypting all the communications and other information flowing into the Internet company's data centers around the world. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

[billhicks76]

1. Competition

Lets see the real free market in action without government sponsored monopolizing and corporate welfare. Let's see Yahoo take away Googles market share and any other telecom that commited crimes violating the rights of the people.

[Posteritatis]

2. Something about barn doors and stolen horses.. (nt)

[cosmicone]

3. Under encryption laws, they will have to

give the keys to the FBI for all encryption algorithms. The FBI will then give it to the NSA, CIA and the other gang members. It sucks that the nation is run over by a bunch of lawless, rogue powers.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Meaningless.

The NSA will either have a trapdoor built in to circumvent the encryption or Yahoo will provide the encryption keys secretly to the NSA.