Yahoo to encrypt users' data

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 on Monday by Yahoo 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 to intercept information about what people do and say online.

Yahoo had previously promised to encrypt its e-mail service by early January. Now, the 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 company has promised to encrypt the links to its data centers, too.

- AP

(China Daily 11/20/2013 page12)