Google encrypts data amid backlash against NSA spying by Craig Timberg.
Be a smart consumer: Don’t pay extra for the encryption.
How did your data get to Google?
Digital equivalent of Lady Godiva?
Covering up data after it gets to Google may make you mother feel better but it is wholly ineffectual.
From the post:
Encrypting information flowing among data centers will not make it impossible for intelligence agencies to snoop on individual users of Google services, nor will it have any effect on legal requirements that the company comply with court orders or valid national security requests for data. But company officials and independent security experts said that increasingly widespread use of encryption technology makes mass surveillance more difficult — whether conducted by governments or other sophisticated hackers.
Nor does it help if the NSA obtains a copy as it streams into Google.
Encrypting data before it leaves your computer makes surveillance more difficult.
The “I have nothing to hide” crowd needs to realize that encrypting data flows, all data flows, is a contribution to privacy around the world.
Until that happy day when we can all go dark from intelligence surveillance, be careful out there. Someone is watching over you. (Not for your best interest.)
PS: Be sure to read ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy by Daniel J. Solove. Great essay on privacy from 2007 that mentions the NSA among others.