If you have been worrying about your online privacy, then Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) may be taking your concerns to heart. It has been recently discovered that Google has been consistently encrypting Web searches taking place in China and throughout the globe. This might pose a problem for China’s censors as well as the NSA.
Google claims this move is part of a global strategy to stay ahead of hackers who attempt to view emails, searches and video chats. In addition, Google claims they want to protect their users from government surveillance, as well.
In China, the government has installed what is called “China’s Great Firewall.” It intercepts they they consider politically sensitive searches on items such as “Tiananmen Square” and the “Dalai Lama.” Google’s encryption will make it impossible for China’s government to search for these types of terms.
Furthermore, other governments that practice censorship such as Saudia Arabia and Vietnam may not be too pleased with the service. On the other hand, they do have the option to block Google’s search services. Why would they do so? Because the encryption will make searches appear as strings of numbers and letters. This will make it increasingly difficult for these government entities to identify residents who search for sensitive topics.
However, this is good news for citizens of countries that practice online censorship at a national level. Imagine all of the people who would like to break out of that system and explore ideas they weren’t able to, previously. Chinese officials have not responded to Google’s revelations, but it might not be beneficial to the strains in the relationship between China and Google. As a result of the tensions, Google only has a 5% market share in China.
Google spokeswoman Niki Christoff emailed a statement, which made an indirect reference to Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, “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.”
