The vow was announced 11/18 by Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer after a Washington Post report that the NSA has been hacking into communications lines that feed data centers around the world run by Yahoo and Google to intercept info about users’ online activities and emails.
An AP story says the company plans to have all data encrypted by the end of March. Google began to encrypt its Gmail service in 2010 is now encrypting the communications links to its data centers, said the story.
While news has surfaced via NSA contractor Edward Snowden this year revealing that Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple have been feeding the U.S. government information about their international users under the PRISM program, these companies say they have only surrendered data about a very small number of users, when required by what amounts to a court order.
RBR-TVBR observation: The move isn’t altogether altruistic. Yahoo! realizes that it may not only keep, but get more users by taking these steps to protect their privacy.
