Today Google announced the alpha release of a Chrome plugin that works with their Gmail service to enable end-to-end encryption for email sent through their system. This will reduce Google's ability to data-mine the content of messages, but it won't stop anyone from tracking senders and recipients. Their plugin is based on OpenPGP and they are publishing the source code.
With a focus on ease-of-use lets hope that this plugin is enough to start a broader movement towards end-to-end encryption for all email, regardless of provider.
Editor's Note: This is an early release of the code and should not be relied upon just yet. Google invites the community to test and evaluate the extension; it is even eligible for their Vulnerability Reward Program.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday June 06 2014, @01:58AM
Yeah, 99% of my email these days are mass lists or corporate messages. Those just aren't going to be encrypted. Amazon isn't going to encrypt their mail, and it'd be pretty difficult to encrypt an entire mailing list. What does Google care if they were to lose the ability to target ads based on the emails I send to my brother? The emails I get from Amazon are probably a lot more lucrative for that anyway, and Amazon sure as hell isn't going to be adopting PGP emails any time soon.