Searches performed on Google are encrypted more than three-quarters of the time, according to a new section unveiled by the company on its biannual transparency report.
The report states that as of Feb. 27, more than 77 percent of requests to Google’s servers globally used encrypted connections. That was up from 51 percent at the same time the previous year. The figure ranged from a low of 64 percent in Canada to a high of 86 percent in Mexico. The figure for the United States was 72 percent.
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Put simply, that encryption prevents third parties from being able to monitor data being sent between a website and a visitor. “These web connections protect against eavesdroppers, man-in-the-middle attacks, and hijackers who attempt to spoof a trusted website. In other words, it thwarts interception of your information and ensures the integrity of information that you send and receive,” the report notes.
The variance between countries was attributable mainly to the different types of devices used to access the net. Mobile devices tend to offer a lower level of security, which means that countries in which they are more common have a lower prevalence of encryption.
Though Google does offer encryption by default on many of its products, including Gmail and its cloud storage services, it does not do so universally. The company’s popular line of Android smartphones is far less secure than its more successful competitor, the Apple iPhone.
Yet with governments around the globe debating how to slow the advancement of encryption, competition is surging among companies to offer more. A report published by The Guardian last week suggested that, in addition to Google, major tech companies like Facebook and Snapchat are also working to enhance the level of encryption they offer on their messaging services.
In a blog post accompanying its transparency report, Google made it clear that it would like to be at the forefront of that effort. “Implementing encryption is not easy work,” the post said. “But, as more people spend more of their time on the web, it’s an increasingly essential element of online security.
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“We hope this report will provide a snapshot of our own encryption efforts and will encourage everyone to make [encryption] the default on the web, even faster,” the company added.
