Google has plans to make its email more secure, using add-on encryption software that will work like any other extension for Google Chrome.
On its security blog Tuesday, Google announced it’s preparing a Chrome extension called End-to-End to make heavy-duty encryption easier for anyone to use.
Google already offers HTTPS, but its own email stats show only about half of Gmail messages are secured this way.
HTTPS does protect Gmail messages while they’re in transit — the TP in HTTPS stands for "transfer protocol." The OpenPGP standard Google is using in End-to-End will help secure Gmail messages while they’re at rest on the sender or receiver’s machine.
They’ll have to be encrypted and decrypted with public and private keys — so not quite as easy as refreshing your inbox — but as Google says, it will probably appeal to “those who need added protection.”
Google has released the source code for community review before it goes live.