77% of Google’s online traffic is now encrypted, up from 52% at the end of 2013

Search giant Google has disclosed that 77% of its traffic is encrypted, up from 52% at the end of 2013. 

These statistics cover all of Google’s services except for its YouTube video site, which has approximately 1 billion users and is a bit more cumbersome to analyze. The company stated it plans to formally include it in its encryption breakdown by the end of the year though.

For those unfamiliar, encryption is a measure of security a company takes to scramble transmitted information so that it’s unintelligible if picked up by a third party. 

Google made this a top initiative after confidential documents leaked in 2013 by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the US government had been collecting personal data transferred over the Internet. Specifically, these surveillance programs were specially designed to exploit holes in unencrypted websites.

To combat this snooping program, Google has been rolling out new encrypted products and services, and prodding other websites to strengthen their security too. For example, in August 2014 Google updated its formula for ranking websites on its search engine result pages to more prominently feature URLs that automatically encrypted their pages. This revision meant websites that did not embrace encryption were at risk of being demoted in Google’s search results which, in turn, would lessen visits to the website.

The goal of this program is for Google to encrypt overall website traffic well enough to make it impossible for government spies and hackers alike to be able to decipher personal information seized online. 

“Our aim with this project is to hold ourselves accountable and encourage others to encrypt so we can make the web even safer for everyone,” Google encryption “evangelists” Rutledge Chin Feman and Tim Willis wrote in a blog post.

Taking a bit more of a granular look at the 77% number — Google’s Gmail service is completely encrypted, so long as the user remains confined to Gmail (exchanges between a Gmail account and other email services aren’t necessarily encrypted all of the time). The company’s Gmap service is considered 83% encrypted, while its advertisements are 77% encrypted; the latter is up 9% from 2013. 

Areas where more encryption is needed — Google’s news roll is just 60% encrypted, and its Finance product is 58% encrypted. 

The company explained it’s still trying to overcome some technical difficulties associated with encrypting so many different types of products. Also, there’s the issue of older devices not being able to handle modern encryption standards. This is a particularly big issue when considering that close to 96% of Google’s unencrypted traffic comes from mobile devices. 

To learn more, check out the full report on Google encryption.