In a some of the reports from Google, about half of the emails being sent everyday are not encrypted in any way and can be intercepted by the prying eyes of the government agencies.
The Internet giant stated that they have Transport Layer Security(TLS) for emails on their servers, but for the emails going out the perimeter, there is still no or least encryptions.
In the report, the least encrypted inbound domain is constantcontact.com with only a percent of encrypted emails, while on the other hand, in the outbound category, the least encrypted is the comcast.net domain.
Encryption is way of converting a human readable text into a non readable format, which later can be recovered by providing the correct keys. Email service provider encrypt the emails by generating keys on the server only, this limits the misuse of keys and trouble to users in creating a key. All they have to do is create an account with a strong password.
Google is also working on creating a PGP plugin for its Chrome user. Although its still not available in the store, Google has provided it to the developers for its development and testing.
Every Internet giant, including Google and Facebook, started strengthening their inner security when Edward Snowden, former NSA contractor and whistleblower, leaked surveillance plans of the US government.
Encryption techniques are not only important to protect information from government surveillance programs, but also protects from an unauthorized access of the files.