Motherboard

Last week Google unveiled a new beta service, encrypted search, which protects users from network snoops (like Google). Given the company’s recent missteps, the release is, at the very least, a well timed response. From the official Google Blog:

When you search on https://www.google.com, an encrypted connection is created between your browser and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party on your network. The service includes a modified logo to help indicate that you’re searching using SSL and that you may encounter a somewhat different Google search experience…

Most secure sites, such as online banking, use the same technology. Google has already rolled out encryption services for both Google Docs and Gmail so general search was the next logical step. This means that your searches for “fungal cream” and “miley cyrus lyrics” are between only you and the Mountain View based search giant.

It’s important to note that the amount of data sent to Google won’t change – they’ll still collect your queries for the purposes of search optimization but encrypted search terms won’t get logged in your history nor will they show up in the autofill feature.

The service could further fuel tensions with China as it would effectively prohibit internet police trying to sniff out censorship violations through their respective networks.