Google is racing to encrypt the torrents of information that flow among its data centers around the world in a bid to thwart snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency and the intelligence agencies of foreign governments, company officials said Friday.
The move is among the most concrete signs yet that revelations about the NSA's sweeping surveillance efforts have provoked significant backlash within an American technology industry that U.S. government officials long courted as a potential partner in spying programs.
Google's encryption initiative, initially approved last year, was accelerated in June as the tech giant struggled to guard its reputation as a reliable steward of user information amid controversy about the NSA's PRISM program. PRISM obtains data from U.S. technology companies, including Google, under various legal authorities.
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