Reset the Net: Google joins anti-surveillance campaign
A year after Edward Snowden's revelations, can Reset the Net help to restore online privacy?

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Google has thrown its weight behind the Reset the Net campaign by giving Gmail users simple tools that will enable them to encrypt their emails.
The company has released code for a Chrome extension that will allow end-to-end encryption – a form of protection designed to let people send and receive emails that cannot be read even if they are intercepted. The timing of the code release coincides with a campaign by some of the world's biggest websites to prevent online surveillance.
Email cannot be kept secure unless both email accounts involved in the exchange of messages use some kind of encryption.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Google explains: "When you mail a letter to your friend, you hope she'll be the only person who reads it … That's why we send important messages in sealed envelopes, rather than on postcards. Email works in a similar way. Emails that are encrypted as they're routed from sender to receiver are like sealed envelopes, and less vulnerable to snooping — whether by bad actors or through government surveillance — than postcards."
What is Reset the Net?A number of the world's largest websites took part in coordinated action yesterday in opposition to mass internet surveillance, The Guardian reports.
Sites taking part include the social networking and news site Reddit, image hosting service Imgur and online publisher BoingBoing. Google's contribution, which encourages a greater culture of online privacy and security, comes as an important addition to the campaign.
Who is behind the campaign?Reset the Net is being led by Reddit, Imgur, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Amnesty International.
The campaign comes a year after Edward Snowden first made his surveillance disclosures, and is being coordinated by an organisation called Fight for the Future, whose co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng said: "Now that we know how mass surveillance works, we know how to stop it. That's why people all over the world are going to work together to use encryption everywhere and make it too hard for any government to conduct mass surveillance.
What does Reset the Net hope to achieve?The aim is to limit the ability for the NSA and other local or foreign government agencies to conduct mass surveillance online, Digital Trends reports.
"The NSA is exploiting weak links in internet security to spy on the entire world, twisting the internet we love into something it was never meant to be: a panopticon," the campaign's website reads. "We can't stop targeted attacks, but we can stop mass surveillance, by building proven security into the everyday internet."
The campaign will encourage users to install privacy and encryption tools to protect themselves from surveillance. Some of the sites involved in the campaign have also pledged to heighten user privacy, the Guardian notes, by enabling standards such as HTTPS, which can help prevent hackers from monitoring users' online conversations.
Reddit's general manager Erik Martin said: "We can take back control of our personal and private data one website, one device, one internet user at a time. We're proud to stand up for our users' rights and help Reset the Net."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Government shutdown avoided as Congress passes temporary funding bill
Speed Read The bill will fund the government through Nov. 17
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Today's political cartoons — September 30, 2023
Saturday's cartoons - Trump's poll numbers, the Hunter Biden investigation, and more
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: September 30, 2023
Daily Briefing Government shutdown looms after failed House vote, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein dies at 90, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Is using Google's Enhanced Safe Browsing mode worth it?
Talking Point The mode has its positives and its drawbacks
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Google is pitching an AI journalism tool to major news outlets
Talking Point News executives find the technology called Genesis unsettling
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Forget junk mail. Junk content is the new nuisance, thanks to AI.
Speed Read AI-generative models are driving a surge in content on fake news sites
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Why hasn't Google enforced its policy to stop climate disinformation?
Talking Point Is Google's acceptance of climate misinformation intentional?
By Devika Rao Published
-
AI can now read your mind, researchers report as the 'godfather of AI' quits to warn about his life's work
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
AI: Google seeks to regain lost ground
feature Once a leader in the artificial intelligence wars, the company is now sweating its comeback
By The Week Staff Published
-
AI and Big Tech: busted flush or next gold rush?
Talking Point Generative AI start-ups won $1.37bn in investment last year – almost as much as the five previous years combined
By Arion McNicoll Published
-
The Supreme Court, Section 230 and the future of the internet
feature Lawsuits brought against tech giants could have far-reaching consequences for the internet as we know it
By Richard Windsor Published