google desk Reuters/Christian Hartmann

Google just announced that it's rolling out a new feature to help keep your email messages more private.


Encryption is a commonly used process of encoding messages so that it can't be read by anyone but you— or whomever you decide to share it with.


Information is typically encrypted while it's being transferred to the recipient as an extra security measure.

If a hacker intercepts an email you've sent to your boss, for example, he or she wouldn't be able to read its contents. 




With link encryption, data is periodically decrypted at each hop during its path to the recipient so that the router knows where to send the information next. Most data packets need to go through several routers to reach their destinations, and the term "hop" refers to this jump between different routers.



End-to-end will work with any web-based email provider, but you'll need to be working in Google's Chrome browser to use it. 
