Comcast to Encrypt Email for Security

Google wants to make encryption hip -- and may have won a quick convert. Comcast, the nation's largest Internet provider by number of homes and businesses served, said it would begin scrambling customers' email to protect it from prying eyes.

The move came just hours after Google called out email providers, including Comcast, for not using encryption.

Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said the company is testing encryption and would begin using it more broadly on customers' email "within a matter of weeks." He said Comcast is "very aggressive about this."

The moves were an indication that some tech companies see privacy as a consumer issue after a year of leaks from Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor. Snowden's leaks prompted Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo among others, to make it harder for government spies to read emails as they cross the Internet's backbone.