Google encrypted users’ data as it moved from these front-end servers to the open internet, but it didn’t bother encrypting data internally between its data centers. Encrypting the links between data centers was in its long-term plans, Google said, but until Snowden, encrypting data as it flowed between its own data centers had always seemed like an unnecessarily expensive endeavor. The agencies’ hackers had used this holding pattern to their advantage. By listening in on Google’s network traffic, the NSA could access all the Gmail inboxes and messages, Google Map searches and locations,
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