NSA-Mocking Easter Egg Found In Google’s New Email Encryption Plug-In

Google recently made waves by introducing the framework for a tool that will bolster email encryption through a coming plug-in for its Chrome browser. TechCrunch noted the complexity of the problem that Google is taking on, and that it seemed like a worthy task.

However, Google left a little easter egg in the code that is more than funny. Here’s the joke (via Zen Albatross, to whom we doff our cap):

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The “SSL added and removed here” is a dig at the NSA’s program to infiltrate data passed between Google and Yahoo data centers outside of the United States. Here’s the NSA slide on the matter:

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Can you spot the same text?

Google’s inclusion of the text in its email encryption code is ironic in that the NSA was working to get around a popular form of encryption, and so Google used the NSA’s own words in its new tool designed to bolster message security for email users.

IMAGE BY FLICKR USER KENNETH LU UNDER CC BY-SA 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN CROPPED)Â