Yahoo now encrypting information transmitted between its data centres

Yahoo and other major technology companies such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Crop. have made online security a top priority during the last 10 months amid a series of revelations about U.S. government programs that have vacuumed up personal information about millions of Web surfers in an effort to thwart terrorism. The wide-ranging surveillance has been outlined in documents leaked to the media by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The technology industry's indignant response has been driven by financial self-interest as well as an aversion to government prying. Most Internet services make money from ads that could be more difficult to sell if spying fears cause their audiences to shrink.

Yahoo, which has more than 800 million worldwide users, vowed late last year to encrypt its data centers by March 31 after reports that the U.S. government had been secretly infiltrating the lines that transfer information overseas.

Yahoo still lags behind Google's encryption efforts. In an interview Wednesday, Stamos said Yahoo hasn't been able to move as fast as it wants because many of its services rely on content and ads provided by thousands of other companies, including some that aren't convinced that they need to encrypt.

For that reason, Yahoo's widely used news, sports and finance sections still aren't automatically encrypted. Visitors to those services can trigger an encrypted service by typing in "https" before the website's address. Yahoo is confident that it will be able to persuade its content and advertising partners to take the steps needed to enable automatic encryption of those services later this year.