Google announced Thursday that it is teaming up with file-hosting service Dropbox to form Simply Secure, an organization that will focus on making it easier for people to use security technology.
The two companies will spend the next few months working on projects like Off-the-Record messaging, Open Whisper Systems, and The Guardian project so that they are less complicated for people not as familiar with how such technology works, according to TechSpot.
Four principles will be held for the organization, the first being to ensure trustworthy privacy and security for an Internet that focuses on the people's needs. The second principle focuses on usability and making sure that privacy and security are easy to obtain. The third is that the user's desire for privacy and security should be top priority, and the fourth is that people should be able to use services that they like and that are also secure.
Sara Sinclair Brody, project manager at Google, will lead Simple Secure and work with several institutions to provide consumer-friendly methods for ensuring better security, The Guardian reported. These collaborators include the Open Technology Fund, University College London, and World Wide Web Consortium.
Google and Dropbox said that the revelations of former National Security Agency and whistleblower Edward Snowden, as well as the recent photo leaks of celebrities, have served as examples of the need to develop stronger online security.
"No matter how effective security technologies are, people will not use them unless they become more accessible and easier to understand. We need simpler options for stronger security, available at our fingertips," the two companies said.
The formation of Simple Secure follows the European Union's ruling to give Internet users in Europe the "right to be forgotten," in which tech companies must abide by requests to remove certain search results about users.
