Yahoo said Thursday, Aug 7, it will join Google to create a secure email system by next year that could make it nearly impossible for hackers or government officials to read users' messages, according to The Telegraph.

The move comes as large technology companies unite to beef up their defenses against government intrusion and hacking, most notably after Edward Snowden exposed last year the National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs.

Google, Microsoft and Facebook moved to encrypt internal traffic after revelations by Snowden that the spy agency hacked into their connections overseas. The companies have also smaller adjustments that together make sweeping collection more difficult.

Yahoo has altered its email process so users adopting encryption type messages in a separate window, preventing even Yahoo from reading the messages as they are typed, said the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

Earlier Thursday, Google said it was encouraging website developers to make their sites secure for visitors by using site encryption as one of the factors to determine search ranking.