Yahoo Chief Information security officer Alex Stamos announced on Thursday that users will soon have the option to send end-to-end encrypted emails next year, enabled via a browser plugin.
The encryption would allow users to send each other emails with the content scrambled, unreadable to anyone but the sender and the receiver.
Yahoo will bootstrap its own plugin by modifying Google's code, and the two services will be compatible, the Mashable reported.
Earlier, Google also announced its plans to roll out a Chrome browser extension to let people encrypt their emails.
These moves come following Edward Snowden's revelations of widespread Internet surveillance.