Realizing that change in Washington takes time, top U.S. tech firms have implemented preemptive steps to secure their networks. They hope these will alleviate users’ concerns about government cyber-spying, the extent of which was revealed by former National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency employee Edward Snowden.

For its part, Google this week is testing a program that lets Gmail users keep their emails encrypted until their reach the intended Gmail users, Reuters reported. The company decrypts the messages in transit to display advertising, which leaves the private messages vulnerable to government hacking.

Google’s move is part of “Reset the Net” campaign and is similar to a step taken by Yahoo Inc., which has not encrypted emails at all but is doing so now, Reuters reported citing Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney with Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group.

The efforts to thwart cyper-spying do not mean the tech giants have dropped their D.C. lobbying efforts. In fact, nine companies have organized into Reform Government Surveillance, a group that paid for newspaper advertisements to push the U.S. Senate to back a House reform bill and ban bulk Internet surveillance, Reuters reported.

Cisco and Microsoft are advocating that U.S. law should also protect data stored in the cloud outside the country. Microsoft is embroiled in a legal battle in Dublin, where a federal magistrate has ruled it must turn over customer information. Microsoft is exploring various means to increase privacy, including changing its business practices to “using joint ventures instead of subsidiaries,” per Reuters.

While tech firms are advocating change as as a means to pacify public outrage from Snowden’s revelations, they are also working with the intelligence agencies. In an slide titled “NSA Strategic Partnerships” revealed by journalist Glenn Greenwald, the agency states it has “alliances with over 80 major global corporations” and these include the largest U.S. telecom carriers and Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Cisco.

According to Reuters, the companies have said they “do not deliberately incorporate spying ‘back doors’ into their products,” but suggests they are complying with U.S. government spying on certain individuals or groups.

“It’s of course important for companies to do the things under our own control, and what we have under our own control is our own technology practices,” Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told Reuters.

“There is a need for reform of government practices, but those will take longer.”