Rio de Janeiro, November 6 Brazil revealed a decree Tuesday, ordering all federal government agencies to use a replacement encrypted email system to shun spying.

The South American country decided to take the measure to protect official communications from US.

Documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden show US intelligence agencies regularly intercept and collect information on millions of citizens and firms in Brazil and different countries.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were among those spied on.

The new encrypted system, declared last month and created by the government’s Federal data processing System, will take effect in March 2014.
It doesn’t apply to state-run firms like oil giant Petrobras that have their own systems.

The decree states that government communications should be transmitted through “telecommunications networks and data technology services provided by organisations or bodies belonging to the public federal administration.”