Beginning in July, Google Chrome will check all HTTP sites as “not secure,” as per a blog post by Chrome security product manager Emily Schechter. Chrome at present shows nothing about whether the site is secure or not with the version 68 coming, the program will caution site visitors with an additional notice in the address bar. If the site is secure, then you’ll see the green lock icon in the browser as usual.
But this isn’t the first time Google will be doing this because they had announced before now that HTTPS sites will be given a preference in search results. It would appear that many sites heeded Google’s 2016 advice as about 50 percent of web requests were HTTPS in 2016 but now Google wants to encourage the other 50 percent to migrate as soon as possible. Google Search started down-ranking unencrypted sites in 2015 and as they put it in the blog post, the new announcement is as because the adoption rate for HTTPS is on the rise with the hope that websites who want visitors would eventually consider migrating as quickly as possible.
According to Google, “Developers have been transitioning their sites to HTTPS and making the web safer for everyone. Progress last year was incredible, and it’s continued since then:
Over 68% of Chrome traffic on both Android and Windows is now protected
Over 78% of Chrome traffic on both Chrome OS and Mac is now protected
81 of the top 100 sites on the web use HTTPS by default”
HTTPS encryption secures the channel between the browser on your computer and the site guaranteeing nobody will be able to see data exchanges from your computer through your browser that you’re sharing with a site. You can buy an SSL service from your host company and once installed, you should see the green lock sign if you haven’t purchased it before and yes just like that, your site will be said to have HTTPS connection.
Services like WhatsApp and other messaging services have what’s called end-to-end encryption and what this means is that from your phone to say the WhatsApp server and then to your chat partner’s device and back to you, the entire chat is encrypted and this means someone at WhatsApp won’t be able to easily see what you’re chatting about. This also means government agencies with backdoor software won’t be able to see what you’re doing which has continued to fuel the security-privacy debate.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
