In their continuing effort to keep end users safe and aware when they are visiting a non-secure website, Google has announced that starting in July 2018, these sites will be clearly identified in the Chrome browser. The change will coincide with the release of Chrome 68 and will be across all platforms as well as Chrome OS. A non-secure website is noted as http:// when you visit the site while a secure, encrypted site is noted as https:// in the URL.
The official announcement should not come as a surprise. Google has already been urging sites to move to secure deployments with changes in how page ranking is done for secure versus non-secure sites. This is the culmination of that effort.
Once Chrome 68 rolls out, when you visit a non-secure site, you will see a “Not Secure” tag next to the URL in the omni bar. Here is the example Google provided:
The goal of this change is to make sure that users are aware when they visit a site that is not encrypted, especially those that are asking for personal identification information or credit card information. But even site that don’t take that information will be identified as non-secure.
Google put out some pretty impressive stats on Chrome and the progress of secure sites:
- 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
As for ClintonFitch.com, the site is secure. Whether you are visiting the site from your PC, Mac or Android phone, you will always see the https:// address. While I do not accept payment information on the site, I do have comments open on the majority of posts and don’t want even your email address compromised by something that is easily addressed on my servers.
ClintonFitch.com Secure Site Information
