Do you always visit secure sites that begin with “https”?

Take a look at the address bar in your browser: when you visit this particular site, you can see that it begins with a green padlock, followed by the letters “https”, which is the secure version of the standard “http” protocol.

“Https” means you’re in a more confidential environment – one where the data sent and received between the site and your device is encrypted. That’s why you are generally recommended not to do any shopping on a website that doesn’t use the “https” protocol.

The recently released version 68 of the Google Chrome browser has a special feature that highlights as “not secure” all websites that begin with “http” and not with “https”. Previously, this “endorsement” only applied to websites through which passwords or payment information were sent. With version 68 it highlights any “http” site.

The aim of this new measure is to encourage the use of “https” and in doing so to increase the number of secure sites online.