Chrome will remove the 'Secure' label on HTTPS sites in September

[midian182]

Google is making another change to the way Chrome indicates HTTPS and HTTP sites. Starting with September’s release of Chrome 69, the world’s most popular browser will stop marking HTTPS sites with the green “secure” label in the address bar—it believes that users should expect this to be the default state. Then in October, Chrome will start showing a red “not secure” warning when users enter data on HTTP pages.

More than half the internet now uses the HTTPS protocol, which encrypts data in transit. The secure connection helps prevent against man-in-the-middle attacks and protects data from the prying eyes of third parties.

Chrome Security Product Manager, Emily Schechter, writes, “Since we’ll soon start marking all HTTP pages as ‘not secure’, we’ll step towards removing Chrome’s positive security indicators so that the default unmarked state is secure. Chrome will roll this out over time, starting by removing the “Secure” wording and HTTPS scheme in September 2018 (Chrome 69),”

When Chrome 68 rolls out in July, users will spot an HTTP site by a grey “Not secure” label in the address bar. In October’s Chrome 70, Google is making this more noticeable; the grey “Not secure” warning remains, but it will turn red when users start entering data on the page.

Back in February, Google said 81 out of the top 100 websites used HTTPS as default. It added that 78 percent of Chrome traffic on both Chrome OS and Mac was encrypted, while 70 percent of Chrome traffic on Windows was protected. The figure for Chrome traffic on Android stood at 68 percent.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/74698-chrome-remove-ecure-label-https-sites-september.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Very skeptical of this one ......

 

[wiyosaya]

Uh, right. When they almost certainly know that there are sites out there that are not secure, and that, worse yet, there are still sites out there that are not secure when it comes to entering passwords. Yes, it still happens. So far, at least the people at Firefox are not dumb enough to remove these indicators.

gagme is out of touch, growing further out of touch, and is too arrogant to realize it.

Here is a site that Firefox says is not completely secure for password entry - http://www.avsforum.com/

 

[DelJo63]

Colors don't matter so much, but removing the lock is a bad idea - - I personally verify that when using online shopping/banking.

 

[mbrowne5061]

That is a terrible idea. The user should expect the web to be insecure, unless proven otherwise - not the other way around. Identifying HTTPS as such is a good way to accomplish this; sounds like the idea of some graphic or UI designer, and not UX or engineering.

 

[Adorerai]

What’s the big deal? There’s still a pretty good indicator that the page is not secure. You know, the “Not secure” message.

 

[DelJo63]

That is a terrible idea. The user should expect the web to be insecure, unless proven otherwise - not the other way around. Identifying HTTPS as such is a good way to accomplish this; sounds like the idea of some graphic or UI designer, and not UX or engineering.

aka never assume

 

[woofer]

I get the impression a lot of people think "secure" means that the site itself is somehow secured from attack this way, and thus protecting our "important" info.

This:
1. No such luck for data that should be secured after it is "recorded" on the site for banking/shopping/medical/etc activity. It only means our web session itself is protected from eavesdropping, and nothing beyond that (never mind "government actors" and/or organizations' firewalls with deep packet inspection to crack the encryption to ensure "illicit" stuff like their Intellectual Property, or porn, is not being sneaked back and forth through their facilities over the 'Net).

2. There are plenty of sites that we are accessing for information only, such as this one for tech news, and are not involved in processing any of our super secret info. We don't need to waste processing time/power (thinking of aggregate power consumption ala crypto-currency mining, and cell phone battery consumption, for example) encrypting "open info" like this.

Lighten up, Gaggle!

 

[JamesSWD]

Google doing something dumb again. In this case, they're not taking into account the older adult web users who aren't as hip as they are. Older users do want, like & need these secure indicators before giving up their credit card info. Most don't follow web & tech news and won't know why the indicator is missing.

This trend of tech companies making assumptions, designing only for younger hip people, hiding info & controls, etc., shows that their decision makers & designers are poorly experienced and educated about their craft. I see a lot of this lack of consideration for older demographics in web design, applications, UI & UX, and other fields too these days.

 

[Catweazle]

Seems like a bad decision. Everyone is used to looking for the green secure indicator, this is just going to confuse people.

 

[woofer]

Google doing something dumb again. In this case, they're not taking into account the older adult web users who aren't as hip as they are. Older users do want, like & need these secure indicators before giving up their credit card info. Most don't follow web & tech news and won't know why the indicator is missing.

This trend of tech companies making assumptions, designing only for younger hip people, hiding info & controls, etc., shows that their decision makers & designers are poorly experienced and educated about their craft. I see a lot of this lack of consideration for older demographics in web design, applications, UI & UX, and other fields too these days.

That seems to be a a bit misguided. We "seniors" might have a harder time seeing fonts and designs that tend to obscure content to make it look "cool" as we age, but we do understand that content when it is both visually readable, and is written clearly.

Lately I have seen reports (on the 'Net) that indicate quite the opposite of your assertions such as this:
https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/smart-money/likely-victims-of-internet-scams/

Us older folks have seen a bit more of the seamier side of life, and the changup in the technology involved does not mask the bad intentions for very long before the warnings are circulated over various media, even on OTA TV news, and in print newspapers (if any of you younguns know what those are ;-} ).