“Your connection to this site is NOT SECURE”

By Carla

On the 27th of April, Google announced that from the beginning of October 2017 “Chrome will show the “Not secure” warning in two additional situations: when users enter data on an HTTP page, and on all HTTP pages visited in Incognito mode.”

You may be wondering What is HTTP and HTTPS? and What does this mean for my site? Let’s start at the beginning:

HTTP and HTTPS

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) was the system used in ‘the beginning’ by network administrators as the standard procedure for exchanging information. However once everyone understood this process, it became very easy to intercept these exchanges. Thus HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) was developed to protect the information exchanged over the network. HTTPS uses an SSL Certificate to encrypt the information. This means that even if someone intercepts information being exchanged they would not be able to read it.

Your Site

Currently, if your site does not use HTTPS, Chrome already labels your site as not secure. However this is not immediately obvious as you will have to click on the little ‘i’ next to the url to see this information.

Going forward Chrome will label your site as ‘Not Secure’ at page load in Chrome Incognito and when entering data in and outside of Chrome Incognito:

 

When we build online stores we insist upon an SSL certificate in order to protect the sensitve information users will be entering into the site. An SSL certificate also means that your site will be ranked higher by Google.

How to get an SSL Certificate

To add an SSL certificate to your domain simply contact your hosting provider and they will take you through the process.

What this means for your site and your users

Maybe you still think that you don’t need an SSL certificate? However it is always important to consider your users. For people who are not tech-savvy the internet can be a scary place. A warning from the chrome browser stating the the site is not secure could result in people leaving your site which is usually not what you want.

In addition to this, a lovely green padlock adds a sense of legitimacy to your site.