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Google Chrome to Start Labelling HTTP Pages as 'Non Secure' From January

Google Chrome to Start Labelling HTTP Pages as 'Non Secure' From January

By Sanket Vijayasarathy | Updated: 9 September 2016 20:03 IST

Come January 2017, Google is going to bring a change to Chrome to better inform users of a website's security. To make browsing safer, Chrome will mark HTTP sites that transmit passwords or credit cards as "non-secure". The update (part of Chrome 56) is part of Google's long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure.

The image above shows the change that can be expected starting next year. While current chrome browser only shows a neutral icon, the new update will explicitly state that the HTTP site is "non-secure". The idea here is to transition completely to HTTPS, the usage of which has been consistently increasing. "We recently hit a milestone with more than half of Chrome desktop page loads now served over HTTPS," Google says in a blog post.

Google plans to eventually bring the warning sign to all HTTP pages in incognito mode as well. The company believes that users need more explicit warnings rather than the one currently employed in order to get their attention, which is why the company plans to slowly make the warning even more explicit - as shown in the image below.

"In following releases, we will continue to extend HTTP warnings, for example, by labelling HTTP pages as "not secure" in Incognito mode, where users may have higher expectations of privacy. Eventually, we plan to label all HTTP pages as non-secure, and change the HTTP security indicator to the red triangle that we use for broken HTTPS."

Google has also begun rolling out Chrome 53 for Android devices and the new update brings along some new features for users. Among the new features are PaymentRequest API, Web Bluetooth API, and auto-playing muted video.

The PaymentRequest API makes it seamless and secure for users to make payments using a credit card or Android Pay. PaymentRequest essentially allows users to shop on the web and check out with a single tap. The entire payment procedure takes place in a slide-up screen which means users will not have to jump from one page to another to finish a transaction as shown in the demo below.

Meanwhile, the Web Bluetooth API lets websites and webapps to communicate with nearby bluetooth devices while auto-playing videos will work with as long as the video is muted by default.

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