Maintaining security and privacy when browsing the Internet is very important and most browsers tend to make changes to try to improve it. In this article we echo the latest news from Google Chrome , which has added HTTPS as the default protocol. We are going to explain what it is and how this could affect users when visiting a web page.
Chrome will use HTTPS by default
This fact has been talked about for a long time and it is already a reality. From Google Chrome 90, the popular browser will use HTTPS by default when entering a web page. Therefore, from the next stable version putting a URL in the browser bar will open by default in HTTPS.
Note that this feature has already been available in testing since last month and was implemented as part of a limited experiment for Chrome Canary, Dev, or Beta users. This change will now come in stable versions for both mobile devices and desktop versions. It will start on April 13.
This movement, this change of Chrome, is nothing more than a new way to improve the security and privacy of users when browsing the network. It seeks to reduce the risk that potential intruders can intercept web traffic through sites that are not encrypted and can be a danger.
How this change affects users
We have seen that Chrome will use HTTPS by default when we put a URL in the browser. Now, how does this really affect users? The truth is that the most important point is going to be related to security and privacy. The main objective is to prevent us from accessing pages that are not encrypted, as far as possible.
Accessing an unencrypted website can be a problem for our security. Let’s say we enter a page without HTTPS from a public Wi-Fi . An intruder could be on the network and collect the information we send. Privacy is very important. We already saw in another article how to always enter Chrome in guest mode.
But it will also bring changes in terms of speed . It affects the initial load of that site. By putting a URL without specifying HTTP or HTTPS in the browser, Chrome will connect directly to the HTTPS endpoint without having to be redirected from HTTP, which was a waste of time, although it may go unnoticed by the end user.
What happens if we want to enter a web page that does not have HTTPS? Fewer and fewer sites on the Internet are unencrypted, but there are still. In this case, Google Chrome will try to connect to the encrypted version and if it is not available, there is a certificate error or any problem, it will fall back to HTTP.
In short, Google Chrome is going to implement one more important change to the browser. Once again introduces a novelty related to security and privacy. Starting with Chrome 90, which will be the next stable release, it will by default connect to the HTTPS version of a website.