Users who use the web browser Google Chrome more attentive to computer security they will have noticed that the Mountain View service signals with a small green padlock, at the top left before the URL, the sites that are safe to browse.
What does this little green lock indicate specifically? Simple, it informs us that the information exchanged with that particular site is encrypted. This means that the portal to which we have accessed uses an HTTPS protocol and not HTTP. This is an aspect not to be taken for granted, especially on social media or on sites such as e-commerce where we insert our credit cards to complete purchases. Over time, users had gotten used to checking the top left of Chrome to find out if a site was safe or not. It was enough to see the green lock to be sure. But now Google has decided to change the face of its web browser and therefore the symbol with the green lock will no longer be visible to users.
Google Chrome: goodbye to the green lock on encrypted sites
Why this choice? Because by now most of the Internet sites have decided to use the HTTPS protocol. Therefore safe and with encryption. And Google wants to clean up the interface of its web browser to the maximum without inserting too many writings at the top in the bar dedicated to URLs. Does this mean that users will have to look at the URL each time to understand if it is a site that uses HTTP or HTTPS protocol? No, because Google in the new Chrome update will report with an unsafe message, as is already the case, portals that do not use encryption. In short words if we access a site with HTTPS protocol we will not see any writing while if we navigate on a portal that does not use encryption we will notice the writing in light gray Not secure before the URL.
If the unsafe site then requires the user to enter data, the writing would turn from gray to red. If we notice this particular writing, we avoid entering confidential information such as credit cards, date of birth, residential address and so on.
Chrome changes face for security: no more green padlock
