Many websites have both the traditional, unencrypted
HTTP and the SSL or
TLS-encrypted
HTTPS addresses available to
access their content. Wikipedia is one good example of this
functionality. You can easily view Wikipedia using traditional
HTTP protocol but if you wanted or needed a
little more privacy the HTTPS address is
available as well. Unfortunately it is sometimes hard to know if a
website has the encrypted feature or not unless you try. And you might
be in a hurry and forget to use the HTTPS version and then you've
potentially sent sensitive information about yourself out onto the
Internet unexpectedly.
There is an easier way, however, to use HTTPS whenever possible. The
Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) has
released a plug-in for Firefox and Chrome that knows of almost all of
the commonly used websites that are available over HTTPS and will
dynamically redirect your web browser to use that encrypted channel
without you having to remember. The plug-in, known as HTTPS
Everywhere, will convert any
web address from HTTP to HTTPS whenever it knows that HTTPS is
available.
Why is it important to encrypt your traffic whenever possible? Well,
simply you never know who might be listening to your connection. If you
are living in a country dominated by an oppressive government then your
liberty or even your life might dictate that you need to obtain your
information via encrypted means. Other people might be more concerned
with their private browsing getting into the hands of a corporation to
be sold to the highest bidder to get more information on you into their
files. Others are just concerned with their privacy in general.
Whatever the reason it's a good idea to use encryption whenever
possible.
It should be noted that HTTPS Everywhere doesn't automatically encrypt
all websites and users should still verify that the lock is showing in
the browser address bar and that the certificate matches the site in
which they are visiting. That said, using encryption makes your
Internet browsing safer and this tool makes it easier.