Chrome Update: Browser Will Warn Users About Unsecure Websites

Sketchy retail sites have made their way into Google’s crosshairs. The latest update on its way for Google Chrome will clearly mark retail sites using out of date security protocols as being a risk to users.

The change, which will first appear in the Chrome 56 beta, will brand any website that collects passwords or credit card information while using unencrypted HTTP protocols will be labeled with as “not secure” directly in the address bar.

Google signaled in a blog post that the warning represented a new approach to insecure sites, which the company had previously not outed as many sites underwent the process of converting to HTTPS, which adds an additional layer of security to standard web protocol.

The threat of this public shaming in browser has been looming for some time. Google proposed a marker that would indicate when a website was non-secure back in 2014 and has experimented with various forms of the idea ever since.

Current versions of Chrome show a padlock when a website is using HTTPS and a blank white page icon when it uses standard HTTP. Sites that use HTTPS but have errors on the page display a yellow caution icon atop the padlock and sites with broken or expired HTTPS are hit with a red “X” atop the lock symbol.

The more direct indicator of a site’s security measures should help browsers make decisions when it comes to what sites to trust. Luckily, according to Google’s recent transparency report, more sites than ever are using HTTPS.

If Google’s slow evolution on these types of warnings is any indication, future iterations of the search giant’s browser may call even more attention to sites that haven’t properly secured their service.

The new version of Chrome, complete with the “not secure” warning in the address bar, is available to download in its beta form for Windows, OSX and Android users—though Google warns the beta is “designed for developers and early adopters, and can sometimes break down completely." The public version of the update is expected in January 2017.