Google is phasing out the green lock icon and "Secure" label next to URLs on Chrome -- pointing out that safe websites should be the norm on the internet.
Right now, all HTTPS websites show that lock and label if you're visiting the page on Google Chrome -- telling visitors that they are visiting a secured page that is encrypted and protected from cyberattacks. Google's goal is to make sure 100 percent of the internet is HTTPS, and it's getting pretty close.
Say good-bye to the green lock.
GoogleBy May 12, 83 percent of websites visited by people browsing on Chrome using Windows were HTTPS pages. It's gotten to a point for Google where you're much more likely to visit an HTTPS page on Chrome than a non-secure page.
With that mindset, if something is the norm, you don't really need a label telling you that everything is normal. So Google is choosing to get rid of the "Secure" label by September 2018, and eventually, stop displaying the lock, too.
"Since we'll soon start marking all HTTP pages as 'not secure,' we'll step towards removing Chrome's positive security indicators so that the default unmarked state is secure," Emily Schechter, a Chrome security product manager, said in a blog post.
Instead, Google will choose to make a bigger deal out of people visiting non-HTTPS websites, with a red warning icon and a "Not secure" label in the URL bar. That will start showing this October.
Google already announced plans to show "Not secure" for all non-HTTPS websites starting in July.
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