'Your connection is not private': Why https matters on any website

To ensure your privacy while browsing the internet, check for the "S" at the end of "https" which indicates an encrypted connection, reminds cybersecurity experts. — dpa

Http or https? Cybersecurity experts say anyone using a browser should avoid visiting any website without an unencrypted connection (shown as http in the address bar) – otherwise you're giving attackers the chance to steal your personal data.

Fortunately, almost all popular browsers now use only encrypted connections (https), says the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which campaigned for this change.

If you try to connect without https, which means your computer or device will communicate with internet servers without encryption, then your browser will likely give you a warning along the lines of "Your connection is not private," and ask if you want to proceed.

The feature is now available in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. If it’s not activated in your browser, you can do so under the browser’s settings.

It means that the EFF has achieved one of its goals and its "https Everywhere" extension will go into maintenance mode after this year. The decade-old extension was used to retrofit the “https-only” feature into browsers that didn’t have it.

If you regularly visit unencrypted http pages that you trust, you can usually add them as exceptions within the browser’s settings without turning off the https-only feature. – dpa