Feb 8, 2018

Google Chrome pushes for user protection with "Not secure" label

NurPhoto / Getty

In an effort to force websites to better protect their users, the Chrome web browser will label all sites not encrypting traffic as "Not secure" in the web address bar, Google announced Thursday.

Why it matters: Encrypted traffic allows users to access data on a website without allowing potential eavesdroppers to see anything the users visit. HTTPS also prevents meddlers from changing information in transit.

It's a subtle, but consequential change:

  • During normal web browsing, Google currently displays a "Not secure" warning in the next to a site's URL if it forgoes HTTPS encryption and a user enters data. Now the browser will label all sites without HTTPS encryption this way.
  • More sites have started to encrypt traffic as Google has gradually started warning users about which sites are less secure.

Google reports that nearly 70% of Android and Windows traffic is now encrypted and nearly 80% of Chrome OS and Mac traffic. When Google started its project nudging websites to use HTTPS, only around 40% of Windows and 50% of Mac traffic were protected.

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Trump tightens screws on ByteDance to sell Tiktok

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

President Trump added more pressure Friday night on China-based TikTok parent ByteDance to exit the U.S., ordering it to divest all assets related to the U.S. operation of TikTok within 90 days.

Between the lines: The order means ByteDance must be wholly disentangled from TikTok in the U.S. by November. Trump had previously ordered TikTok banned if ByteDance hadn't struck a deal within 45 days. The new order likely means ByteDance has just another 45 days after that to fully close the deal, one White House source told Axios.

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Harris: "Women are going to be a priority" in Biden administration

Sen. Kamala Harris at an event in Wilmington, Del. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

In her first sit-down interview since being named Joe Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris talked about what she'll do to fight for women if elected VP, and how the Democrats are thinking about voter turnout strategies ahead of November.

What they're saying: "In a Biden-Harris administration women are going to be a priority, understanding that women have many priorities and all of them must be acknowledged," Harris told The 19th*'s Errin Haines-Whack.

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