The aim is to make unwarranted surveillance and even censorship more difficult for those shady organizations who want to see what we’re reading or prevent access to sensitive material. Anyone listening in or monitoring traffic will be able to see that you’re visiting Wikipedia without being able to determine the specific pages or sections you’re interested in.
“The HTTPS protocol creates an encrypted connection between your computer and Wikimedia sites to ensure the security and integrity of data you transmit,” writes the Wikipedia team. “Encryption makes it more difficult for governments and other third parties to monitor your traffic. It also makes it harder for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to censor access to specific Wikipedia articles and other information.”
“With this change, the nearly half a billion people who rely on Wikipedia and its sister projects every month will be able to share in the world’s knowledge more securely.”
Wikipedia parent company Wikimedia says secure access is one of its priorities in an age when privacy and data collection are such contentious topics. The organization has been working on encrypting its sites since 2011 it says, and recently took the step of suing the NSA for its mass surveillance program — a program that “erodes the original promise of the Internet” according to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Wikimedia says its HTTPS protocols have been built to ensure access that’s as fast as possible for users, despite the extra encryption involved — even if those users are on slow connections. Look out for the green padlock icon in your browser over the next week or two.
Editors' Recommendations
- Microsoft Edge has a new trick for increased performance
- Personal data of 69 million Neopets users is now up for sale after a data breach
- Use Office? Your PC could be at risk due to this Microsoft change
- Stealthy malware shows why you shouldn’t open unknown emails
- Your Chromebook now has access to your Android phone’s photos