When you are browsing the internet you may well have noticed that some of the sites you visit are secure, while others are not. While HTTPS is most often used for secure shopping and banking web sites, there is no reason that connections to other pages should not be encrypted to help improve privacy and security. If this is something that has been a concern of yours, HTTPS Everywhere could be just what you have been looking for.
This free browser extension can be used to ensure that a secure connection is used whenever available. There are a huge number of web sites that offer support for encrypted HTTPS connections, and yet will default to sending visitors to the regular, unencrypted HTTP version of the sites. HTTPS Everywhere uses a series of specially written rules to redirect your browser – provided you are using Chrome or Firefox – to the secure version.
There are number of remade redirection rules included that add support for a number of major web sites, but you can also define your own rules to add support for others that you may make use of. Support is a little hit and miss so you will have to experiment with the XML files used to write rules to see what you can come up with, but this is an easily enough process providing you don’t mind getting a little hands-on.
HTTPS Everywhere is currently available for Google Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers. While Firefox users have a stable version of the extension to work with, the Chrome version is currently in beta but it still a handy tool to have installed. It is not a magic solution that will wipe out all security concerns that are involved in using the web, but it is help additional layer of protection that seems to work well and as compatibility improves, it will only become more useful.
You can find out more and grab yourself free copies of the extension by visiting the HTTPS Everywhere for Chrome or HTTPS Everywhere for Firefox review pages.
