security certificate

How Do I Fix “Your Connection is Not Private”?

“Your connection is not private” errors are often benign, but are worth paying attention to.

Are HTTPS Connections Really Safe?

You’ve been told to look for HTTPS before trusting a website. But what does that “S” really promise? Less than you might think. I’ll review what HTTPS actually does for you, what it can’t do, and why scammers are happy to use it too.

Why Can’t We Use https for Everything?

HTTPS provides validation and encryption, two important pieces of security. Using it for everything is possible but costly, and issues would remain.

Will adding an “s” to http make my connection secure?

If you can turn http into https and it works, that means that the site has a security certificate. So why aren’t they using it?

Why Do I Keep Getting Certificate Errors from My School’s Website?

Ultimately, a problem with a security certificate belongs to the owner of the website. There may be a way to get around it, but you probably need to contact them.

I’m not seeing a padlock with my https site. Is it safe?

https should be safe as long as the padlock icon indicates that the certificate is correct. That proves that you’re visiting the site that you believe you are. If you don’t see it, you should be concerned.

Why am I getting security certificate errors?

If you are seeing this across a family of sites or just one site, it’s possible (in fact it’s even most likely) that it’s a problem on the server’s side. It may be a designer error. It may even be a malicious site.