Google publishes a new security warning for Android Chrome users
Not all security warnings are a bad thing, in fact, some should be welcomed with open arms. That’s the case with this new secure login warning for Google’s Android users Chrome web browser. While users should take steps to enable it now, doing so could prevent you from sleepwalking into a security nightmare. Here’s what you need to know.
Android users always get a warning about secure connections in Chrome
The security warning in question comes in the form of the “always use secure connections” warning that users of the desktop version of the Chrome web browser will be very familiar with by now. As first spotted by the good folks at mspoweruser, Google is now starting to roll out an important and absolutely relevant security update for Chrome users on the Android platform as well.
The Always use secure connections feature is crucial when it comes to staying safe while browsing the web, whether it’s on your laptop or smartphone. Why so? Because it gives the user better control over how insecure websites, those that don’t implement the HTTPS protocol, by default. Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol encrypts the data sent between a user and a website and is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the HTTP bit at the beginning of a website address, which is the standard and insecure method of sending information over the internet.
When always use secure connections is enabled, it will automatically attempt to upgrade the connection from standard HTTP to secure HTTPS where possible. Essentially, it also highlights a warning to users before visiting an unsafe website.
Secure Login Warning Finally Comes to Android Users—How to Enable It
The official announcement at googlesource chromium review siteit is necessarily highly technical, which also makes it inaccessible to most readers. But luckily, we can translate it into normal speech and show you how to enable this experimental “canary” feature on your Android smartphone.
- Download and open the experimental version of the Google Chrome Android appknown as Canary, which allows users to test new settings. Be aware that this can be unstable, so install at your own risk.
- Head to Chrome://flags where you can find a setting called “Allow balanced mode to be enabled for HTTPS-First mode”.
- Once activated, restart the Chrome app and tap the three-dot menu.
- Select Settings|Privacy and security|Security|Always use secure connections and finally choose between the options to warn about unsafe public websites and warn about unsafe public and private websites. I would recommend the latter for completeness.
