In the last ten years the internet has progressed from a little-known entity of the military to a growing world cultural phenomenon. With the use of the world wide web, people are able to connect, share, and have open communication with friends. One website that reveals personal information is facebook. Recently facebook changed their hypertext transport protocol from https:// to http://. This small change means that the webpage is no longer as secure and is more open with sharing information between clients and the servers. Facebook doesn't want to promote privacy settings or 'opt out' options because of the advertising money through a more unsecured network.
The S in the https stands for secure. When this appears in the browser link the website is no longer able to other people 'ease-drop' on your computers communication with the website. If you fill out any forms or submit any information about yourself on a non https:// webpage other people can be watching and collecting data allowing your information to be sent out anywhere on the internet. The main thing to remember about https:// websites is to never enter your credit card numbers or social security number on an unsecured site.
Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights are currently working on online privacy protection along with friends and people looking out for others by posting alerts. The well circulated facebook post began in February and got copied and pasted all over the net:
'While on facebook, look at your URL address; if you see http: instead of https: then you dont have a secure session and you can be hacked. Go to Account, Account Settings, Account Security and click change. Check at least the first setting, FB defaults to the non-secure setting.'
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