Too many people misunderstood the true meaning of the lock. Image source: Unsplash.
Browsers have been showing a lock icon when a site loads over HTTPS, with Chrome being no exception.
According to a post, Google says that the lock icon is meant to indicate that the network connection is a secure channel between the browser and site and that the network connection cannot be tampered with or eavesdropped on by third parties and is a holdover from the days when HTTPS was uncommon.
When HTTPS was rare, the lock icon drew attention to the additional protections provided by HTTPS. Today, this is no longer true, and HTTPS is the norm, not the exception.
Quoting research they carried out in 2021, Google says that only 11% of study participants correctly understood the precise meaning of the lock icon. This misunderstanding is not harmless — nearly all phishing sites use HTTPS, and therefore also display the lock icon. Misunderstandings are so pervasive that many organisations, including the FBI, publish explicit guidance that the lock icon is not an indicator of website safety.
Based on these research results and the broader shift towards HTTPS, Google says that they will be replacing the lock icon in Chrome with a variant of the tune icon in Chrome 117, which releases in early September 2023. Google says that they also are updating Chrome for Android at the same time.
With the change, Chrome will continue to alert users when their connection is not secure. Google says that those who are interested can see the new tune icon now in Chrome Canary if they enable Chrome Refresh 2023, but to keep in mind that this work is still actively in-progress and under development, and does not represent a final product.
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