Techdirt Is Now 100% SSL

Privacy

from the it's-about-time dept

Back in December, the Washington Post had an article about how news sites could go full SSL, encrypting all connections, but probably wouldn’t, because most of the major ad networks simply aren’t set up to handle it — meaning that doing so, while it would protect their users, would likely harm revenue. Chris Soghoian, famed security researcher and technologist at the ACLU even claimed he was offering up two bottles of whiskey to any news site that would turn on SSL.

This actually hit home for us, because we had actually started exploring the very possibility of going full on SSL about a month earlier, and realized that we’d be giving up ad revenue to do it — but, after thinking about it, we decided to do so anyway. Over the last few months, we’ve actually ended partnerships with a few ad providers who were unprepared and unwilling to support full SSL, and set ourselves up to make the full switch. In fact, we’ve quietly made sure that most of the site was fully SSL-capable for quite some time now. And, today, in conjunction with the Reset the Net campaign in honor of the first anniversary of the very first Ed Snowden revelation, we’ve officially flipped the switch to make the site fully SSL. While we’ve been quietly testing it for a while now, and it’s been working fine, it’s possible that some of you will come across errors or issues along the way — so please let us know if you come across any problems.

I also believe that a number of other sites, including, potentially, some media sites, are making the leap as well, so we’re not alone in this — and I hope that Soghoian is busy sending out whiskey bottles (though, no need to send any here, thanks!). Either way, we believe that this is important in protecting your privacy and security, even if it means less ad revenue for us, and it’s great to see websites across the internet doing a variety of things to make users more secure, whether it’s better encrypting email, or adding more protection for their own users. It’s a huge testament to how much Snowden has made the world aware of the importance of greater encryption.

While we still have some ads on the site — from providers who were actually willing to support SSL — we are still taking a cut in revenue in doing this. As such, if you’d like to help keep this site going strong, we’d like to remind you of the other ways you can support us via the Insider Shop, where you can become an Insider, and get access to our Insider Chat or the Crystal Ball to get access to stories before anyone else. Or you can go all in with the Behind the Curtain offering, giving you access not just to the Insider Chat and the Crystal Ball, but the special “Crystal Ball Plus” that shows you many more stories before everyone else. See stories we’re working on days or even months ahead of time — and talk about them with us as well. We also have opportunities to get lunch with me or, even, spend a whole day with us (this has been a lot of fun for the folks who have done it). We also have a bunch of merchandise, including our popular “seized” t-shirt. If you don’t want to do any of that, then just keep on doing what you’ve already been doing, coming here every day, reading, sharing, commenting and discussing. Just know that you’re doing it in a way that protects your privacy.

Filed Under: privacy, reset the net, security, ssl