How To Browse Facebook More Safely By Enabling HTTPS

how to:How To Browse Facebook More Safely By Enabling HTTPS

Posted by Brannon Cullum in Build Awareness , Facebook Activism, Social Media for Social Good, Stay Safe and Anonymous Online, Desktop Digital Security

Facebook recently updated its security settings, giving users the ability to encrypt their activity on the site. This is welcome news following reports of the Tunisian government phishing accounts and the uproar over Firesheep, a Firefox extension that lets you take over others’ Facebook and Twitter on your local network.

Now Facebook users can access the site using HTTPS, making connections more secure and surveillance by others much harder. Without getting too technical, HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol. It’s a protocol that utilizes TCP to transfer hypertext requests and information between servers and browsers. HTTP is unsecure and is subject to interception, eavesdropping and surveillance. Using HTTPS, on the other hand, secures a webpage.

Using HTTPS means that you are creating a more secure channel over an unsecure network, better protecting you from surveillance and from someone accessing your web accounts without permission. HTTPS encrypts the transmission, but NOT the content you are transmitting. Both ends of the transmission are open. To better protect yourself if you are sending sensitive information, encrypt the content first. Learn about some popular encryption tools by checking out our how to guides on digital security.

Right now, HTTPS is not offered by default; users must opt-in by changing their settings. Check out the steps below to get started.

The new setting is slowly being rolled out, so not all users may see the option yet. One caveat--many third-party apps on Facebook currently do not support HTTPS. Remember, if you live in a country where your online security is threatened you should not use a picture of yourself for your FB photo, you should not provide your full name, and always log out when not using the site. Learn more about protecting your privacy on Facebook with our how-to guide.

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Step 1.

Log into Facebook and go to Account in the top right-hand corner and select Account Settings.

Step 2.

Scroll down to “Account Security” and check both boxes for “Set up secure browsing (https) and login alerts” (you can see these boxes at the very bottom of the below image).