Will Chrome 68 label your website as "NOT Secure"?

Starting in July 2018, Google's Chrome Browser (Chrome 68) will start labelling all websites which start with HTTP as "Not Secure". (see 

Below is an illustration by Google of what this means.

• The top line shows what a URL currently looks like in the URL window.
• Below it is what this will change to when Chrome 68 is introduced 

In Chrome 68, the omnibox will display “Not secure” for all HTTP pages.

My expectation is that the "Not secure" will be really obvious - like this "Not secure"

Now a lot of people thought that this would all happen yesterday 1 July 2018 - because Google said it would happen in July.

They missed the bit that said

Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as “not secure”.

(Chrome 68 has not yet been introduced in the UK - but may have happened elsewhere. I'm on Version 67.0.3396.99 )

Below I look at:

• what does being labelled as "not secure" mean?
• what you need to do re. Google's Blogger (I had a hiccup!)
• How do I make my website/blog/ secure?

What does being labelled "not secure" mean?

The reasons for making your website/blog secure are:

• it protects the integrity of your website
• it protects the privacy and security of your visitors and those shopping via your site
• it's where the web is going. Security is ever increasing and there is a cost to not keeping up with developments in this area.

There are also a number of implications of Google's ongoing drive for better security of all websites

• Your website may not rank well in response to Google search queries. Google is already downgrading all websites in search which are currently marked as "Your connection to this site is not secure" which is what comes up if you click the "i" icon prefacing the URL
• Your website or blog traffic may take a dive - as in "off a cliff". It all depends on whether you depend on your email list of Google for visitors to your website or blog.
• If you are selling art via your website you may notice sales drying up. 
• Obviously your website MUST also be super secure if you are taking any payment transactions via your website - even if you are routing them via a secure process. 
• You can't have an insecure website with PayPal or whatever and expect to get away with it!

So what about Google's Blogger?

This is where it gets interesting - then tortuous - then interesting again. Bear with me!