Re: Preparing to Publish HTTPS Finding

On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 at 9:24 AM, Melvin Carvalho
<melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:

> "The annual median per capita [yearly] income in India stood at $616, the
> 99th position among 131 countries." [1] (Gallup Dec 2013)
>
> So what's the cost of a wildcard SSL certificate (someone quoted $100 in a
> previous)?  Is it affordable?

People at that income level need clean water and food, not X.509 certificates.

> The finding says that HTTPS will only be needed for new features.  So, are
> we moving to a two tier web, where some features are for everyone and and
> some are for others?

As has been shown multiple times, there are ways for people to serve
HTTPS for 0 additional dollars.

We need to avoid a 2-tier web: 1 tier containing the billions of users
who don't understand that getUserMedia is broadcasting streams from
their mic and camera over the internet in the clear, and a 2nd tier
containing the few experts who do understand.

We need a 1-tier web: safe for everyone by default, and easy for users
to use. The 1-tier web may come at a small price: the relatively small
# of site operators — experts by definition — may have to learn how to
use SSLmate or Let's Encrypt or the like.

Received on Monday, 22 December 2014 19:35:12 UTC