HTTPS traffic increasing, says Google report

As Google continues to push for widespread migration across the web to HTTPS, the search giant has released its latest Transparency Report, which now includes a section that measures traffic on HTTPS web pages.

Sixty-seven percent of pages viewed on Chrome OS are HTTPS web pages, the report stated, as of 31 October 2016. Google also found that Chrome OS users on average spend 74 percent of their time on HTTPS pages. The amount of time that Chrome OS users spend on HTTPS pages is more than time spent on unencrypted web pages, a trend that is increasing among both desktop and mobile users.

“A web with ubiquitous HTTPS is not the distant future,” wrote Google's Chrome security and privacy researcher Adrienne Porter Felt and product manager Emily Schechter on the Google Security blog. “It's happening now, with secure browsing becoming standard for users of Chrome.”