I came across a feature on Facebook and Twitter that may have been around for a little while now, but I think it passed by rather quietly. Both services now allow you to force an SSL connection while browsing their sites. Using an encrypted connection when passing personal details over the internet is a must and is becoming more and more common on social networking sites. For example, the Foursquare website is only available via HTTPS.
I’ve written a quick guide on how to use these features on Facebook and Twitter; I think it’s a really good idea to use this feature wherever it’s available and I hope you find this information useful.
How To Enable HTTPS on Facebook:
1:
Navigate to your Account Settings page by clicking Account on the far right of the screen, then click Account Settings.
2:
Under Account Security, click change.
3:The first option within this section is named Secure Browsing (https). Ensure that the tickbox underneath it is checked, as in the screen-shot and click save. This will force Facebook to use and HTTPS/SSL connection wherever possible.
It’s important to note that some applications on Facebook don’t support HTTPS yet, you’ll be asked to transfer back to a normal HTTP connection in this case.
How To Enable HTTPS on Twitter:
1:
Navigate to your Settings page by clicking your username on the far right of the screen, then click settings.
2:Scroll to the bottom of your Settings page until you see the last option. Ensure that this checkbox is checked as in the screen-shot.
It’s important to note that Twitter posts media from non-HTTPS sources on your stream. For example, services such as Twitpic Yfrog will display images via HTTP, this can sometimes cause a ‘Mixed Content Warning’ where the padlock graphic displayed by your browser may disappear or appear to be unlocked. While not ideal, this souldn’t be much of a problem as all personal information passed to and from Twitter is still encrypted.
Here’s an interesting article from Mashable which highlights why it’s important to use HTTPS: http://t.co/aon158R