(The Interwebs Just Got Safer!!)

You know when you browse a website, you surf the net, you buy something online or just generally interact with websites? Well, have you ever wondered what happens to your personal data? Or how is it that marketers always know exactly which products you have been looking at and which ads to send your way?

Well, that is all done through … The Magic of Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a Google product that essentially allows businesses to look at your interaction with their website and to check out how much time visitors spent on their sites, which pages they looked at, which products they browsed before eventually whipping out that credit card and making a purchase!

In the past, the communications between those businesses’ websites and Google Analytics was not always secure. Sites using HTTPS did benefit from secure (encrypted) communication between their website and Google Analytics, but those sites using HTTP did not and so personal data was not always secure.

Big Changes

However, that all changed last Wednesday when Google announced that they will now be securing all traffic communication of websites using Google Analytics, whether the website is HTTPS or not.

Google announced that “…with the increase in privacy related concerns we have made the decision to secure all communication to and from Google Analytics, protecting our clients, our client’s end users, and the broader internet”

So, What Does This Mean For You?

Well, for you, the end user (i.e. when you are browsing a website yourself) you can breath easy knowing that the data that is collected when you browse or interact with any website, either HTTP or HTTPS, is now encrypted and much more secure.

Essentially the inteweb is safer!

What Does This Mean If You Are A Business With A Website?

For you the business owner, this means two things:

  1. You can now tell your customers that their data is even more secure! Yay! Bonus!
  2. There is a downside, however for websites with SSL’s. Encrypted traffic is ever so slightly slower than unencrypted traffic and so you may see a slight increase in bounce rate – ie people not patient enough to wait an extra second before they leave your site! Did you really want them there anyway we ask you?

That’s about it.  We hope you found this little explainer blog useful.