Twitter Enables "Always Use HTTPS" Setting

Alexia Tsotsis

Alexia Tsotsis is the co-editor of TechCrunch. She attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, majoring in Writing and Art, and moved to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the media industry. After four years of living in New York and attending courses at New York University, she returned to Los Angeles in... → Learn More

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

So did Ashton Kutcher complain to some Twitter exec after he got Twitter-hacked at TED? As of today, Firesheep-weary Twitter users can check the “Always Use HTTPS” setting at the bottom of Settings on their profiles. HTTPS, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure uses the SSL/TSL protocol in addition to HTTP to ensure encrypted communication over a secure channel. This protects users on insecure networks like conference or coffee bar WiFi.

While Twitter users could use HTTPS prior by visiting https://www.twitter.com, they now have the option to have it always on. In addition HTTPS will be used when you log into Twitter and on Twitter for iPhone and iPad.

Users on mobile browsers have to visit https://mobile.twitter.com to access the feature for now, but Twitter is trying to make the setting work across all devices, hoping to eventually make HTTPS the default setting.

Company: Twitter
Website: twitter.com
Launch Date: March 21, 2006
Funding: $1.16B

Created in 2006, Twitter is a global real-time communications platform with 400 million monthly visitors to twitter.com, more than 200 million monthly active users around the world. We see a billion tweets every 2.5 days on every conceivable topic. World leaders, major athletes, star performers, news organizations and entertainment outlets are among the millions of active Twitter accounts through which users can truly get the pulse of the planet.

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