Google to offer encrypted search

[SnoopZ]

From next week Google are said to be offering https encrypted search on Google.com which is a first for a major search engine.

Source: Wired.

[Kymmy]

Trying to rack my brain for who would want such a search... only people I can think of is child pornography searchers

[Sir John Luke]

It's a disincentive to any company thinking of emulating Phorm.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Sir John Luke

It's a disincentive to any company thinking of emulating Phorm.

That was my feelings as well. The more isp's try to make money from your surfing data the more this will happen.

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Trying to rack my brain for who would want such a search... only people I can think of is child pornography searchers

Surely anyone who wanted to keep their searches private? It won't prevent the police from knowing what you searched for but it would stop people monitoring network traffic from doing so.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Sir John Luke

It's a disincentive to any company thinking of emulating Phorm.

Unless that company was, say, a large search engine that was combined with it's own Advertising network. Also, whether it would succeed at that depends on how much import this hypothetical Phorm clone places on search results rather than the actual links clicked..

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Trying to rack my brain for who would want such a search... only people I can think of is child pornography searchers

I don't think there is a legitimate reason that the average consumer would want https protected searches.

Originally Posted by Damien

Surely anyone who wanted to keep their searches private? It won't prevent the police from knowing what you searched for but it would stop people monitoring network traffic from doing so.

And exactly why would anyone (apart from the police and companies like Phorm) want to know what you search for?

[Fresnillo]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

I don't think there is a legitimate reason that the average consumer would want https protected searches.
?

In that case why is Wifi encrypted? Anybody, could just have a look, ooops like Google did with its camera cars....

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by Fresnillo

In that case why is Wifi encrypted? Anybody, could just have a look, ooops like Google did with its camera cars....

Wifi is encrypted to help stop people using your internet for free.

Originally Posted by Stuart C

And exactly why would anyone (apart from the police and companies like Phorm) want to know what you search for?

Googling medical conditions at work or on public networks? Looking for work at work? I guess not helpful when you follow a link but still. It's not something I need but I can't see how this helps people up to no good either.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Damien

Googling medical conditions at work or on public networks? Looking for work at work? I guess not helpful when you follow a link but still. It's not something I need but I can't see how this helps people up to no good either.

At work, possibly. Although, if anything were that personal, I wouldn't google it at work at all. Same with looking for other jobs. All it takes is for a work colleague to look at your screen at the wrong time. Not to mention the fact that the second you click on the link to go to the site, any network monitoring tools that might have picked up on the google search will almost certainly be triggered by something in the site you visit.

As for helping people up to no good, well, there are a *lot* of dodgy sites on Google.

I still don't really see how it will help anyone using google legitimately.

Originally Posted by Fresnillo

In that case why is Wifi encrypted? Anybody, could just have a look, ooops like Google did with its camera cars....

Wifi is encrypted because regardless of your google search results, there will be something your network carries that you need encrypted. Another good reason to encrypt is to stop unauthorised users on your network.

Originally Posted by Stuart C

At work, possibly. Although, if anything were that personal, I wouldn't google it at work at all. Same with looking for other jobs. All it takes is for a work colleague to look at your screen at the wrong time. Not to mention the fact that the second you click on the link to go to the site, any network monitoring tools that might have picked up on the google search will almost certainly be triggered by something in the site you visit.

As for helping people up to no good, well, there are a *lot* of dodgy sites on Google.

I still don't really see how it will help anyone using google legitimately.

But for illegitimate uses Google still have a record of what they searched for. It makes no difference if the network traffic was encrypted. I think it's just paranoia, the more I think of it there is no gain because whenever you leave google the traffic is open again.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

I don't think there is a legitimate reason that the average consumer would want https protected searches.

Because i don't want a Phorm type service installed at my ISP from potentially using my surfing data to make money or serve me adds. As soon as this is available i will switch to it.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Damien

But for illegitimate uses Google still have a record of what they searched for. It makes no difference if the network traffic was encrypted. I think it's just paranoia, the more I think of it there is no gain because whenever you leave google the traffic is open again.

In fairness, I don't think it's that useful for dodgy purposes either. If the police used network monitoring tools to determine someone was searching for something illegal, I am not sure any evidence gathered would be admissible.

I wonder if Google realised how much their image would be damaged by the WiFi admission, and wanted to implement something that would be (relatively) easy to implement and would appear to be preserving people's privacy.

---------- Post added at 22:23 ---------- Previous post was at 22:19 ----------

Originally Posted by Sirius

Because i don't want a Phorm type service installed at my ISP from potentially using my surfing data to make money or serve me adds

As soon as you click a link to a non https site, these DPI systems would pick up what you are browsing. HTTPS protected searches would have little impact on DPI systems unless you never actually visit any HTTP sites.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

As soon as you click a link to a non https site, these DPI systems would pick up what you are browsing. HTTPS protected searches would have little impact on DPI systems unless you never actually visit any HTTP sites.

Anything i can do to protect myself in anyway from phorm like services from another company or my ISP is in my mind something i have to do.

[Stuart]

And I don't think this will offer any protection.