Make Firefox Alert You When You Send Information Unencrypted

December 23, 2008 – 8:09 PM

Here’s a quick little tip for users that might not know enough about internet security and privacy to stop and look for SSL/TLS (https://) when submitting forms on the web.  Or maybe the form page itself is on an unencrypted page, but the data actually gets sent encrypted when the Submit button is pressed.  Or even worse, the form page is encrypted but your data gets sent unencrypted.  There are many different scenarios that could take place that could leave your data exposed.  You wouldn’t know any of this without checking the source code to see the form action.  Most people do not go this in depth when submitting forms.  They may quickly glance up and look for https:// or quickly glance down and look for a padlock, but that’s normally it.  They submit the data without even thinking about it.

There’s a setting in Firefox that will prompt you when you submit data through the browser that’s unencrypted.  Go to Tools > Options > Security.  Click the Settings button in the bottom section titled Warning Messages and select the option to alert you when you submit information that’s not encrypted:

Now when you submit information that’s not encrypted you will get a friendly reminder with an option to Continue or Cancel: