How-To Geek
Are You Using Facebook with an Encrypted Session Yet?
If you’re geeky and keep up with all the tech news, you probably already know that Facebook added an SSL feature, but for everybody else: You can make your Facebook profile more secure by turning this option on, and here’s how to do it.
All we’re going to do is head into the Facebook profile settings and then check a box that forces the use of SSL encryption whenever possible. Easy!
Enabling Facebook’s SSL Feature
Head into Account –> Account Settings from the menu over there on the right…
Then check the box for “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible”. Click Save, and that’s it.
Now that you’ve enabled this option, people finally won’t be able to hijack your session if you’re on an insecure wireless network.
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Comments (59)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 02/10/11
in italy, we can’t
Nice! Thanks for the tip, it’s a good one =]
Good one..
In Germany, we can’t too. Perhaps this feature in US-only? But why?
Why the hell is this not default??
does this slow our facebook ???
Who needs so much security on Facebook anyway? :D
Today i checked and it worked.I’m from Albania,so others from EU should check as well cuz it may work now.
This feature is not shown in my account settings. I am in the USA.
Disregard, looked again and found it.
Works in spain – thanks for the tip
It just started working for me yesterday. I did indeed set it up.
for german and other user go to http://www.facebook.com -> thats it :)
Protects against a 1 in a million chance that someone is snooping on your connection.
Only really going to be of use to high profile celebs where they are likely to be a target for this kind of thing.
The only thing that I don’t like about when you enable HTTPS is that chat is disabled. When I disabled HTTPS, chat was accessable again.
sure, already activated since few days (works fine in switzerland)
I am now but it would be better if Facebook rolled out the functionality to everyone at the same time.
Appreciate it’s a bit of a challenge but the internet is a global medium and otherwise people hear about the change, attempt it, find that it isn’t supported for their country and (crucially) forget about it.
(which is exactly what I did the last time they announced it)
it works for me and I’m from Colombia
In Saudi Arabia it’s not available yet :(
I’ve been using SSL with facebook since before the option existed. EFF offers a firefox plugin called HTTPS everywhere which uses https for facebook, google and a number of other sights be default. In additional I enabled the facebook option as well. Only problem is if you want to use google images or the like, you have to manually enter “images.google.com” but it’s a small price to pay for security.
Works fine in Romania :D
It works with firefox add-ons: https everywhere.
Works fine in Philippines.
This feature is not geographically deployed so it might take some time for you to use SSL.
in Roumania works :)
If the SSL hasn’t been pushed yet for some regions and you are running on firefox, I would recommend running HTTPS everywhere (http://www.eff.org/https-everywhere)
Works for me in Mexico
In Russia this feature works OK. Thanks for showing!
Yep I have been since that was rolled out to my account.
Works for me in the UK using Chrome, thanks for posting guys
Whenever I use an app that doesn’t work with HTTPS, it doesn’t just go back to HTTP for the app session. It changes the default back to HTTP. Anyone know why?
Some apps wont work when you use this feature. Not much of a problem for me but some may have an issue.
Yes, that’s the only way it works at school!
could never enable this until today in the UK for me. thanks for the heads up :)
Hello world.
Works fine here in Geneva, Switzerland.
Thanks for the tip… :-)
started it a few days before
works just fine in Egypt
On it’s own it works well and is a great addition, but doesn’t integrate with certain apps like the RSS redirect one. If you are browsing using the https that FB offers and click on an RSS link to an article that someone has posted, it will ask you to disable your FB https:-
“Sorry! We can’t display this content while you’re viewing Facebook over a secure connection (https).
To use this app, you’ll need to switch to a regular connection (http).”
I think Facebook should bug check their https protocols before implementing them first.
Would this be of any benefit for someone who isn’t using a wireless connection?
Yeah yeah yeah even thought HTTPS uses SSL and mostly TLS to encrypt data, spyware and malware can annonymously install a rootkit with a keylogger on your computer and capture all of your input before it makes it to the HTTPS encryption process. Just be safe when browsing the NET. :)
Always remember:
“There is no such a thing as a free lunch”
if you use a third party instant messenger like pidgin or trillian turning this on makes them not be able to connect
Thanks Lowell Heddings.
Thanx, it works in Kenya.
Works fine in Brazil. Great tip!
Google chrome does not support it fully….we can use facebook on google chrome with a red cross on “https” while firefox Supports it fully….as it shows everything secured properly unlike chrome…
Thanks for this Tip! We all know alot, but we dont know everything, nor do we think of good stuff at the same time. And this is a GREAT TIP. Glad to have you all coming to my email lol.
It’s it true that once you sign out of your FB account and sign back in, their https function DOES NOT automatically turn on?
I recall reading a comment from another article on How-To Geek that said that was the case. Supposedly, you essentially cannot set FB’s https function to work in default mode, though FB gives the impression that you can.
Has that been anyone’s experience?
thanks guys
Nope not in Canada yet.
In Italy works!
THe new https feature states “whenever possible” on the box to select encryption. The https feature works for links to sites that are not secure, but it disables playing videos that are posted as links to profiles. In order to see video links I posted, I have to turn this feature off. Could this possibly be one of the “whenever possible” exceptions??
I LIKE the added security of encryption when possible, but the inadvertent disabling of videos is problematic, in my view.
best regards,
Deenie Tallant
If you want security and Privacy… GET RID OF FACEBOOK
They sell all of your DATA to about 120 different major DATAcompanies…
SSL does not secure anything…
Facebook, Twitter, and All social network purpose is to associate persoal character data to you to sell
so they can profile you…. among other things
It works in the UK, thanks for the tip.
Same here from Italy, it’s ok and working :)
Works fine in kuwait(middle east)
Same here for UAE, Middle East.
works fine in Jamaica
Works fine in Argentina! =)
why it wont work in phillipines can anyone help me
It Works in Malaysia …many thanks .
It sure works but you can’t load the games in Facebook which sucks really.I’m totally at a loss.