What does the browser padlock symbol mean?

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19 Comments

  1. Thanks for a very helpful document.

    My nonprofit has a Website and find that we collect credit card info on a page that has no padlock or https in address bar. There is a padlock below the line which contain the credit card and CVV. But the padlock is after the confidential info is collected but presumably before it is transmitted to the contractor’s web site. The contractor maintains that the data is secure. Is it?

    1. Good question but I don’t understand what you mean by “There is a padlock below the line which contain the credit card and CVV” – is that just an image of a padlock on the page? If so, that wouldn’t have any affect on anything. And you can’t really split a page in half saying one half is secure and the other half isn’t. Maybe reply and explain that some more or give me the URL.

      If the form on the page “submits to” (technical term meaning “go to”) a secure script/page, then the information IS transmitted securely.

  2. Absolutely fantastic article detailing the Pad Locks appearances and its meaning and what happens under the hood. THANKS !!

  3. You are awesome, man. You answered everything clear and concise. So many people on help sites just blabber on and on and you just get bored and get no answers!! You hit a homerun on this one! I for sure will read your site from here on in! Enjoy the weekend! Thank you again for cutting through the nonsense and giving a clear answer!

  4. It is good to know a website is secure by it showing a padlock. I take it that all that I type into that webpage will be encrypted on their end. But is it still not possible that someone could be recording all my keystrokes on my PC? So all that data I type can still be stolen from me.

    I have Avira and Malwarebytes but I don’t know if they are not [vulnerable] in some way.

    1. Good question!

      Yes, a keystroke logger, malware or anything like that on your computer can still gather information even though a website connection is secure. The padlock (SSL certificate) only encrypts the data between your computer and the server that hosts the website – nothing more. Yes, it’s encrypted both ways, so on the website’s side as well.

  5. Hi,

    The padlock maybe a good thing, but it is taking 10 to 15 minutes to go to the internet site I want. Such as BT.com through Switch for internet comparison, or when I sign a petition for 38Degrees in the UK. If its too slow, how can I turn it off on my Macbook Pro 13 2012 running El Capitan. Recently upgraded security El Capitan and thats when it encrypted my hard drive I thought, oh good its more dafe now! But its a pain waiting to go to my regular backward progress

  6. Helllo

    My fiance and I are have a discussion about internet security.

    If there is only and I showing and not a green secure symbol is this good or Bad?

    My fiance says the I mean information.

    I am thinking it means and insecure site and you should not place personal information on it and any information received from such site may be foul too.

    What is the correct answer CIA?

    If there is both symbols showing what does that mean also?

    Thank You
    For your answers

    1. Hi Wayne,

      Parts of your message are missing or something but a symbol that’s totally green means every item on that page came through securely. Is there a risk if an image or two did not come through securely? No but people that run websites should make sure those problems don’t exist.

  7. February 11, 2017 Sunday Urgent Urgent Urgent

    Should a lock (padlock) look the same at all website addresses? The lock is regular at protonmail.com email account log in page in the address bar but on the page itself the lock has a down arrow design in white. When I log in the tab to the browser changes to an I in a circle without me causing it to. I am not sure if I should continue to use my email account.

  8. Hello, I can see that this is a bit of an older post, but I am hoping to receive an answer. I purchased unknowingly from a website that had the lower case I symbol within a circle. At the time, I was ignorant of the importance of the padlock. I put in a review, in which I mentioned the security issue…they denied it and responded that “my review did not meet their guidelines”. That is fine that they censor reviews, they have that right I suppose, but is there anything I can do or anybody that I can report them to? As I now believe that this is being done intentionally, as they did not apologize, acknowledge the issue, etc. I emailed them again, and they never responded. I checked the website and it sill is showing up as unsecure, and I know others probably are ignorant of this as well. I just would hate for these people to get away with this. It seems sketchy as the company is UK based, but spread to California as well. The person who tried to charge over 1,000 on my card was from the UK so I am concerned that this is intentional, as the company is based there….. maybe my concerns are unfounded. Please help!

    1. Hi Nicole,

      I’ll try to help.

      A lower case symbol with a circle sounds more like a copyright symbol than a padlock, so I’m not sure what you mean there.

      Typically, a review is for a product, so telling them about a website security issue in a product review would be something they would reject. If there’s another way to communicate with them like a Contact Us form, do that.

      As my article explains, the page might actually be secure if the one you get to after you submit a form is secure. Maybe that’s what is going on.

      The best thing is to just not use a website that has security that doesn’t look good.

  9. My website padlock outline shows black but is clear on inside of black outline. In other words it does not show green, yellow or red. Just a black outline. Pleas answer as I worry a lot.

  10. Do you know how to make a lock screen asking for per2mission to show your location? I want to put a built in location map on my blogger blog.

  11. I think your website is hacked. Any time I click on interesting me link it open the page below and was no way back. I’m not giving my website address since I’m not sure what is going on. tree days ago I notice sevire slownes of my website and I’m looking for ansver what is cosing it.
    I checked with the server and I was toled my website has a normous trafic. It completly surprise me becouse I asked which pages and it was wp-admin (it’s me) and contact page. So all spam I guess.
    https://deals.bullionmax.com/silver-bar-giveaway/all-entries/

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