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Firefox 4.0 - How do I tell Firefox 4.0 to tell me "I am about to view an encrypted page," and show the "Gold Lock" symbol on the lower right hand corner of the page indictating that the page I am on is indeed encrypted and secure?

  • 4 replies
  • 42 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I've just installed 4.0. I imported my old bookmarks and everything appeared to be operating normally. I then went to my "Citibank web page" to pay some bills.

First off I noticed that I was not given the usual warning that "I am about to view an encrypted page." Secondly, once on the sing-in" page I found that the "gold lock" that normally (i.e. in past vers) appears on the lower right hand corner of the screen, was not there. In fact, it was nowhere on the page.

Because that "Gold Lock" indicating to me that the information I type on that page is encrypted, and thus, secure, I did not enter my personal information. Instead, I opened up "Tools - Options" and then clinked on the Security Tab to place a check mark in "Warning Messages Settings" box labeled - "I am about to view an encrypted page" - believing that to be the problem. However, I found that Firefox 4.0 apparently doesn't allow you to adjust these settings as the "Warning Messages Setting" box was not offered on the page.

So then, my question is, how do I get 4.0 to indication to me (via the Gold Lock, plus, the warning message that "I am about to enter an encrypted page") that the page I am on is encrypted and thus, safe???? Joe

I've just installed 4.0. I imported my old bookmarks and everything appeared to be operating normally. I then went to my "Citibank web page" to pay some bills. First off I noticed that I was not given the usual warning that "I am about to view an encrypted page." Secondly, once on the sing-in" page I found that the "gold lock" that normally (i.e. in past vers) appears on the lower right hand corner of the screen, was not there. In fact, it was nowhere on the page. Because that "Gold Lock" indicating to me that the information I type on that page is encrypted, and thus, secure, I did not enter my personal information. Instead, I opened up "Tools - Options" and then clinked on the Security Tab to place a check mark in "Warning Messages Settings" box labeled - "I am about to view an encrypted page" - believing that to be the problem. However, I found that Firefox 4.0 apparently doesn't allow you to adjust these settings as the "Warning Messages Setting" box was not offered on the page. So then, my question is, how do I get 4.0 to indication to me (via the Gold Lock, plus, the warning message that "I am about to enter an encrypted page") that the page I am on is encrypted and thus, safe???? Joe

All Replies (4)

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The padlock has been replaced by the site identity button, for details on using it see https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Site+Identity+Button

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If the Site Identity Button is to show the encryption status with a color, the colors could be better chosen.

An unsecure connection should not be indicated by an innocuous color like gray. It should be a warning color like red.

A secure connection could be better indicated by gold -- the color of the lock symbol. The extended valuation certificate which almost no site yet presents could be green or a royal purple.

Best, of course, would have been to include the lock symbol -- which has been standard for quite some time -- as an extension to the right of the Site Identity button. Identity and encryption are really separate, independent properties and need separate symbols.

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If you want to add a padlock icon to the location bar, you can use the Padlock add-on - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/padlock-icon/

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An insecure connection means that there is no encryption used to connect to the server. In such a case you see a normal http:// link on the location bar. If there is a secure https:// connection used then the Site Identity Button can give information about the connection.