Security News > 2023 > May > Chrome's HTTPS padlock heads to Google Graveyard

Logowatch Google plans to retire the padlock icon that appears in the Chrome status bar during a secure HTTPS web browsing session because the interface graphic has outlived its usefulness.

Today's Chrome lock icon currently oversees a broad portfolio of functions.

Despite various interface changes in recent years to clarify that a secure, encrypted connection does not guarantee the trustworthiness of a website, only 11 percent of web users surveyed by Google in 2021 understood the limited meaning of the lock icon.

So following the presumably successful experimental removal of the icon in Chrome 93 two years ago, the lock icon is finally on its way out and into the famous Google Graveyard alongside Stadia and friends.

As to what the tune icon signifies, that's open to interpretation.

The tweaked tune icon is slated to debut in Chrome 117, due in early September 2023.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/05/03/google_chrome_padlock/