Say goodbye to chrome's misleading icon 🔒
Tags: google, chrome
Published: 2023-05-17 18:26:00

Hello everyone 🙋🏼‍♂️,
In this article, I will talk about google chrome's misleading icons which can be seen 👀 in the URL bar which is this 👉 🔒

- Why I think this is the best move by Google and should have been done very early.

- Now you might be wondering what's your problem with the padlock it indicates that the website is secure and has https.


![what's your problem](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/2iocduin9ir36pmgay6x.gif)

- Well my dear friend let me tell you that, that icon is misleading, in many articles I have seen that, people say 
if you want to stay away from fake and phishing sites and want your data to be protected check that lock icon on the browser, if it shows a lock icon it means that website is safe to use and you can enter your details there

- but what they don't know is even though that lock is shown it is not guaranteed that website is secure for you and you can not assume that your data will be protected 

**Now you might be wondering what**.....?


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/uathoiqdzfymy4yimh07.gif)


By many articles and youtuber videos, you might be told that sites that shows lock icons are safe, well that's true but not 100% it can be just a little, because when you see that lock icon on the address bar it just indicates that no one can read the data between you and the website 
but no one knows what is on the website

so no one can meddle in between which is also known as man in the middle attack but once data reaches the site it is in the developer's hand how the developer keeps it

so let's just say I made a phishing site ( which I don't but let's just assume ) that looks exactly the same as Facebook now I share that site with you, you just check that website has a lock icon and enter your Facebook login and the password voila now I have access to your Facebook login and password 😈

but you might say then how did you get the lock icon, the answer is I got it for free, yes you heard it right, as a developer I can deploy my site on a 5$ machine on the internet and get that lock icon for my site for just free.

Thus, this lock icon does not always means that the website is safe and secure.

So now you might be wondering how can I check the authenticity of that website.

Hmm....,
Here are a few steps which you can check to ensure the authenticity of that website.

1. Check for domain name - remember the Facebook example I gave before - I do not own a Facebook domain but if it is a phishing site then it might have a domain like **faceebook.com** or **faceboook.com** which is hard to see, but you can check if you just pay little more attention

2. Often we become victims of these spam sites because we are getting something that is too good to be true like 90%off on iPhone or some expensive things which we are getting for pennies, just remember on the internet there is nothing too good to be true (or it is just too hard to find these kinds of things.) at that time you can check for domain name age by going to who. is's website and you can also check other people's reviews online

You can read more about it here on [chromium's blog.](https://blog.chromium.org/2023/05/an-update-on-lock-icon.html)

To conclude, the presence of a lock icon does not guarantee the security of a website. It's essential to adopt a comprehensive approach to ensure your online safety. Pay attention to the domain name, be cautious of suspicious offers, and utilize additional security indicators such as trust seals, certifications, and reputable reviews.

By being vigilant and practicing these steps, you can protect yourself from falling victim to phishing attacks

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