Encryption, always important, is now easy

New York

TWENTY years after Netscape introduced encryption to Web browsers to safeguard the private data of Internet users, roughly two-thirds of Web traffic still moves on unprotected channels, according to research by Sandvine, a network equipment provider.

Whether you visit Amazon's product pages, stream a movie from Netflix or read the tax rules on the Internal Revenue Service's website, marketers and hackers can snoop on everything you do. But now, the computer industry and the US government have embarked on a major, multifront campaign to have basic Web encryption - known as HTTPS or TLS encryption - more widely adopted.

A non-profit group backed by several leading technology companies and advocacy groups, including Mozilla, Cisco Systems and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is offering a free set of services called Let's Encrypt to help website administrators incorporate HTTPS security into their sites. Tech giants such as Google and Apple are also flexing their power to encourage websites and mobile app makers to adopt basic…