Google has been gradually moving all of its online services to HTTPS encryption — you may even remember the excitement wayyyy back in 2008, when Gmail switched to HTTPS.
In a blog post published this morning, the company says that it’s now working to switch its advertising over as well. Specifically, it says YouTube ads and Google search ads for “a vast majority of users” are already encrypted. It also says that the “vast majority” of ads served via the Google Display Network, AdMob and DoubleClick will be encrypted by June 30, while advertisers buying through those platforms will have the option of serving HTTPS-encrypted ads.
The post doesn’t go into a lot of detail about why encryption matters in this context — I suppose it makes sense since these ads can use potentially sensitive data for targeting and personalization. Google does say that this is part of a broader “HTTPS Everywhere” initiative — it already announced that encryption will play a factor in its search rankings.
The company also points to a recent post from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, declaring that in 2015, “the advertising industry needs to finish catching up” and adopt HTTPS.
Update: An earlier version of the headline had the wrong date. Yes, it’s a pretty boneheaded error. But it’s fixed now.
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