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After updating to OS X 10.8.2, a number of people who use Apple's Parental Controls feature have reported that it is rejecting all Web sites that use the secure HTTPS protocol, which can include financial and educational sites, but also some popular commercial sites like Google.

Parental Controls allows an administrator to set time limits and content filters for a specific user account, including restrictions on Web access. Since secured Web sites that use the HTTP protocol cannot be properly examined for approval by this service, when site filtering is enabled they are blocked by default and … Read more

Searching on a popular search engine nowadays does not guarantee an anonymous state. When you click on a search result, your computer automatically sends information such as search terms, IP addresses, and the date and time that you landed on a site. But when this information is paired with additional account information, your odds of being uniquely identifiable increase tremendously.

For this week's Freeware Friday, check out some of our favorite tools to boost the privacy of your online experience and reduce leakage of sensitive information.

Disconnect (Firefox, Chrome) Disconnect is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari … Read more

The owner of the Qwikster Twitter handle is banking on selling it to Netflix, Verizon unveils a $99 4G LTE capable smartphone, and Google Wallet finally launches with support only on Sprint's Nexus S 4G phone so far.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

The security add-on for Firefox called HTTPS Everywhere (download) that forces HTTPS encryption on numerous popular Web sites has graduated to its first stable release, about a year after it was released into public beta.

The tool does not let you force HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) willy-nilly on Web sites. Instead, it includes a series of rules that supports sites that allow HTTPS encryption. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said in the blog post announcing the release that it encompasses more than 1,000 popular sites, including Google Search, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, bit.ly, GMX, Wordpress.com blogs, The New … Read more

Twitter has tweaked its security settings to offer an option to always enable Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, or HTTPS.

Although the more secure setting has always been available, in the past Twitter users had to browse specifically to https://twitter.com to take advantage of it. Now, the tighter security is a new option found in the Twitter settings page.

Clicking on your account name in Twitter and then selecting Settings brings up the appropriate page. From there, you'll see the new option at the bottom of the page. Checking "always use https" ensures that each Twitter … Read more

Sen. Charles Schumer wants online companies to switch to a more secure protocol to better protect consumers who access Web sites via public Wi-Fi hot spots.

The New York Democrat yesterday issued a call to such companies as Amazon and Twitter to switch their default pages to HTTPS from HTTP to help prevent cybercriminals from stealing online passwords and credit card numbers over public Wi-Fi networks. In his request, Schumer said that programs such as Firesheep allow even hackers with no programming skills to easily capture usernames, passwords, browsing history, and other private information from unsuspecting users in spots with … Read more

In response to complaints that a recent announcement of secure connections doesn't go far enough, Facebook said today that it's planning to roll out additional changes that would shield mobile devices and all apps from eavesdropping.

Last month, Facebook began offering the ability for users to turn on HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) to encrypt all communications with the site. However, F-Secure and others have noticed that some apps require users to switch to a regular HTTP connection to use the app, but don't warn users that the switch then becomes permanent.

Asked for comment, a Facebook … Read more

If you tend to fall for Facebook posts like "Lose 18 pounds now!" or "WTF I can't believe this picture of you is online!" I can't help you. But if you'd like to secure your Facebook sessions from hackers and spies, you're in luck.

Facebook is now rolling out a new security feature that enables HTTPS encryption throughout your Facebook session. This long-awaited feature, which encrypts data transferred during Facebook sessions, is designed to prevent attackers from compromising users' accounts.

Here's how to enable it:

Until now, the only way to … Read more

Facebook announced today that it is now offering users the ability to use encryption to protect their accounts from being compromised when they are interacting with the site, something security experts have been seeking for a while.

The site currently uses HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) when users log in with their passwords, but now everything a user does on the site will be encrypted if he turns the feature on, the company said in a blog post.

Enabling full-session HTTPS eliminates the ability for attackers to use tools like the Firefox plug-in called Firesheep to snoop on communications between … Read more