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About One-Click Site ID

Firefox 3 contains a new site identity button to help you know who you’re connecting to when online.

This feature allows you to see at a glance whether the Web site you’re visiting has supplied information about their identity, who has verified that information, and whether they protect your information from eavesdroppers. You can access the site identity for any web site by clicking the site’s icon on the left edge of the location bar (or by typing Shift-Tab-Enter).

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the different levels of identity information mean?

The “passport officer” icon will change, to reflect the level of identity information supplied by the Web site.

The site doesn’t provide any identity information.

The site provides basic identity information, and protects your personal information from eavesdroppers.

The site provides fully verified identity information about its owner, and protects your personal information from eavesdroppers.

This site has been listed as an attack site or forgery. Giving this site personal information, or even visiting it, may be harmful.

Why don’t all Web sites supply verified identity information?

Most Web sites on the internet do not request any personal or financial information from visitors, and may not feel it necessary to undertake the cost of providing verified identity information and eavesdropping protection.

Web sites that do want you to supply personal or financial information, or that claim to represent government or business entities, should always identify themselves properly, and protect your information from eavesdroppers.

Is it safe to do business with sites that don’t identify themselves?

Deciding whom to trust online starts with knowing who you’re talking to, but that’s not the whole story. Sites that don’t provide identity information and don’t protect your personal information put you at risk, and should not be considered safe. But even sites that identify themselves properly might still have practices you disagree with, or lax Web site security.

Just like in the real world, you should use caution when interacting with sites you don’t know and trust. Knowing that the site has identified itself properly is part of making those trust decisions.

Does Mozilla verify this information for every Web site?

The information used to identify Web sites is not verified by Mozilla. Instead Firefox, like other browsers, relies on a set of trusted companies called “Certificate Authorities” who verify a site’s identity and issue identity “certificates”. These companies must adhere to the Mozilla CA Certificate Policy which, among other things, requires CAs to provide 3rd party audits confirming that they do not issue certificates inappropriately.

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