For example, an icon similar to the SSL encryption key-prevalent in e-commerce transactions-may pop up to indicate that a site matches a user's privacy tolerance level.

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Browser-based cryptography also means that anyone who breaks the SSL encryption that protects the data sent by the server could tamper with the code just as easily.

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Assange has blamed the delay of his new leak platform in part on vulnerabilities in the SSL encryption commonly used on websites, after a year that saw several of the companies ensuring the authenticity of encrypted sites compromised and used to issue fraudulent certificates.

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The report measures the rise of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption within corporate Internet traffic, as well as other applications that complicate filtering by hopping between ports and other programs that are purposefully designed to evade monitoring.

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Appelbaum, a developer for the Tor anonymity network and a past volunteer for WikiLeaks, says that SafeHouse insecurely implements Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, the protection meant to render any data passed between a user and a website unreadable.

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The flaws are all related to the way apps handle SSL and TLS protocols, both of which are used to handle encryption between websites and end users.

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Partly in response to the resulting interest in online privacy and campaigns by groups like Access Now and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to universalize Web encryption, companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter have all added SSL capabilities.

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