WordPress.com To Start Serving Pages Over SSL As Anti-Surveillance Measure

Automattic, the company that created and owns the WordPress publishing platform, is joining the battle against government surveillance.

The company announced today that it’ll begin serving pages on all of its WordPress.com subdomains only over SSL by the end of 2014.

Paul Sieminski, Automattic’s General Counsel, explained the move this way:

In the face of intrusive surveillance, we believe that everyone in the tech community needs to stand up and do what they can, starting with their own sites and platforms. For us, that means working to secure the connection between users and our websites. We’ll be serving all *.wordpress.com subdomains only over SSL by the end of the year.

If we’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that encryption, when done correctly, works. If we properly encrypt our sites and devices, we can make mass surveillance much more difficult.

The announcement is timed to coincide with Reset the Net, today’s campaign that involves dozens of tech companies (and others) calling for an end to internet surveillance. Many of the web’s biggest companies are part of the effort and have publicly called for surveillance reform. (See blog posts from Twitter, Yahoo and Microsoft. Google expressed its Reset The Net support earlier this week when it announced new email security transparency data.)

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Matt McGee

Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of MarTech Today. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.