Timeline of HTTPS adoption

This timeline gives a history of HTTPS usage and adoption, describing the gradual increase in websites and clients using HTTPS. HTTPS is a secure, encrypted version of HTTP and has been implemented using Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). The timeline spans the period from 1994, when HTTPS and SSL were first introduced on, to 2019, by which time, thanks to the efforts of Google, Mozilla, and many privacy-focused organizations, HTTPS is uniquitous and accounts for more traffic than plain, unencrypted HTTP.

Sample questions

 * What were the major Internet standards related to HTTPS and when were they defined? (Sort the Full timeline by "Entity type" and look for the group of rows for which this says "Standard")
 * When did various leading news sites migrate to HTTPS, and what challenges did they face while migrating? (Sort the Full timeline by "Entity type" and look for the group of rows for which this says" Website"; scan the "Entity name" column to find the news websites or other sites of interest to you; then read the "Details" column and look at the cited reference)
 * How can we get quantitative data on how many sites and how much traffic uses HTTPS? (Sort the Full timeline by "Entity type" and look for the rows for which this says "Report" or "Report/Observatory")

Entity types and qualitative details
HTTPS is an end-to-end protocol. Therefore, it need only be supported by the browser (on the client side) and the server (it could be terminated at the load balancer or proxy or dealt with directly by the process serving the content).

Other intermediaries, like Internet Service Providers (ISPs), routers, networking services, etc. do not need to be upgraded to support HTTPS. The main effects on them from the transition to HTTPS are: (a) the ability of their s to sniff traffic reduces, and (b) the volume of traffic they deal with goes up a little bit.

How the timeline was built
The initial version of the timeline was written by User:Vipul.

What the timeline is still missing

 * : RFC
 * Encrypted SNI: Draft standard
 * Encrypted SNI: Draft standard

Timeline update strategy

 * Keep pace with the latest developments in HTTPS
 * Look for articles about websites and services transitioning to HTTPS
 * Use the Wayback Machine to identify dates of transition to HTTPS