The Wikimedia Foundation is in the process of implementing HTTPS for all of their sites, including one of the most popular sites on the net, Wikipedia. Their intention is to improve security for all their users by encrypting traffic. Wikimedia will also be using HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) which should help prevent "breaking" HTTPS and allowing interception of data.
According to Wikimedia, "encryption makes it more difficult for governments and other third parties to monitor your traffic. It also makes it harder for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to censor access to specific Wikipedia articles and other information." Accessing Wikipedia through HTTPS has been possible before now, by using HTTPS Everywhere, or for users who logged into the site.
The folks at Wikimedia go on to say, "we believe encryption makes the web stronger for everyone. In a world where mass surveillance has become a serious threat to intellectual freedom, secure connections are essential for protecting users around the world. Without encryption, governments can more easily survey sensitive information, creating a chilling effect, and deterring participation, or in extreme cases they can isolate or discipline citizens. Accounts may also be hijacked, pages may be censored, other security flaws could expose sensitive user information and communications. Because of these circumstances, we believe that the time for HTTPS by default is now. We encourage others to join us as we move forward with this commitment."
There are some concerns regarding HTTPS as default, as it can have a negative effect on loading times for those with slow connections, but these possible issues are being addressed as well as possible in the Wikimedia servers. The change to HTTPS should be finished within a few weeks.
Over the next few years, I believe we will witness a whole scale movement of major sites like Wikipedia to encrypted connections. Concerns of spying by governments and commercial entities is increasing constantly, and HTTPS may become the norm very soon.
You can read the announcement at the Wikimedia blog.
