Podcast
Root Causes 300: Chrome Eliminates the Lock Icon


Hosted by
Tim Callan
Chief Compliance Officer
Jason Soroko
Fellow
Original broadcast date
May 5, 2023
Google Chrome has announced that it will eliminate the lock icon in September. We explain what Google will be doing, its stated rationale, and the pros and cons of this decision.
Podcast Transcript
Lightly edited for flow and brevity.
So, the May 2 post on the Chromium blog, 2023, says An Update on the Lock Icon. The lock icon. So, I don’t know if we should start with a history of the lock icon or we should talk about what they say. Maybe we will start with, Jason, what does this blog post say in a nutshell?
I always thought that a lock symbol was kind of obvious. It would kind of signal you as a user to think about what are the security settings of this within the address bar and now we are moving to this – you even had to look it up, Tim. I had to look it up. The tune icon.
It’s like geez, I don’t know. I don’t know what the means and is it settings? Is it the settings of Chrome? Is it the settings of the website that I’m - - like who knows. It’s not super clear to me.
I get it. I understand that it is their browser and they get to do what they want and, when I can go get 65% or 70% or whatever it is of the user in the world to use my browser then I get to do what I want too. I understand all that. This one I just I’m skeptical that’s it’s really better for users just based on the huge amount of knowledge that already exists in this existing UX.

