Facebook Adds Social Authentication and HTTPS Login Capability

This Friday is Data Privacy Day, an international effort by governments, businesses and advocacy groups to raise awareness about the importance of staying in control of personal information. A key part of controlling information has always been protecting it from security threats like viruses, malware and hackers.

Starting today we'll provide you with the ability to experience Facebook entirely over HTTPS. You should consider enabling this option if you frequently use Facebook from public Internet access points found at coffee shops, airports, libraries or schools. The option will exist as part of our advanced security features, which you can find in the "Account Security" section of the Account Settings page.

At Facebook we strive to put people at the center of all of our products and to design every experience you have on the site to be social. This is obvious in products like photos, where pictures are organized around the people that appear in them. We also want to bring the benefits of social design to experiences where you wouldn't traditionally expect them, like account security. Social authentication is our latest effort toward this goal.

The vast majority of people who have used Facebook have never experienced a security problem. However, if we detect suspicious activity on your account, like if you logged in from California in the morning and then from Australia a few hours later, we may ask you to verify your identity so we can be sure your account hasn't been compromised.