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I think this has a lot more to do with Google punishing web results without https than it does with Snowden, couple that with Cloudflare and Let's Encrypt and you have an easy path.

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This is the more important factor at play here. Browsers (Google Chrome mainly) are forcing everyone to go SSL lest you end up with a 'insecure site' warning for all your visitors. Most websites don't care about NSA intercepting their data.

Practically speaking, i think you're right - the "not secure" badge of shame in chrome is the most important convincing factor for website owners.

but getting that through at google must have taken some convincing of various execs, and i'm sure snowden helped with that.

Yeah, Google has done much for privacy and it's kind of ironic how people believe those who say it's malicious. The only crime Google ever did was to be successful.

I think you can separate their punishing https with their lack of privacy in their core products.

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