You’re online. You’re purchasing a pair of handmade sheepskin moccasins. The website graphics aren't up to the usual standards. The site designer may have been someone's 5-year-old grandchild. You hesitate when it comes time to fill in your credit card information. Is your information protected? Is it safe to give personal information, or should you shop somewhere else?

One important bit is to verify you’re encrypted. When you fill out that online form with your name, address and credit card information, that information is sent to the seller who then processes your order. In the ancient past, we had something known as a “phone order”.  You called in and talked to a salesperson. Computers now save us the trouble and do the same thing electronically. But without encryption, we’re placing the order with a megaphone – anyone listening can steal our information. Using encryption means that only you and your store see your information. This is very important, as your information passes through a couple dozen locations on its way to the store.

How do you know you’re encrypted? There are two easy ways to check. If you answer with a “yes” to either point, you can feel safe in sending important information.

1) Look at your web page address. Does it begin with “https”? That letter “s” at the end indicates a secure page.

2) Look at the very bottom right of your browser window. Do you see a small picture of a yellow padlock? If so, you’re secure.

These are handy ways to find out when and if it’s safe to send confidential information. This applies to more than just dealing with credit card payments. For example, my email provider secures the password to my email account, so the transmission of my password is safe. However, the messages I create are not encrypted in any way. Therefore, I know not to email anybody secret stuff, because there’s a much greater chance I’d be “overheard”. Just because you use an encrypted password to get in somewhere doesn’t mean you’re still encrypted after that point.

Finally, there’s still the basic question: Do you trust the store? Even if you have the best encryption possible, it doesn’t make any difference if the salesperson taking your credit card number is going to use it to buy his own BMW. Use what cues you can to determine if the site is reputable, like making sure they have a postal address. In addition, there are websites that track the authenticity and reliability of websites for online shoppers. These sites also have comments by users, both satisfied and grumpy. If you get any funny vibes from the site you’re purchasing, go somewhere else. You can buy anything on the Internet from many different sources, even if it’s handmade sheepskin moccasins.

Use these sites to get ratings for online merchants, and for more information on encryption:

http://shop.bizrate.com/ratings_guide/guide.xpml

http://www.ratings.net/internet.cfm

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/encryption.htm