You may not know this yet, but Haute Secure is the blog community's public enemy number one right now. The service is still in beta but I can foresee it having damaging effects on the reputations of popular blogs.

If a visitor is browsing with Internet Explorer and has the Haute Secure application installed, the visitor will receive warnings in the upper left of the browser's toolbar under certain conditions:

  • You use FeedBurner for your feeds. An orange warning will be received.
  • You display Google Ads. An orange warning will be received.
  • You display Alexa statistics. A red warning will be received.

If an orange warning is received, the content will still be received. If a red warning is received, the content is blocked. I wonder how many other services, that bloggers use, are generating orange or red warnings.

One of my readers pointed out that his browser was flagging my Alexa badge as malware — he received a red warning. I don't know how many people are using the Haute Secure application, or how many will end up using it, but I don't want visitors avoiding my blog just because of orange and red warnings. I removed the Alexa badge.

I don't get thousands of visitors a day, so any negative effect on my blog would be negligible. What about blogs that do get thousands of visitors a day? I may be wrong, but I think it could have a serious impact on their traffic.

I don't know what we, as bloggers, can do about it. Does anyone have any suggestions?