"Your connection is not private": what it means and how to fix it

"Your connection is not private" means your browser couldn't confirm that the website is really the one it claims to be, so it stopped before loading the page. The check rests on the website's SSL certificate. When it fails, the problem lies with the website, the network you're on or your own device. What you do next depends on whether you're visiting the website or it's yours.

What does "Your connection is not private" mean?

It means the certificate check failed. Over an HTTPS connection, your browser first checks the website's SSL certificate. The certificate identifies the domain, a bit like a passport. It also lets the browser encrypt everything you send and receive, so nobody in between can read or change it.

If the browser can't trust the certificate, it stops and shows a full-page warning instead of the website. Safari runs the same check and shows a certificate warning of its own, which may read "This Connection Is Not Secure" instead of "This connection is not private". Under the message there's usually an error code that tells you where to look. NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID, for example, points to the clock on your device. NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID has causes of its own, which have their own section further down.

Should you continue to the site anyway?

Don't continue if you need to log in, pay or share personal details. Chrome itself advises you to enter no personal information and, if you can, not to use the website at all. Someone could see what you send.

If you only want to read a page on a website you know, and you've ruled out the simple causes below, you can go on with caution. Treat the page as public, though: anything you type there could be seen by someone else.

There's no need to panic. The warning appears before the page loads, and the cause can be as simple as a wrong clock or a Wi-Fi network you haven't signed in to yet. Be more careful if the link came in an email or a text message you weren't expecting. Messages like that are often phishing, so check them for the signs of phishing emails. Fake websites sometimes copy a real website's address with one or two letters changed. If the address looks even slightly off, close the page and type the address you know yourself.

Our advice: run the checks below before you go on. If the warning stays on a website where you'd log in or pay, contact the website's owner rather than clicking past it.

How to fix "Your connection is not private" as a visitor

If the warning appears on every website you open, check your internet connection first. If it appears on one website only, run the checks below anyway. When none of them helps, the certificate is most likely the website's to fix.

Start with the clock. The warning may say "Your clock is behind" or "Your clock is ahead", or show NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID. In that case, set the correct date and time on your device and reload the page. If the warning still appears when you open a site in Chrome, work through these checks, in the order Google gives them for this error:

1. On public Wi-Fi, such as in a cafe or at an airport, open any page that starts with http:// (http://example.com, for instance) and sign in to the network there.
2. On a computer, open the page in an Incognito window. If it opens there and an extension doesn't work, turn that extension off.
3. Make sure your device, such as a Windows PC or a Mac, is up to date.
4. If your antivirus offers 'HTTPS protection' or 'HTTPS scanning', turn the antivirus off for a moment and reload the page. If the page then works, turn it off again each time you use secure websites. Turn it back on when you've finished.
5. If you still get the error, contact the website owner, since the certificate is then theirs to fix.

In Safari, click Show Certificate to see what's wrong. It may say the certificate isn't trusted, was signed by an untrusted issuer, or names someone other than the website owner. In any of those cases, click Cancel and let the owner know.

Don't install a certificate yourself to make the warning disappear. Google calls that a security risk in most cases.

What NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID means and how to fix it

NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID is about the certificate's issuer, and how you fix it depends on where you see it. A certificate someone makes themselves, instead of getting it from a certificate authority, isn't trusted by other people's browsers.

On a work computer, Google explains that the error can come from a proxy, security software your employer uses to inspect HTTPS traffic, such as Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks or Fortinet. The certificate that proxy needs is then usually missing from your computer. Ask your IT administrator to fix it, rather than adding the certificate yourself.

Some of an organisation's internal sites use a self-signed certificate, one that no certificate authority issued. Check with the organisation before you trust it.

On your own computer, if you see the code on several websites, go through the visitor checks above, the antivirus one in particular. On a public website, the certificate is the owner's to fix: leave the website and let the owner know.

Why your own website shows "Your connection is not private"

An expired SSL certificate is one reason your own website can show the warning. Certificates have a set expiry date, and once it has passed, browsers show the warning to your visitors. Certificates from Let's Encrypt are valid for 90 days by default, so they need renewing often. If your website is hosted elsewhere, ask your host whether the certificate has expired and how it's renewed.

If your website runs on our web hosting, the certificate comes with your plan and we renew it for you. We issue it for domains that use the name servers we provide, the servers that hold your domain's DNS settings. In rare cases, something goes wrong with a renewal. If your website is hosted with us and shows the warning, check these points:

1. Open your site's secure HTTPS address in your browser to confirm that the certificate is the problem.
2. If you registered or transferred the domain recently, wait: the certificate can take up to 24 hours to start working.
3. Check that the domain uses our name servers. If it uses another host's name servers, change them to ours. A name server change can take up to 72 hours to reach everyone, although it often takes a few hours. If your domain is still on our older hosting platform, you can add a record at the other host instead, as our help article on SSL with another host's name servers explains. In either case, it can take up to 24 hours before the certificate is active.
4. If HTTPS worked before and suddenly stopped, or still doesn't work after 24 hours, contact our support team so they can check the certificate.

Every hosting plan includes an SSL certificate, so the connection is secure for your visitors.

How to keep the warning off your website

Wherever your website is hosted, make sure its certificate is renewed before the expiry date. With us, the certificate you get by default is a free Wildcard SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt, included with your hosting plan. It can be used with multiple subdomains of your domain, so an address like shop.yourdomain.co.uk doesn't need a certificate of its own. If you ever move your DNS to another provider, check your website over HTTPS again.

Open your own website over HTTPS from time to time, as a visitor would, so you spot an expired certificate before they do. To hand that job over, choose one of our hosting plans, where the certificate is included and renewed for you.