[Cthulhu_]

In my country and probably a lot more, you'd be held legally responsible if by any means customer data would leak out. Be it stuff sent over a wire unencrypted, or an account with administrator access being compromised due to unencrypted password transfer.

I dare you to go to a hacker or security conference once, just for kicks. Connect to any wifi there, log in. See what happens.

[johndoe4589]

I don't have "customers" though. I thought this was implicit but maybe I needed to clear that up. Sure makes no difference to security. But that is the consideration when Google pushes everyone to have to buy SSL, even those who just have a hobby. I've just been venting frustration a little bit as to seeing the web change from the playground it used to be to a much more regulated thing, but so it goes. Times change :)