Last week I had to use IE6 for a web shop to work. The total session included the payment via PayPal, and I had a very unsafe feeling about all this.

I know it. Many front-end developers like me don’t really like the browser because of the numerous bugs in its rendering engine. But my feelings were because of the security bugs. Since the release of IE7 over a year ago, Microsoft only fixes the most threatening exploits. The total usage of IE7 is fifty percent, so the other fifty percent is IE6 (and sometimes IE5.5).

However, I think I have a solution to make users aware of browsers. Unlike us as developers, they simply use ‘the Internet’, and not ‘a browser’. And because they’re not aware enough, they simply do not update them.

My solution is as following. I may assume all banks and web services like PayPal care about security. And since they do, it is very important their costumers safely use their online banking. I mean a safe and up to date browser and OS. The ‘client side’ is the only thing they cannot control.

So, what if your bank’s website simply detects if you use a safe browser and OS? The first one can easily be done with a conditional comment. Detecting the last one is impossible (you cannot fetch what updates are installed). If the web service detects an unsafe browser, it can simply display a text including a link with more information. This would work much like the IsItAFuckingIrritatingBrowser web page, made by my Fronteers friend Krijn.

By the way, in The Netherlands we had an awareness campaign a while ago. Some commercials explained that users had to ‘check’ the security, website and payment. However, it was not explained how to do that, and the conversion rate is quite low. It is much more effective if you want to pay 300 Dollar or Euro with your online banking and you see a message that it might be unsafe to do with your current browser (of course not called ‘browser’).

I’m interested if any bank or service does something like this. Links? Screenshots? Anyone?