Before browsers screamed bloody murder over http, a MITM could defeat SSL by acting as the SSL endpoint and forwarding everything as plain http. And back then, the only indication was lack of a 16px lock icon and a missing "s" in "https".
It's additionally daft to think that just because the page is public knowledge, a specific person reading the page is never sensitive information. As a blunt example, Wikipedia is obviously public knowledge. If you are a Chinese national reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests... then the CCP might like to know your location.
Before browsers screamed bloody murder over http, a MITM could defeat SSL by acting as the SSL endpoint and forwarding everything as plain http. And back then, the only indication was lack of a 16px lock icon and a missing "s" in "https".
It's additionally daft to think that just because the page is public knowledge, a specific person reading the page is never sensitive information. As a blunt example, Wikipedia is obviously public knowledge. If you are a Chinese national reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests... then the CCP might like to know your location.