Could you explain why browsers should flag sites like this? It's possible that I'm too naive to realize the issue, and I would appreciate some education on it.
EDIT: changed "blocked" to "flagged"
For a lot of people, a big scary warning page that says that a page is insecure is essentially a block. Yeah, you can still access it, but a lot fewer people will.
> let's be honest, it is not secure.
My original post is asking for an explanation of how it isn't secure. I would totally understand a browser warning if a user tries to submit a form over http, but for a page like the one I linked I don't see how it can adversely affect the user.
It's true that these things could also happen over an HTTPS connection, but then the prevention method is "don't go on sketchy websites." It's far more dangerous over HTTP because a user might already trust the site or author themselves.
I still don't see why either of those justify warning the user about the whole page. For the donation button, the browser could easily warn you with a big "insecure!" page when you click on the button. Regarding js exploits, I don't think https fixes that even for non-sketchy websites: I'm thinking of the js malware in ads and the recent cryptocurrency-mining ads on youtube.
But this implies that whenever you click on any link on a page served via HTTP, the browser should warn you with a big "insecure!" page. I think this is far more obtrusive than a simple "not secure" banner next to the URL.
> I don't think https fixes that even for non-sketchy websites
You're right, if the website served over HTTPS injects random JavaScript/is poorly designed. However, the danger with HTTP is that every single website is vulnerable to this attack, not simply the ones served by malicious or incompetent hosts.
The common refrain is to think about repressive governments and what they can (and do) do with this information, but even here in the States think about your ISPs selling your browsing history to advertisers. Or think about ISPs being required to report to the US Government whenever you visit some informative but http-only page about terrorism / chemistry that happens to also be used in explosives / infosec topics / etc. Consider being put on a watchlist simply for having viewed StackOverflow questions relating to XSS or SQLi vulnerabilities.
If you determine the word "insecure" to mean that security or privacy expectations held by the average user are being violated, then all HTTP-only pages are insecure -- not because you may be viewing modified information or because you may be submitting sensitive information, but because the fact that you visited that page while alone is something that the average user likely suspects is secret and/or private, but isn't. To put it bluntly: would you browse an HTTP-only porn site? I wouldn't.