Bender the Bot

This user account is a bot that uses AutoWikiBrowser, operated by bender235 (talk). It is used to make repetitive automated or semi-automated edits that would be extremely tedious to do manually, in accordance with the bot policy. The bot is approved and currently active – the relevant request for approval can be seen here.
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HTTP → HTTPS

The purpose of this bot is to convert existing external links on Wikipedia, wherever possible, from HTTP to HTTP Secure (HTTPS), i.e. from an unencrypted to an encrypted transport protocol. There are three reasons for using HTTPS: (i) data is sealed from eavesdropping on the internet cable (privacy) which also prevents censorship, (ii) data cannot be manipulated (integrity), and (iii) data came from the correct source (authentication). Rather than further elaborating (but have a look here), here are some news reports emphasizing the importance of each point.

Privacy (prevents eavesdropping and censorship)

"How ISPs can sell your Web history—and how to stop them". Ars Technica. March 24, 2017. As we discussed earlier, your ISP can't see what you do on an HTTPS-enabled website. For example, the ISP knows when you visit https://arstechnica.com, but it doesn't see which articles you're reading.

"Analyzing Accessibility of Wikipedia Projects Around the World". Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. May 25, 2017. In fact, our study finds there was less censorship in June 2016 than before Wikipedia's transition to HTTPS-only content delivery in June 2015. [...] This finding suggests that the shift to HTTPS has been a good one in terms of ensuring accessibility to knowledge.

Integrity (prevents data manipulation)

"Linux bug leaves 1.4 billion Android users vulnerable to hijacking attacks". Ars Technica. August 15, 2016. The tl;dr is for Android users to ensure they are encrypting their communications by using VPNs, [or] ensuring the sites they go to are encrypted [...]

"Bad Traffic: Sandvine's PacketLogic Devices Used to Deploy Government Spyware in Turkey and Redirect Egyptian Users to Affiliate Ads?". Citizen Lab. March 9, 2018. The findings of this report also illustrate the urgent need for ubiquitous adoption of HTTPS by website developers.

Authentication (prevents phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks)

"Why Public WiFi Hotspots Are Trouble Spots for Users". AOL.com. March 10, 2013.

Tasks

Done Archive.org (WP:BFRA)
Done Google News, Google Books (WP:BFRA)
Done YouTube (WP:BFRA)
Done Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, American Civil Liberties Union (WP:BFRA)
Done The Guardian (WP:BFRA)
Done Yahoo.com (WP:BFRA)
Done New York Times (WP:BFRA)
Done The New Republic, The Atlantic, Wired, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Die Welt, Handelsblatt, Foreign Policy, ForaDeJogo (WP:BFRA)
Done Vox, Nobel Prize, Office of the Historian, Ars Technica, British Museum, Boston Globe, TechCrunch, Oyez, Cornell Law, Supreme Court, United Nations
Done ProQuest, ProPublica, NASA, Science Daily, FindLaw, Mother Jones, IEEE Spectrum, The Diplomat
Done Knesset, Whitehouse.gov
Done Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
Done LacusCurtius, Digital South Asia Library, Perseus Project, Hebrewbooks.org
Doing... Find a Grave, National Science Foundation, ESPN
Not done German Football Association, University of Manitoba