Should I bother with a SSL Certificate?

[Borstein]

I think this is the most appropriate forum for my question.

My app is nearly finished and uses a WCF Service to fetch info from a database. The programme doesn't send any peronal info, usernames, peoples account etc, it only asks the service for info.

Should I bother with a SSL certifcate or just encrypt the data I'm sending (which the SSL does anyway)? It would be a lot less time consuming.

What are your thoughts about this? I know it sounds a little nasty, but you read about banking websites being cracked all the time and they use certifcates. If people want the info bad enough, they'll get it anyway. Plus, my data being sent is not worth anything to anyone anyway.

Thanks.

[Quiver318]

They used to be thousands of dollars per year, but now they are about $12 per year, to start. You can get high-assurance certificates for about $90 up to $200 per year. You have to jump through some hoops to get high-assurance versions (green bar status), though.

If you think it will increase customer confidence and you really don't have all that much to protect, why not consider the cheaper version? It will give your customers some privacy without breaking your wallet.

[Borstein]

Thanks for the reply.

Customer confidence isn't an issue as they're not purchasing anything, creating accounts, loggin in or sending any data.

Thanks.