The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a new version of its HTTPS Everywhere browser extension for Firefox that now supports encryption on even more web sites. The US digital rights advocacy organisation says that version 3.0 of its Firefox add-on, which automatically redirects users to more secure HTTPS connections when accessing certain web pages, now supports an additional 1,500 sites, more than twice as many as previous stable releases.

HTTPS Everywhere was first launched in June 2010 as a collaboration between the EFF and the Tor Project, which provides free software and network services that help protect users' privacy through online anonymity. Version 1.0 of the add-on for the Firefox web browser was released in August 2011 with user interface and performance improvements, while 2.0 arrived in February of this year with a new optional "Decentralised SSL Observatory" feature that detects weaknesses in encryption.

According to the EFF, HTTPS Everywhere is now used by more than 2.5 million people around the world; the organisation estimates that the 3.0 release of HTTPS Everywhere will encrypt "at least a hundred billion page views in the next year, and trillions of individual HTTP requests".

More details about the new update can be found in the release announcement and in the change log. Version 3.0 of HTTPS Everywhere add-on can be downloaded from the EFF's site. An alpha release of HTTPS Everywhere for Google's Chrome and Chromium web browsers is also available. Licensed under the GPLv3, source code and developer information are provided on the project's development page.

See also:

Google is globally switching its search to HTTPS by default, a report from The H.

(crve)