HTTPS Everywhere add-on now available for Firefox on Android

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has announced the release of a beta version of its HTTPS Everywhere extension for Firefox on Android.

HTTPS Everywhere is produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the EFF.

The extension rewrites all requests to sites from HTTP to HTTPS whenever possible – i.e. if the website supports HTTPS in the first place – and by doing so increasing users’ security and privacy.

Until now, it was only available for desktop versions of Firefox, Chrome and Opera.

“Many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site”, the EFF explains.

“As we carry around our phones and tablets, we often connect to unfamilar WiFi networks, putting our personal data at risk of being monitored, collected, and tampered with by anyone else on the same network, as well as Internet Service Providers, network operators, and government agencies,” they noted, adding that HTTPS Everywhere guards agains these attacks.

Once installed, you can see that the extension is working by looking for its icon on the right hand side of the address bar:

A simple click on the icon allows you to turn it on and off.

While this is welcome news for Android users, iPhone and iPad users can’t hope to have the option of using this extension.

“We’re sorry we can’t help you to secure your mobile browsing experience. Apple’s policy of locking out Mozilla means you can’t have a more secure browser in your pocket,” EFF’s Parker Higgins and Yan Zhu explained.