Mozilla Launches Firefox Send, Free Encrypted File Transfer
Mozilla in its quest to eliminate the dependency of third-party services for file upload has launched a hitch-free service that makes it easy to share files privately and securely.
The service known as Firefox Send, is a free encrypted end-to-end file transfer service that allows consumers to share files including audio and video may be too large to send in an email attachment.
The services allow users to send up to 2.5GB worth of file size when users sign up for a free Firefox account. For mere visitors, however, the service limits sharing of files not more than 1GB.
Unlike other file-sharing services like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox that are available as desktop software or internally integrated with their parent software, Firefox Send rather is a browser-based encryption tech that encrypts files before uploading them to the Mozilla servers which can only be decrypted by the recipients.
Recipients do not need to own a Firefox account to download files from the shared URL.
Some unique feature of the Firefox Send includes 128-bit AES-GCM encryption through the web crypto API that encrypts files in the browser before uploading them to Mozilla’s server.
Users can also set a password that would be required from the recipient in order for the files to be accessed.
A built-in time limit in the service also allows users to set a time range between 5 minutes to 1 week for the files to be downloaded, after which the link expires completely and the files can no longer be accessed.
Since it is a free encryption service, users do not have the option to pay for extra file space for sending files.
Nick Nguyen, Vice President of Firefox Product stated in a blog post that the company has always been committed towards user privacy and security as a part of their long-standing manifesto.
Firefox Send works on any browser on any computer operating in different OS. It was initially rolled out by Mozilla as part of a Test Pilot experimental program far back in August 2017.
Nguyen announced that an Android beta version will be available shortly.
