Firefox Send is an easy way to share large files safely

You have not lack of means to send encrypted messages and at least as many cloud services to send large files. But the Venn diagram for both remains surprisingly small and impractical. This is the beauty of Firefox Send from Mozilla, a free and intuitive web service that lets you share large, encrypted files without any conditions.

Send started in 2017 as an experiment, as part of the Firefox test program since it was removed. Since then, he languished in beta, gaining some features along the way, but mostly in the shadows. Tuesday marks its public launch.

What sets Send apart is its ease of use. It works in any browser. Just go to send.firefox.com. Send or drag and drop files, and Send will generate a link that you can configure to expire after a certain number of downloads (up to 100) or a period of time ranging from five minutes to seven days. You can send up to 1 gigabyte, or up to 2.5 GB if you sign in with a Firefox account. For comparison, SMS does not generally exceed 600 kilobytes. The largest Gmail attachment you can send is 25 megabytes. Firefox Send offers orders of magnitude more room, enough to send a high-definition episode of Game of thrones.

Of course, there are already ways to share large files, whether it's a Google Drive link or a service like Hightail. But doing it securely – with end-to-end encryption, without storing files in the cloud – is another story.

"I recently moved to a place where I am forced to acquire a series of visas. with my wife, I had to fill out a ton of paperwork and provide items such as passports to various agencies, "says John Gruen, product manager at Mozilla. "The idea of ​​keeping all of this in a persistent cloud storage solution has something weird about it. I just do not really want to remember to clean my tracks. Even if I delete a file from a cloud storage somewhere, I do not even know if it's gone for good or just removed from the UI. "

Since Firefox Send is encrypted end-to-end, even Mozilla can not see the content of what you share. You can also add a password to a given file, so even if someone intercepts this URL (by compromising the recipient's email, for example), you can keep it safe.

Regarding the encryption itself, Firefox Send uses the Web Crypto API. "They generate a key and then encrypt the file and place it in the URL that you share with your friend," says Matthew Green, a cryptographer at Johns Hopkins University.

Green notes that Send can still let metadata filter such as your IP address, the time you sent the file and its size, making it a potentially mediocre choice for whistleblowers or other at-risk people. Likewise, although encrypting files in the browser makes Firefox Send remarkably convenient, it also presents potential risks.

"It's not an extension, a web application or a plugin. You access this website and the JavaScript code is loaded in the browser. Encryption is also done in your browser, "said Kenn White, co-director of the Open Crypto Audit project. "That means every time you hit their server, they could send new code. The problem is that the user has no guarantee as to the version of the software in question. "

Compare this experience with an encrypted email application like Signal. you know what version you have on your phone and how it behaves. A browser-based solution does not offer any of these warranties and potentially exposes users to server-side attacks or intermediate-type attacks. White acknowledges that these scenarios are not likely, especially for the average user. But human rights activists, journalists and other potential targets should take this into account. "I do not want a" pink-white "promise that you will not do anything, says White. "I want to know that you can not do anything."

Do not let these warnings warn you of Firefox Send, however, if like most people, all you need is a way to send financial or legal documents without worrying about the cloud that you may have left behind.

"We're kind of in between a cloud storage solution and something like [Apple’s] AirDrop, and that's a bit of a reason, says Gruen. "We are trying to outperform this line a bit and give people some leeway in their use cases."

Mozilla is also trying to extend its reach – and its privacy-focused ideals – beyond Firefox, an aspiration with which Send fits perfectly. It offers comparable protection and features, whether you're on Chrome, Safari or anything else. "Personally, I do not think our manifesto is comprehensively covered by a browser," says Gruen.

Send always tries to attract visitors, both by reinforcing the authenticity of the Firefox brand and by encouraging users to create accounts. But basically, it offers a seemingly solid and secure service.

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