Mozilla launches Send, a private, secure and ephemeral browser based file sharing service

Mozilla has launched Send, a file sharing service under its Firefox Test Pilot project, which is a bunch of experimental features for Firefox. Send, however, is not a typical Test Pilot experiment, and does not require a plugin to use. Any user, from any browser, can use Send to transfer encrypted files up to 1 GB in size. When a user sends a file, the file is encrypted in the browser itself, which can take a while depending on the size of the file. [caption id=“attachment_3909949” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Firefox Send[/caption] After the file is uploaded, the user gets a link to the file, which can be shared with anyone else over the internet. The URL to the file itself contains the necessary encryption key to decrypt the file. Once a file is downloaded it is deleted from the servers. If the file is not downloaded within a period of twenty four hours after the upload, then too, the file is scrubbed from the servers. Users can delete the file themselves. Mozilla envisions the service as a safe and secure way to transfer encrypted files. Firefox does not save the files beyond the limit of one download or twenty four hours. Basic information about the file such as size, and filename are available to Firefox. When users send files, Firefox temporarily logs the IP address used for the transfer. Only for diagnostic purposes, Firefox tracks how often files are uploaded by a user, how long they remain online before they are downloaded, any errors in file transfer, and the cryptographic protocols supported by the browser used to send. Users can try out the file sharing service here.