Cocoon - Easy, Free, Secure, and Private Firefox Browsing

Cocoon is a Firefox plugin that uses a SSL-encrypted tunnel and tools already built into Firefox to create a secure and private browsing experience. You know how everyone makes such a big deal about the "S" on the end of HTTPS? That "S" stands for secure which is a in fact a server side SSL encryption, cocoon gives you that same protection but for everything that goes to and from your browser. It does all that and more for free.

Cocoon is not only safe, but is also really easy to setup and turn on and off. It's as easy has hitting a button to turn on and off. You don't have to fiddle with proxy settings or or VPN settings because Cocoon does it all for you.

When on Cocoon automatically turns Firefox private browsing on preventing anything from being stored during your session. Cocoon does give you the option of storing your history in the cloud so you find pages you were just at without having to store them locally. Cocoon also prevents any excitable files from downloading, refereed to as drive-by downloads, which can help prevent users from getting viruses. Cocoon also allows you to create and manage spam email accounts so you can create accounts on websites without actually giving out your email address.

Since Cocoon redirects all your traffic through their high-speed proxy servers to maintain your encrypted tunnel there is a slowdown to your internet speed. Cocoon's FAQ responds to this question by saying "Yes, but not by much! In order for Cocoon to shield you from the Internet, everything you see is being passed through our service. This means our servers are re-routing each website you visit, which can cause a slight change in speed. However, because of today’s faster browsing standards and our high-speed servers, your speeds should remain very close to what they otherwise are."

Cocoon is currently free but there is no telling how long they can stay free. Cocoon's original plan after releasing from beta was to go to a $55 a year plan which is actually pretty reasonable especially for people who travel a lot and use public wifi. I think Cocoon is perfect for the frequent traveler or public wifi junkie, considering how easy it is to hijack sessions and intercept network traffic at public locations. Check them out.

Cocoon