HTTPS-Everywhere
HTTPS-Everywhere was a vital Browser-Extension designed to provide automatic Encryption for web traffic. It was developed as a collaborative project between the Electronic-Frontier-Foundation and The-Tor-Project to address the security vulnerabilities of the plaintext HTTP protocol. By using a sophisticated library of rules, the extension would automatically rewrite requests to use the secure HTTPS protocol whenever a website supported it, even if the user didn't explicitly request the secure version.
During its peak, HTTPS-Everywhere was an essential tool for protecting users against man-in-the-middle attacks and eavesdropping. As detailed on the EFF Project Page, the extension helped popularize the use of SSL-TLS across the internet. It played a significant role in the broader Encrypted-Web movement, which sought to make encryption the default standard for all internet communication.
However, as the web evolved, major Web-Browsers such as Google-Chrome, Mozilla-Firefox, and Apple-Safari began to incorporate native "HTTPS-Only" modes. This progress, combined with the rise of HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) and the availability of free certificates from Lets-Encrypt, led the EFF to retire the extension in 2022. The transition and the reasons for its sunsetting are documented in the EFF Technical Blog. Today, the core functionality of HTTPS-Everywhere is a standard feature in almost all modern browsing software.