In May 2015, Facebook introduced the platform as a way for developers to create services that easily integrate with Internet.org and a way to give people more choice and control over the services they access.
Over the past few months, developers have adapted their services specifically for the Internet.org platform requirements, and today, more than 60 new services are available across the 19 countries where free basic services are available. Not only does this expand the range of resources available to people, it gives them more choice and control over the services they can use in the app and website.
The program is making an impact on people's lives by providing free health, education and economic information. People using the app or mobile web version can navigate to a menu where they can select which services to add to their list of free services. They can also search for a service by name or description:
With Free Basics, Internet.org is making it safer for people to connect to the websites and services they care about by encrypting information wherever possible. Several months ago, it announced support for services using HTTPS in the Free Basics Android app, and it is adding support for HTTPS services on the web version as well. In addition, even if the service you access only runs over HTTP, it encrypts that information between its servers and any device that supports HTTPS.
Facebook also announced a new name for the app and mobile website - Free Basics by Facebook - to better distinguish the Internet.org initiative from the programs and services it is providing, including Free Basics. Anyone currently using the app will be able to continue using the Android app, though Facebook in Google Play will now call it Free Basics. In addition, the mobile web version, which will redirect from the previous URL, can be accessed at FreeBasics.com.
Internet infrastructure in many parts of the world is not set up for security. Networks are more constrained, devices are generally older and modern security protocols sometimes are not supported at all. While it is coming up with solutions to bring more people online, it also needs to think about how to connect them securely.
With Free Basics, Internet.org is making it safer for people to connect to the websites and services they care about by encrypting information wherever possible. For example, when you use the Free Basics Android app, the traffic is encrypted end-to-end to protect your privacy unless a developer chooses to support only HTTP for the service.
Similarly, when you access the Free Basics website in a mobile browser, it uses a 'dual certificate' security model. The first certificate is used for traffic encrypted between your device and our servers in both directions. For services offered through Free Basics that support HTTPS, a second certificate will be used for traffic encrypted between our servers and the developer's. We care about the security of your information, so even if the service you're accessing only runs over HTTP, where possible we are going to encrypt that information between our servers and any device that supports HTTPS. This change provides meaningfully more security than is available today, particularly for people who may not fully trust their internet connection.
When you use the Free Basics mobile website, information is temporarily decrypted on our secure servers to ensure proper functionality of the services you use and to help you avoid any unexpected charges. We preserve the privacy of that information while it's decrypted by only storing the domain name of the service you visit and the amount of data being used-the same information that would be visible using end-to-end encryption-as well as cookies that are stored in an encrypted and unreadable format.
