The Mozilla Foundation, which makes the Firefox web browser, is working on a new feature that aims to warn internet users when they visit a site that has suffered a previous data breach. For this, Mozilla has joined forces with the specialist website HavelBeenPwned.com. 

The upcoming feature will eventually take the form of a new notification to the left of the address bar. However, for the time being, it's an experimental extension, for which source code has been published on GitHub.

The idea is to be able to warn web users when a site they visit has previously suffered a data breach. If so, users with accounts on the site will be invited to change their passwords.

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The project relies on the database of the website "Have l Been Pwned," which already allows users to find out if their personal data has been stolen, simply by checking their email address or one of their passwords.

The announcement comes shortly after the release Mozilla's Firefox 57 (Quantum), the most extensive update in the browser's history. According to Mozilla, the new browser is twice as fast as the previous version, with a completely overhauled core engine and a new user interface called Photon.

Other new projects in the pipeline at Mozilla include encrypted file transfer, voice searches and a built-in note-taking tool. In fact, Firefox needs to renew and innovate in order to compete with Chrome, which now dominates the market.

Once a key rival to Internet Explorer, Firefox has seen its market share drop below 14% of computers worldwide, while Google Chrome now tops more than 60%, according to the most recent data from StatCounter.