diff --git a/F-Droid/build.gradle b/F-Droid/build.gradle
index 3c18c8a5b..1be738406 100644
--- a/F-Droid/build.gradle
+++ b/F-Droid/build.gradle
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ if (!hasProperty('sourceDeps')) {
         compile 'com.google.zxing:core:3.2.1'
         compile 'eu.chainfire:libsuperuser:1.0.0.201504231659'
         compile 'cc.mvdan.accesspoint:library:0.1.1'
+        compile 'info.guardianproject.netcipher:netcipher:1.2'
 
         // We use a slightly modified spongycastle, see
         // openkeychain/spongycastle with some changes on top of 1.51.0.0
diff --git a/F-Droid/proguard-rules.pro b/F-Droid/proguard-rules.pro
index cd71ce863..ffd1aa552 100644
--- a/F-Droid/proguard-rules.pro
+++ b/F-Droid/proguard-rules.pro
@@ -10,6 +10,10 @@
 -dontnote android.support.**
 -dontnote **ILicensingService
 
+# StrongHttpsClient and its support classes are totally unused, so the
+# ch.boye.httpclientandroidlib.** classes are also unneeded
+-dontwarn info.guardianproject.netcipher.client.**
+
 # These libraries are known to break if minification is enabled on them. They
 # use reflection to instantiate classes, for example. If the keep flags are
 # removed, proguard will strip classes which are required, which may result in
diff --git a/F-Droid/src/org/fdroid/fdroid/net/HttpDownloader.java b/F-Droid/src/org/fdroid/fdroid/net/HttpDownloader.java
index 02ad333bd..dcdf7c683 100644
--- a/F-Droid/src/org/fdroid/fdroid/net/HttpDownloader.java
+++ b/F-Droid/src/org/fdroid/fdroid/net/HttpDownloader.java
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import com.nostra13.universalimageloader.core.download.BaseImageDownloader;
 import org.fdroid.fdroid.Preferences;
 import org.fdroid.fdroid.Utils;
 
-import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -20,6 +19,10 @@ import java.net.Proxy;
 import java.net.SocketAddress;
 import java.net.URL;
 
+import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;
+
+import info.guardianproject.netcipher.NetCipher;
+
 public class HttpDownloader extends Downloader {
     private static final String TAG = "HttpDownloader";
 
@@ -88,10 +91,11 @@ public class HttpDownloader extends Downloader {
         if (prefs.isProxyEnabled()) {
             SocketAddress sa = new InetSocketAddress(prefs.getProxyHost(), prefs.getProxyPort());
             Proxy proxy = new Proxy(Proxy.Type.HTTP, sa);
-            connection = (HttpURLConnection) sourceUrl.openConnection(proxy);
+            NetCipher.setProxy(proxy);
         } else {
-            connection = (HttpURLConnection) sourceUrl.openConnection();
+            NetCipher.setProxy(null);
         }
+        connection = NetCipher.getHttpURLConnection(sourceUrl);
     }
 
     protected void doDownload() throws IOException, InterruptedException {