- Dec 30, 2012
- 4,809
Tor is a target like never before. The NSA has made no bones about its disdain for the anonymity network, and someone, allegedly researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, were recently on the network trying to de-anonymize users of its hidden services.
All of this has prompted the keepers of Tor to commission a study testing the defenses and viability of their Firefox-based browser as a privacy tool. The news is a bit eye-opening since the report’s recommendations don’t favor Firefox as a baseline for Tor, rather Google Chrome. But Tor’s handlers concede that budget constraints and Chrome’s limitations on proxy support make a switch or a fork impossible.
“Unfortunately, our budget for the browser project is still very constrained compared to the amount of work that is required to provide theprivacy properties we feel are important, and Firefox remains a far more cost-effective platform for us for several reasons,” wrote Mike Perry, lead developer of the Tor Browser. “In particular, Firefox’s flexible extension system, fully scriptable UI, solid proxy support, and its long Extended Support Release cycle all allow us to accomplish far more with fewer resources than we could with any other web browser.”
Further reading
All of this has prompted the keepers of Tor to commission a study testing the defenses and viability of their Firefox-based browser as a privacy tool. The news is a bit eye-opening since the report’s recommendations don’t favor Firefox as a baseline for Tor, rather Google Chrome. But Tor’s handlers concede that budget constraints and Chrome’s limitations on proxy support make a switch or a fork impossible.
“Unfortunately, our budget for the browser project is still very constrained compared to the amount of work that is required to provide theprivacy properties we feel are important, and Firefox remains a far more cost-effective platform for us for several reasons,” wrote Mike Perry, lead developer of the Tor Browser. “In particular, Firefox’s flexible extension system, fully scriptable UI, solid proxy support, and its long Extended Support Release cycle all allow us to accomplish far more with fewer resources than we could with any other web browser.”
Further reading
