Tor Project's New Privacy-Focused Browser Doesn't Use the Tor Network

The Tor Project, the organization behind the anonymous network and browser, is helping launch a privacy-focused browser that's made to connect to a VPN instead of a decentralized onion network. From a report: It's called the Mullvad browser, named after the Mullvad VPN company it's partnered with on the project, and it's available for Windows, Mac, or Linux. The Mullvad browser's main goal is to make it harder for advertisers and other companies to track you across the internet. It does this by working to reduce your browser's "fingerprint," a term that describes all the metadata that sites can collect to uniquely identify your device.

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[gtall]

Wow, you swallowed ChatGPT. Can you make it say something coherent?

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[Anonymous Coward]

I asked ChatGPT: "Improve the following Slashdot post to be more legible and concise, to use more easily understood terms, and not be as meandering. The context is decentralized data networks in general and the Tor network in particular:", followed by Derp's post.

Its response was:

Decentralized data networks provide a solution to the problem of centralized networks dominated by social media companies and ad-spam. Tor is a particular example of such a network.

Creating new decentralized networks is eas

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[coopertempleclause]

When the AI sounds more human than you, it's probably time to go outside OP.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[SandorZoo]

With this you are basically creating an illusion of safety similar to "incognito mode". This is significantly less safe than just using your OS or VPN provider's config.

You misunderstand. The Mullvad browser is using the OS or VPN provider's config. It is merely a fingerprint resistant browser. However, for many people there's little point to running a fingerprint resistant browser without also using VPN, as their IP address makes for an excellent fingerprint all on its own. That's why they say you should use it in combination with a VPN. I'm sure they would like you to use their VPN, but any VPN will do.

Perhaps one thing to be wary of is it uses DNS-over-HTTPS to Mullvad

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[AmiMoJo]

Their servers are network booted with no fixed disks, so there is no danger of anything ending up saved anywhere e.g. swap. They take security seriously and get regularly audited.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Tor has only two purposes

[hdyoung]

It’s useful for people who want to avoid casual monitoring by companies and governments, and it’s a nice big honeypot for criminals who are also stupid and ignorant. Top-tier law enforcement agencies and the good intelligence agencies penetrated Torr a long time ago.

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[gweihir]

There is actually not any indication of that. Quite the contrary. You also into flat-earth and anti-vaxx?

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[hdyoung]

https://gizmodo.com/fbi-tor-ip... [gizmodo.com]

And if there's a case like this in the public, you can be absolutely sure there are 100s of similar cases that never saw the light of day. US intelligence likes to go about it's business as quietly as possible, and they're pretty damn good at keeping things under wraps. If you believe Tor makes you immune to agencies like the FBI, I suspect that you're the one with flat-earth tendencies.

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[gweihir]

Oh, there are tons of cases where somebody hacked a server on the Tor network. It is really no mystery. People are slow to update security flaws, people use insecure configurations, people leak the real IP address of their server, people leak enough of the hardware details for it to be identified, and sometimes somebody may even use an expensive zero-day to compromise a Tor server by compromising, say, a web-shop or a forum software running on it. Same for attacks on clients: Whoever wants to de-anonymize c

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[bill_mcgonigle]

> Top-tier law enforcement agencies and the good intelligence agencies penetrated Torr a long time ago.

What does 'penetrated' mean in this sentence?

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[UnderCoverPenguin]

TOR entry and exit nodes can be run by anyone. Any group with control (even indirect) of enough of both can do correlation analysis to track any users unlucky enough to route through an entry and an exit under the same control.

Also, there's no guarantee that an entry node hasn't been modified to ignore TOR's normal routing rules.

using modified tor browser

[efffit]

Looks like this is tor browser modified for VPN. The article refered to: https://mullvad.net/en/browser [mullvad.net] The download button refers to: https://mullvad.net/en/downloa... [mullvad.net] This refers to source at: https://github.com/mullvad/mul... [github.com] There is no source checked in the main branch. However, the page confirms firefox ESR as the version "Mullvad Browser 12.0.4 / mullvad-browser-102.9.0esr-12.0-2". However, it refers to a firefox mullvad browser extension: https://mullvad.net/en/downloa... [mullvad.net] The source link

Yet another Chrom*?

[markdavis]

>"It's called the Mullvad browser"

Let me guess. It is yet another Chrom*?

Wait, no? It isn't? You mean, there will actually be MORE than just two multiplatform browsers- Firefox and Chrom*?

https://www.ghacks.net/2023/04... [ghacks.net]

"Look, a new web browser that is not Chromium-based. Mullvad has just launched Mullvad Browser, a privacy-first web browser that is using the Firefox web browser as its base."

Hmm. So, no, there are still only two browsers. But at least not another Chrom*.