Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. The Tor Browser is a web browser that anonymizes your web traffic using the Tor network, making it easy to protect your identity online.
If you’re investigating a competitor, researching an opposing litigant in a legal dispute, or just think it’s creepy for your ISP or the government to know what websites you visit, then the Tor Browser might be the right solution for you.
Related: How to Browse with Tor to Protect Your Privacy Online
In fact, the Tor Browser is actually a bundle that includes a heavily modified Mozilla Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) version, the Tor anonymity network client and the NoScript and HTTPS everywhere Firefox extensions.
The latest version of the privacy-focused Tor Browser 11.0 has been released, featuring a significant changes.
What’s New in Tor Browser 11.0
As you know, earlier this year, Firefox’s user interface underwent a significant redesign aimed at simplifying the browser chrome, streamlining menus and featuring an all-new tab design. Firefox ESR 91 introduces the new design to Tor Browser for the first time.
Tor Browser 11.0 has been released in order to align with the launch of the latest Firefox 91 ESR version. Each piece of custom UI has been modernized to match Firefox’s new look and feel. That includes everything from updating the fundamentals like color, typography and buttons to redrawing each of our icons to match the new thinner icon style.
In addition to the browser chrome itself, the connection screen, circuit display, security levels and onion site errors all received a sprucing-up too – featuring some small but welcome quality of life improvements to each.
It’s important to note that since updating to Tor 0.4.6.8 v2 onion services are no longer reachable in Tor Browser, and users will receive an “Invalid Onion Site Address” error instead.
If you’re wondering if you still have any old v2 addresses saved in your bookmarks that are in need of removal or updating too, here’s how to tell them apart. Although both end in .onion
, the more secure v3 addresses are 56 characters long compared to v2’s modest 16 character length.
However, examining the entire changelog file you can see more fully all the changes (updates, corrections, additions and deletions) made in it.
The current version released in the official website is now available from November 7th of this year, in the Tor Browser download page and about his distribution directory.