April 4, 2023
The Tor Project has partnered with Mullvad VPN to create a new web browser that seeks to improve privacy by connecting to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) rather than a decentralized onion network. This browser, known as the Mullvad browser, is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
The major goal of the Mullvad browser is to reduce your browser’s “fingerprint” – the metadata that websites use to uniquely identify your device. Your browser type, operating system, available input/output devices, installed extensions, and typefaces are examples of such information. Websites can use this metadata to monitor you even if you don’t use cookies or other tracking methods.
The Mullvad browser reduce the chance of being tracked by masking the aforementioned metadata, disabling third-party cookies and trackers, and including a small number of pre-installed plugins that reduce your browser’s fingerprint even more. This method varies from that of other privacy-focused browsers, such as Brave, which claim to prevent fingerprinting yet have extensions that websites may identify.
According to Pavel Zoneff, a Tor Project spokesman, the Mullvad browser is similar to the Tor Browser, except that it connects to the internet using a VPN rather than the Tor network. In terms of evading censorship, accessing onion sites or services, or circuit isolation and integration with new identity, the Mullvad browser does not provide the same experience as the Tor Browser. Nevertheless, these characteristics are not required.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheVerge.
