Mullvad, a leading VPN provider, has partnered with the Tor Project to launch a new privacy-preserving web browser, the Mullvad Browser.
The browser is built by the Tor Project team and distributed by Mullvad. It is designed to provide users with the same privacy protections as the Tor Browser without the Tor network.
The statement asserted that the Mullvad Browser applies “a “hide-in-the-crowd” approach” that disguises a user by creating a fingerprint that is similar to that of multiple other users, which makes it harder for companies and websites to identify and track them individually.
Here’s How the Mullvad Browser Works
The browser uses Mullvad’s VPN technology to mask the parameters that are commonly used to obtain information from the user’s device. The product is also available for free and comes with several by-default configurations such as blocking cookies from third parties and privacy mode.
This is yet another effort from The Tor Project to achieve its mission of creating technology that protects people’s privacy and lets them surf the web without being targeted and exploited by companies that seek to harvest their data for commercial purposes.
“This collaboration with Mullvad illustrates that it is possible to build privacy-preserving technology that protects users like ours does together, rather than in competition with each other”, Tor’s developing team highlighted.
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The Tor browser will remain in use because the two products provide different benefits. Tor allows users to connect to the Tor Network and access the dark web. To visit regular websites through the Tor browser, those websites must obtain a certificate from the provider.
The developer’s flagship browser is still one of the few solutions that provides anonymity online because it funnels traffic through the Tor network. Both beginners and experts alike should consider the Mullvad Browser as an alternative to other browsers on the market and should seek further guidance before opening these accounts.
More Details About The Tor Project and Mullvad
The Tor Project was born in 2022 and was promoted by two computer scientists who saw the need to create a web browser and network that allowed users to surf the internet freely and privately.
The Tor Network is run by volunteer servers. The traffic that comes to the network is routed to several of these servers and the information from the user is encrypted multiple times to keep the person’s identity and digital fingerprints hidden.
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Users who live in countries that have enforced bans and limitations on the content they can access are able to use the Tor browser to access those prohibited websites and they can also do it to navigate the web anonymously.
The Tor Network has often been associated with criminal and illicit activities as it allows people to access to so-called “dark web”, which is a segment of the internet that is typically concealed by traditional search engines like Google and Bing. However, this is not the purpose of the Tor Network or the kind of activity it fosters.
Meanwhile, Mullvad is an internet security company that was founded in 2009. Its flagship product is the Mullvad VPN – a tool used to surf the web via an encrypted connection. This is achieved by routing the user’s traffic to multiple servers so the origin of the connection cannot be traced back easily.
VPNs are used for multiple purposes including bypassing a website’s limitations associated with the geographical location from which users can access and hiding the identity of the person who is accessing the website.
Solutions like the Tor and Mullvad Browser have gained popularity lately as data has become an asset for tech companies including social media, e-commerce, and news websites that harvest this information to target customers with highly customized marketing campaigns or to sell it to third parties for their economic benefit.
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