A new version of the Tor client has been released, and can be downloaded by the public as of right now. Update 6.0 of the Tor browser is based on Firefox 45 Extended Support Release and brings some new features. The biggest focus is on enhancing privacy and security, as well as making DuckDuckGo the default search engine.
Now that the Tor Browser is based on the Firefox ESR codebase, security upgrades will automatically come to users, even though features are only updated every seven versions of FF. Moreover, there are some privacy-based extensions, including HTTPS Everywhere and NoScript. Plus, Firefox’ Private mode is enabled by default, which is another feature privacy-centric users will enjoy.
But there is much more to this new browser release than just these additions. For starts, Mac OS X users should no longer face any issues when installing and running the Tor client. Up until this point, this has been a problem with previous clients Solving this problem will also help boost the adoption of the Tor browser on the Apple operating system.
Most people use the Tor browser to protect their privacy on the Internet. Update 6.0 has tracking protection enabled by default, and SHA1 certificates are disabled right out of the gate. Whether or not this will have a significant impact on browser fingerprinting, remains to be seen. The only way to verify this is by releasing it to the public and collecting feedback.
Albeit the Tor developers are privacy-oriented as well, they did disable some features which may make it easier for users to be identified. This will be addressed in a future update, as there was insufficient time to implement a proper fix. No date was provided as to when this fix will be released, though.
Last but not least, there is the change in default search engine. Previous Tor clients used Disconnect, which did not always yield the best of search results. Now that DuckDuckGo is being used, the result accuracy should improve dramatically. Plus, DuckDuckGo is more privacy-oriented than Disconnect. All in all, some very solid updates, albeit some tweaking might be needed in the coming months.
Source: Deep Dot Web
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