GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 750288
Turn Incognito Mode into Tor Mode
Last modified: 2016-10-28 11:27:57 UTC
Enhance Incognito Mode to use Tor. Study the Tor browser design document https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/ and implement the necessary additional privacy features. Features that would ordinarily break websites should be enabled if and only if Incognito Mode is in use. I expect this bug to be eventually used as a tracker bug for the individual features.
I don't think that the goal of the Incognito mode is to be something akin the Tor browser, but to be something that you can quickly use, separate from your session and that leaves no traces in the history, cache, or cookies. We would need a different mode for that, or to make it a "enhanced private" incognito mode.
I think a specific "Tor mode" would tie Epiphany too strong to a single product. There are other anonymization networks out there like I2P, and for extensive security enhancements there is already the Tor Browser package. I think the usage of the system proxy settings is enough. Only the DNS resolving could be forced through the SOCKS proxy if Epiphany finds that the usage of a SOCKS proxy is enabled in the system settings - if this is not already done by Epiphany.
(In reply to Claudio Saavedra from comment #1) > I don't think that the goal of the Incognito mode is to be something akin > the Tor browser, but to be something that you can quickly use, separate from > your session and that leaves no traces in the history, cache, or cookies. We > would need a different mode for that, or to make it a "enhanced private" > incognito mode. I think it's confusing to have two different modes. (In reply to q8311692 from comment #2) > I think a specific "Tor mode" would tie Epiphany too strong to a single > product. > There are other anonymization networks out there like I2P Good point. >, and for extensive > security enhancements there is already the Tor Browser package. In case we do turn Incognito Mode into Tor Mode, we would definitely need to implement most of these enhancements; it would be irresponsible to do otherwise. This requires reading "The Design and Implementation of the Tor Browser" and would be a long (probably multi-year) project. It's in line with our goal to make Epiphany the browser with the best out-of-the-box privacy protections (compared to other general purpose browsers, not compared to Tor Browser Bundle). However, realistically, this might never happen, and we'll need to direct users who require anonymity to the Tor Browser Bundle for a long time yet. > I think the usage of the system proxy settings is enough. I think we should strive to make anonymous browsing accessible to users who do not understand proxies or proxy settings. Do note that without the enhancements detailed in "The Design and Implementation of the Tor Browser," it's likely not safe to use Epiphany if you require anonymity even if you are changing your proxy settings.
Oh I filed this? This is a terrible idea because it would take many years of effort to make WebKit safe for use with Tor, and we're not going to do it without funding.