[tor-commits] [support-portal/master] Push more torbrowserfaq answers

colin at torproject.org colin at torproject.org
Thu May 4 06:36:53 UTC 2017


commit 675bac841c93157ef0c418e25e7a35ea44da5fae
Author: Colin Childs <colin at torproject.org>
Date:   Thu May 4 01:36:36 2017 -0500

    Push more torbrowserfaq answers
---
 plain/torbrowserfaq.txt | 15 ++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/plain/torbrowserfaq.txt b/plain/torbrowserfaq.txt
index e043479..088a353 100644
--- a/plain/torbrowserfaq.txt
+++ b/plain/torbrowserfaq.txt
@@ -168,10 +168,10 @@ A. If you cannot reach the onion service you require, make sure that you have en
 You can also ensure that you're able to access other onion services by connecting to DuckDuckGo's Onion Service (http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion/).
 
 Q. Which platforms is Tor Browser available on?
-A. 
+A. The Tor Browser is currently available on Windows, Linux and OSX.
 
 Q. Can I set the Tor Browser as my default browser?
-A.
+A. There is currently no supported method for setting the Tor Browser as your default browser.
 
 Q. Does the Tor Browser use a different circuit for each website?
 A.
@@ -183,11 +183,16 @@ Q. Why do all of my circuits start with the same relay?
 A.
 
 Q. Does running the Tor Browser make me a relay?
-A.
+A. Running the Tor Browser does not make you act as a relay in the network. This means that your computer will not be used to route traffic for others.
 
 Q. Why does the Tor Browser ship with javascript enabled?
-A. 
+A. We configure NoScript to allow JavaScript by default in Tor Browser because many websites will not work with JavaScript disabled. Most users would give up on Tor entirely if a website they want to use requires JavaScript, because they would not know how to allow a website to use JavaScript (or that enabling JavaScript might make a website work).
+
+There's a tradeoff here. On the one hand, we should leave JavaScript enabled by default so websites work the way users expect. On the other hand, we should disable JavaScript by default to better protect against browser vulnerabilities ( not just a theoretical concern!). But there's a third issue: websites can easily determine whether you have allowed JavaScript for them, and if you disable JavaScript by default but then allow a few websites to run scripts (the way most people use NoScript), then your choice of whitelisted websites acts as a sort of cookie that makes you recognizable (and distinguishable), thus harming your anonymity.
+
+Ultimately, we want the default Tor bundles to use a combination of firewalls (like the iptables rules in Tails) and sandboxes to make JavaScript not so scary. In the shorter term, TBB 3.0 will hopefully allow users to choose their JavaScript settings more easily — but the partitioning concern will remain.
+
+Until we get there, feel free to leave JavaScript on or off depending on your security, anonymity, and usability priorities.
 
 Q. Will my network admin be able to tell im using the Tor Browser?
 A.
-



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