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I enjoy the Torbutton I am currently using in Firefox, but Firefox is quite a resource hog and I am working in a virtual machine.

Is there a Torbutton equivalent for Google Chrome?

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I haven't tested this (I don't use chrome), but maybe this would work? wiki.answers.com/Q/… – NinjaCat Jul 31 '10 at 14:18
That is a bad idea, because of the same reasons posted in the author's comment for this question: superuser.com/questions/170236/… – Tom Oct 18 '10 at 21:28
For the record: Switchy doesn't work with all Linux distributions. [11:28:11] [info] - Extension Info: v1.6.3 [11:28:11] [info] - Browser Info: 5.0 (X11; Linux i686) AppleWebKit/535.11 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/17.0.963.56 Safari/535.11 [11:31:42] [error] - Plugin error: Your Linux distribution isn't supported yet. Currently only Gnome and KDE based distributions are supported. – user121282 Mar 4 '12 at 10:35

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

It's better to stick with Firefox. Especially if you haven't logged into anything. If you have, I would suggest resetting everything and deleting cookies. Anonymity is essential, and Chrome is notorious for leaking your information to where anybody (ahem, government) can see it...and you don't want that if you're touring the deep web.

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You ignored his "For google chrome part" unless you can solve the resource hog business... – soandos Jan 23 '12 at 21:22
@soandos, I think @arrowcorpose is quite correct here. The answers from the other users about different ways to set up proxy servers in Chrome are deceptive for the reasons listed at torproject.org/torbutton/torbutton-faq.html.en#oldtorbutton, and if someone is relying on them for personal safety, they could have a serious problem. Or as they say - Using a vanilla proxy switcher by itself is so insecure that you are not only just wasting your time, you are also actually endangering yourself. – dsolimano Jan 23 '12 at 21:31
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@dsolimano, then the answer should be there is none, not it is better to stick with firefox. – soandos Jan 23 '12 at 21:36
Agreed, that makes sense. I'll add that as an answer. – dsolimano Jan 23 '12 at 21:38
up vote 1 down vote

Switchy lets you do this. Make sure you enter the proxy address to the SOCKS field, not HTTP.

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2  
I know about Switchy, but I need more than just a proxy switcher. Torbutton changes your user-agent string, your window size, disables plugins (like Flash) that can leak your real IP and more! That is why I don't just want to use the Tor proxy. I need the features I get with Torbutton in Firefox... just in a faster browser :) – Today Jul 31 '10 at 14:10
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Switchy + Chrome(ium) incognito mode (Ctrl + Shift + n) – Flow Jun 20 '11 at 13:04
up vote 1 down vote

Using tor with google chrome is not a good idea, because chrome has a bad record of leaking private data.

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+1 for the link. but still.. similar bugs could appear in other browsers and in fact already have. Admittedly a longer time ago in firefox 1.5 this problem appeared regarding ftp connections (and got circumvented by torbutton but resulted in failed ftp connectability) – matthias krull Jul 31 '10 at 16:44
up vote 0 down vote

There is no supported way to do this. Read the Tor project description of why attempting to set up a browser to do on your own is a bad idea here.

Use of the old version, or any other vanilla proxy changer (including FoxyProxy -- see below) without Torbutton is actively discouraged. Seriously. Using a vanilla proxy switcher by itself is so insecure that you are not only just wasting your time, you are also actually endangering yourself. Simply do not use Tor and you will have the same (and in some cases, better) security. For more information on the types of attacks you are exposed to with a "homegrown" solution, please see The Torbutton Adversary Model, in particular the Adversary Capabilities - Attacks subsection. If there are any specific Torbutton behaviors that you do not like, please file a bug on the bug tracker. Most of Torbutton's security features can also be disabled via its preferences, if you think you have your own protection for those specific cases.

This advice equally applies to using IE, Opera, Safari, etc. Basically, running a web browser in a secure fashion over Tor involves a lot more than just pointing at the Tor proxy server address. If you are in some situation where your life, safety, or livelihood depend on not leaking your IP address or other identifying information, stick with the supported solution.

There is an extensive explanation on the Tor Project site of all of the things that the Torbutton does, and why, as well as extensions to avoid to avoid leaking information, if you are interested in further reading.

In addition, the project has a more direct explanation here of why this doesn't work here:

I want to use Chrome/IE/Opera/etc with Tor.

Unfortunately, Torbutton only works with Firefox right now, and without Torbutton's extensive privacy fixes there are many ways for websites or other attackers to recognize you, track you back to your IP address, and so on. In short, using any browser besides Tor Browser Bundle with Tor is a really bad idea.

We're working with the Chrome team to fix some bugs and missing APIs in Chrome so it will be possible to write a Torbutton for Chrome. No support for any other browser is on the horizon.

So it looks like support will eventually be added for Chrome, but building your own now really doesn't work.

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