Mozilla Could Add Tor Features In Firefox For More Secure Web Browsing
Mozilla has an interest in potentially integrating more of Tor into Firefox, for the purposes of providing a Super Private Browsing (SPB) mode for users.
Tor or The Onion Router offers privacy and anonymity on the Web, features which are sorely needed in the modern era of mass surveillance, tracking and fingerprinting. Tor is based on Mozilla Firefox ESR browser which is a standalone browser, allowing users to search the web without compromising location details or the content being browsed. Additionally, Tor prevents users from being tracked on the basis of data analysis and network spying.
Tor works on lines of onion routing concept wherein the encrypted data is transferred via various spots in the Tor network, thus leading to multiple-layered encryption, much like the layers of an onion.
However, enabling a large number of additional users to make use of the Tor network requires solving for inefficiencies currently present in Tor so as to make the protocol optimal to deploy at scale.
Academic research is just getting started with regards to investigating alternative protocol architectures and route selection protocols, such as Tor-over-QUIC, employing DTLS, and Walking Onions.
Mozilla will accept funding for work in these categories in order to detarmine the best alternative protocol architectures and route selection protocols that offer acceptable gains in Tor performance.