Torbutton

Increasing the security of the computer we work and play on is quite important and if the protection can be done at the level of each application, better for us. Since not just the malware attacks should be the only reason for worries, the privacy of our personal data also deserves greater attention.

To make sure our browsing habits are not traced or in case we need to shield our connection when dealing with sensitive data, there are specialized tools to utilize and when it comes to anonymity there are few programs better than Tor Browser.

In order to help users benefit from the protective layer offered by this solution, users of the Thunderbird e-mail client have at their disposal the Torbutton extension. Simple to install and configure, this add-on will make it easier for anyone to start the Tor functionality.

In case you want to monitor the Tor proxy settings in a straightforward manner, you can do this by activating the option in the “Preferences” area. There are two ways in which the data can be read from the status bar, either in textual form or by interpreting the state presented by a dedicated icon.

Insofar as the proxy setup are concerned, in case you do not want to meddle with that, you can simply leave checked the field “Use the recommended proxy settings for my version of Firefox.” An extra function you can activate here is the use of Privoxy, which will block certain pages and restrict the access to unsafe content.

For those who are willing, the proxy settings can be manually specified in the same “Preferences” area. Thus, anyone can add the preferred proxies for HTTP, SSL, FTP, Gopher and SOCKS, while adding the corresponding port for each of them.

It is important to mention that the development of Torbutton was stopped and now it is integrated in Tor Browser Bundle, therefore separate installations may not be recommended anymore, at least for the latest versions of Thunderbird.

Torbutton proves to be a useful and customizable piece of software which protects your privacy online, and does not put a strain on your computer’s performance.