Firefox browser could soon receive a Tor mode add-on that would significantly enhance privacy by connecting to the Tor network.

While the final goal is to implement a fully-featured TOR mode in the browser natively, such a project takes time, and members of Mozilla and the Tor team discussed the challenges at a recent meeting.

Their proposal was to develop a browser add-on that would enable this Tor mode in Firefox, as this approach could give the two organizations enough time to plan on the engineering work that is needed for this new feature.

The extension wouldn’t be installed by default in Firefox, so users would have to download it manually from Mozilla’s website in order to enable the Tor mode.

“It would allow users to experience what an eventual full integration with Tor could look like. It could also help gauge interest by counting downloads, etc,” the Tor team explains.

“A privileged addon is one with elevated privileges compared to a standard WebExtension. It can call XPCOM functions, for example. A privileged addon needs to be signed by Mozilla, or something, but the idea for this proposal is to have it produced and distributed by Mozilla anyway, so that's not a problem.”

Dedicated profile for Tor mode

A decision on this add-on hasn’t been made just yet, but developers working for Mozilla and The Tor Project have already discussed several technical details.

“The addon would configure the browser to use tor as a proxy, as well as setting various prefs to prevent proxy bypasses and resist fingerprinting, much like those set by Tor Browser,” they explain.

Right now, the devs believe the best way to go is for the add-on to allow for a dedicated Tor mode button to launch a dedicated profile in a new window.

No ETA has been provided as to when public testing could begin.