Tor Browser 12.0 Released with Multi-Locale Support, Based on Firefox 102 ESR Series

Marius Nestorby Marius Nestor0
Tor Browser 12.0

The Tor Project announced today the release of Tor Browser 12.0 as the latest stable release of this privacy-focused open-source, free, and cross-platform web browser for those who want to protect their anonymity online.

Tor Browser 12.0 is a major update to the Firefox-based web browser powered by the Tor anonymous technologies and comes with upgraded internals based on the latest Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) series, namely Mozilla Firefox 102.

For desktop users, the Tor Browser 12.0 release brings multi-locale support, which means that you no longer have to search and download language packages from the official website if you want to use Tor Browser in other languages than English. All supported languages are now included in the same package, without increasing its size too much.

“Bundling multiple languages in a single download should increase Tor Browser’s filesize – we are very conscious of this; however, we’ve found a way to make efficiency savings elsewhere, meaning the difference in filesize between Tor Browser 11.5 and 12.0 is minor,” said the devs in the release notes.

Users can easily switch between supported languages via the Language menu in General settings. The Tor Project recommends restarting the web browser after changing the language to ensure the change has a complete effect. If you update your previous installation, the language settings are preserved.

For Android users, Tor Browser 12.0 enables the HTTPS-Only mode by default for better security and to protect you against SSL stripping attacks, and adds a new option in the Privacy and Security section to allow you to prioritize .onion sites, a feature that, when enabled, automatically redirects you to the matching .onion site of the respective website if it has Onion-Location configured.

Among other noteworthy changes, this release adds support for Albanian (sq) and Ukrainian (UK) languages, adds native Apple Silicon support, adds support for the latest Tor 0.4.7.12 release, adds support for Go 1.19.3, and improves the Tor Launcher and the letterboxing feature.

Tor Browser 12.0 is available for download right now from the official website as a universal binary that can be used on any GNU/Linux distribution. You can also update your existing Tor Browser via OTA (Over-the-Air) updates by opening the About Tor Browser dialog in the Help menu.

Last updated 1 year ago

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