Tor Browser 4.5. is out, with new security and privacy upgrades

The Tor Project has released version 4.5 of its popular Tor Browser, and this new version comes with a number of security and privacy improvements.

Users can now use a Security Slider to easily set their preferred level of security:

“The Security Slider provides user-friendly vulnerability surface reduction – as the security level is increased, browser features that were shown to have a high historical vulnerability count in the iSec Partners hardening study are progressively disabled,” Mike Perry, Lead developer on Tor Browser, explained.

Newer Windows packages of the software will from now on be signed with a hardware signing token donated by DigiCert.

Privacy improvements include improved first party isolation to prevent third party tracking, and prevention of cross-site and third party communication.

“With first party isolation, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ can’t track you around the entire web using their infamous like buttons,” Perry effectively explained.

Finally, the browser’ new default search provider is Disconnect, a specialized VPN that lets users search the web privately using their favorite search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo).