Brave has recently rolled out an updated browser version with integrated “Snowflake” feature. Activating this option allows users to volunteer their device as a proxy, enabling other users to access Tor in repressive regions.
Brave Browser Integrates Tor’s Snowflake
Brave is one of the few web browsers that allows users to access the internet while maintaining their privacy. The browser not only blocks intrusive ads and web trackers, but also empowers them to access the Tor network.
While the browser works great to use Tor, it could be of little help for the users in regions that apply aggressive internet surveillance or block Tor usage.
To combat this issue, Tor officials developed and rolled out the “Snowflake” browser extension as a workaround. This extension welcomes volunteer contributions from users in privacy-friendly regions to allow the users from the repressive regions to use their networks as a proxy to access Tor.
Interested users need to install this extension into their Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browsers to volunteer for this purpose. Whereas the users in repressive regions should enable the “Snowflake’ setting via their Tor browser (for desktops and Android), Onion (for iOS), or Orbot (for Android and iOS) browsers.
While the Brave browser supported Tor access, it has now stepped ahead to become more useful for privacy freaks. The recently released Brave browser version 1.47.171 (Chromium 109.0.5414.87) comes with integrated Snowflake settings, saving the volunteers from the hassle of installing a separate extension.
According to its support article, Brave users can now enable Snowflake on their devices with a simple toggle on/off option. So, they can enable this setting whenever they have enough resources to facilitate other users in bypassing tor blocks.
Source: Brave
While Snowflake is generally safe, users interested in volunteering for this purpose must ensure having enough data to allow other users to use their network. Also, volunteers must not be present in a region that blocks Tor.
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