Privoxy
| Summary |
|---|
| This article explains how to install and configure Privoxy alongside the Tor network. |
| Required software |
| Tor |
| Privoxy |
| Related |
| Tor |
| Polipo |
Privoxy is a filtering proxy for the HTTP protocol, frequently used in combination with Tor. Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups, etc. It supports both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
Using Privoxy is necessary when they use a SOCKS proxy directly because browsers leak your DNS requests, which reduces your anonymity.
Contents |
Installation and setup
Install the privoxy package from the official repositories.
# pacman -S privoxy
When Privoxy is used in conjunction with Tor the two applications need to exchange information through a chain, which requires the specification of forwarding rules.
Edit your /etc/privoxy/config file and add this line at the end (be sure to include the . at the end and preserve the file owner and group permissions as privoxy):
forward-socks5 / localhost:9050 .
This example uses the default port used by Tor. If you changed the port number modify the example accordingly. The same basic example is valid for other targets. If you plan on chaining to another proxy specify the method (here SOCKS5) and the port to suit your needs. Refer to section 5 of the manual inside /etc/privoxy/config for a complete list of options and examples.
The above will forward all browser traffic through Tor. To only forward .onion sites through Tor, use this instead:
forward-socks4a .onion localhost:9050 .
To forward .i2p sites through the I2P router, add the following to /etc/privoxy/config:
forward .i2p localhost:4444
Finally, if you plan to make Privoxy available to other computers in your network, just add:
listen-address [SERVER-IP]:[PORT]
For example:
listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
Ad Blocking with Privoxy
Using an ad blocking extension in a web browser can increase page load time. Additionally, extensions like AdBlock Plus are not supported by all browsers. A useful alternative is to install system-wide ad blocking by setting a proxy address in your preferred browser.
Once Privoxy has been installed download and install an AdBlock Plus easylist importer from AUR (i.e. privoxy-blocklist). You can optionally use an AUR Helper to do so.
To block tracking via embedded Facebook "Like" button, Twitter "follow", and Google Plus "+1", edit /etc/privoxy/user.action and add these lines to the end:
{+block-as-image{Facebook "like" and similar tracking URLs.}}
www.facebook.com/(extern|plugins)/(login_status|like(box)?|activity|fan)\.php
platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button?
plusone.google.com
Usage
Start the Privoxy service:
# systemctl start privoxy.service
Enable the Privoxy service at boot:
# systemctl enable privoxy.service
Configure your program to use Privoxy. The default address is:
localhost:8118
For Firefox, go to:
Preferences > Advanced > Network > Settings
For Chromium you can use:
$ chromium --proxy-server="localhost:8118"
Troubleshooting
If errors appear when accessing /var/log/privoxy/, user can add the following after /bin/bash in /etc/rc.d/privoxy and then restart privoxy.
if [ ! -d /var/log/privoxy ] then mkdir /var/log/privoxy touch /var/log/privoxy/errorfile touch /var/log/privoxy/logfile chown -R privoxy:adm /var/log/privoxy fi