Privoxy

Related articles
Tor
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.
Note
Using Privoxy with Tor for anonymity is discouraged because it makes you distinguishable from other Tor users. Either configure Tor as a proxy directly or use torify.
Installation and setup
Install
the
privoxy
package.
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.
Finally, if you plan to make Privoxy available to other computers in your network, just add the following to
/etc/privoxy/config
:
listen-address [SERVER-IP]:[PORT]
For example:
listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
i2p
To forward .i2p sites through the
I2P
router, add the following to
/etc/privoxy/config
:
forward .i2p localhost:4444
Forwarding through tor
Edit your
/etc/privoxy/config
file and add this line at the end (be sure to include the . at the end
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 .
Ad Blocking with Privoxy
Note
Blocking advertisements can reduce anonymity, since it creates a unique browser signature. This should not be done when using tor or another proxy for anonymity.
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.
You can use adblock plus filters. The
privoxy blocklist
script automatically downloads adblock plus filters, converts them to a privoxy friendly format, and edits privoxy's configuration file to include those filters:
Run the script once to create
/etc/conf.d/privoxy-blacklist
Edit
/etc/conf.d/privoxy-blacklist
to uncomment the line
PRIVOXY_USER=
and the two lines below it.
Run the script again to download and install the blocklists.
Restart privoxy.
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
and
enable
privoxy.service
.
Configure your program to use Privoxy. The default address is:
localhost:8118
For Firefox, go to:
Preferences > General > Network Settings > Settings
For Chromium you can use:
$ chromium --proxy-server="localhost:8118"
Alternatively you can set
http_proxy
environment variable, which is respected by Firefox, Chromium and other applications:
http_proxy="http://localhost:8118"
Privoxy can be tested by accessing either
http://config.privoxy.org
or http://p.p.
See also
Privoxy Official Website