Brave is flagged by my corporate IT because it has TOR support. Is there anyway to disable or block TOR functionality so we can pass corporate IT muster?
Hi @billrob,
Hard to give a clear answer on this. We’ve had issues with Tor getting flagged in several different AV software and have had to work with each AV team to get our binaries whitelisted.
Some people have been able to whitelist the Tor executable file in their AV and were able to use Brave but it varies by AV Vendor and circumstances. I would start there and see if you can isolate and whitelist the tor executable in the AV’s settings.
What AV does your company use btw?
They use Symantec here. It isn’t an anti-virus flag, it is prohibited software as having the option of using TOR bypasses our data security checks for outgoing web traffic. All outgoing web traffic is monitored as we deal with confidential information and the monitoring helps prevent leaks.
Just to confirm, have you tried this already or are you predicting that this will be the case?
I have contacted the IT team and their response: “Brave Browser installs TOW (The Onion Router) functionality which can potentially expose the firm to additional security risks, as well as, working as a proxy avoidance tool.”
They’re right, Tor (not TOR, not TOW) is specifically designed to let you avoid intermediaries who might filter or monitor your connection. Brave has a feature which uses Tor for exactly this reason — we make a tool which offers privacy whether or not your ISP (in this case: your employer) wants that.
Hey toml, I do not want the option to bypass any employer internet traffic verification rules on their machine. Anyone on their work computer doing personal stuff should not be supported or encouraged. At the very least, it should be possible to permanently disable the bypass option. If Brave is hoping to gain corporate acceptance, they should find a way to not have Tor bundled. If Brave doesn’t want inroads into the corporate environment, please announce that so I can quit trying to find a solution at my company.
Tor is an important part of the privacy promise we make to the people who use Brave, and it’s only going to get more important as we use it to protect more of Brave’s background operation. Ultimately, our mission is to empower and protect the people browsing the web, no matter what their ISP or anyone else thinks.
Your company’s needs are the other way around — they want control of your machine and your browsing. Brave delivers the opposite.
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I get it. Thanks for your honesty and the respected, stated direction of the Brave browser. If you are in a corporate environment, you should have no expectation of privacy and using a privacy browser is against corporate policy. I’ll continue to use Brave in my personal life.
Thanks for clarification.
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