Thanks for the info, I was thinking about installing a few addons to TBB (like Adblock Edge and Cryptocat) but I've read on the Tor site that to do not recommend it. Could you clarify whether it is safe to install addons, is there anyway to check to see if they are leaking any identifying information?
Most addons for TBB are unnecessary in terms of their ability to increase your privacy or anonymity
Adblock Plus and Adblock Edge (with easy privacy lists) are probably useful for most users. It will certainly make browsing faster by blocking ads and tracking elements.
Filter subscriptions for Adblock Plus and Adblock Edge are updated automatically when you are browsing or if you restart Firefox - if you don't disable this option. You can find settings to control automatic updates via Tools > Add-ons > Extensions > Options. It would probably be best to set automatic updates to 'off' and to manually update your lists via 'Filter Preferences...' when you deem that necessary.
Adblock Plus and Adblock Edge also log 'Count filter hits', although this is only a local setting, it should probably be switched off. Interestingly enough this option is 'unticked' in a default install of Adblock Edge.
I have not used Cryptocat in a while. Their was a discussion somewhere that it might be implemented as a 'default' Add-on in the TBB. If you install it then check all settings and options etc.
In terms of Add-ons the Tor advisory is really in relation to Plug-ins.
See:
https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en"Want Tor to really work?
... c. Don't enable or install browser plugins
The Tor Browser will block browser plugins such as Flash, RealPlayer, Quicktime, and others: they can be manipulated into revealing your IP address. Similarly, we do not recommend installing additional addons or plugins into the Tor Browser, as these may bypass Tor or otherwise harm your anonymity and privacy. The lack of plugins means that Youtube videos are blocked by default, but Youtube does provide an experimental opt-in feature (enable it here) that works for some videos. ..."Shockwave Flash and JavaScript are the worst for totally breaking your anonymity. If you enable Shockwave Flash for youtube (for example) then you might as well not be using Tor. Shockwave Flash installed on your local machine basically reveals your true IP to any Flash enabled website.
...
A 'plugin' that is OK to install would be the CAcert.org Certificate Signing Authority PEM. See:
https://www.cacert.org/index.php?id=3Installing this will allow you to visit websites that use CAcert.org Certificates without seeing any 'errors'.
For example, I run several web based proxy services that use this Certificate Signing Authority.
One of which can be found here: [proxy closed] - whilst Glype proxies are only one-hop server proxies and Tor certainly provides much better privacy and anonymity - combining Tor and an SSL enabled web proxy for certain browsing activities can massively increase your 'security'. My site has a 4096-bit SSL cert. (the highest level of website encryption - most sites only have 2048-bit SSL maximum - just inspect a few websites SSL Certs. in your browser, the current bitcointalk.org cert. is 2048-bit with the root cert. only being 1048-bit, for example - which is actually very common) - Anyway, browsing http web pages through this site over an SSL (https) connection and over the Tor network will add 4096-bit encryption across all of your Tor circuits. That makes for very very strong anonymity, privacy and security - ofc the reduction / offset is that it's quite slow.
The added benefit of doing something like this is that the websites that you visit won't know your using Tor and won't see your connection as a Tor Exit node. Also, in terms of server logging (which most web servers do automatically) my service does not know your real IP address because your using Tor, which is also really perfect.
...
DEFCON.19.Moxie.Marlinspike.SSL.And.The.Future.Of.Authenticity -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDmj_xe7EIQIts a real shame that Convergence hasn't been updated to work with the latest version of Firefox. The above talk is a fascinating incite to the workings of SSL and https in general though.