We use JavaScript to the minimum while always ensuring graceful degradation.

Arguments against using JavaScript:

  • JavaScript can be dangerous for security and privacy. Tor Browser is supposed to block all JavaScript that might harm anonymity. But some of the JavaScript allowed by Tor Browser can still be dangerous.

  • An important part of our audience wants to be careful about JavaScript, for the reason mentioned above, and might disable it fully. To support this use case, we include the NoScript extension. So, to be coherent with this, every part of our website must be functional without JavaScript. This also ensures compatibility with all the levels of the security slider of Tor Browser (bug #9387 on Tor Project's Trac).

Arguments in favor of using JavaScript:

  • We already use JavaScript on our website, like for the JavaScript download verification.

  • JavaScript might allow us to present better our information to some users and improve the experience of navigating on our website. But using it to save us a bit of work or look cool might not be a good enough reason.