letterboxingReply.txt

Hello, and thank you for asking the FAQ "What are these bars?".

Those bars/the border is called letterboxing. Letterboxing is a privacy technique used by Tor browser which prevents websites from using the size of your screen to identify you. Having a common screen size [is not a good defense](
https://old.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/ebwcte/does_changing_the_window_size_still_reduce_my/fb7mjmp/). The result of letterboxing is bars on the sides and bottom of your sceen which may take some getting used to.

Though the bars are annoying at first, they are important for preserving privacy.

More reading:
[Tor Projects page on Letterboxing](https://support.torproject.org/tbb/maximized-torbrowser-window/)