facebook Facebook Android App Update Makes It Easier to Connect Through Tor

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Facebook, a company based on publicly sharing details about yourself, continues to make it easier for users to maintain some privacy when they visit the site. On Tuesday, Facebook announced additional support for using the Tor anonymity network with the Android version of its app.

 

“We commonly receive requests for additional platform support beyond the browser, and thanks to a project initiated by a summer intern at Facebook and subsequently picked up by our Protect and Care team in London, we are now offering experimental support for using Facebook over Tor via the Orbot proxy app for Android devices,” reads an announcement published by the company. Orbot is an Android app used for routing traffic over the Tor network.

 

This update is really to do with Facebook's own Android app, however. An Orbot user can now select “Use Tor via Orbot” in the Facebook app. This will connect the user to Facebook’s Tor hidden service, masking their IP address and stopping their internet service provider from seeing when they visit the social network. This could potentially also allow users to access the site even if it is blocked in their country. As the feature is currently experimental, bugs and other issues may occur.

 

 

In 2014, Facebook launched a Tor hidden service, allowing users to connect without their traffic ever leaving the Tor network. The company also took the step of setting up a HTTPS certificate for the .onion to ensure visitors they were browsing the legitimate site.

 

Although Facebook is a site geared around sharing personal details, users should be mindful not just of what they choose to upload, but of other information revealed by their connection to the site. Offering more flexibility in accessing the site over Tor gives them greater control.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/facebook-android-app-update-makes-it-easier-to-connect-through-tor

 

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Back towards the end of 2014, Facebook unveiled a new .onion address that allowed Tor users to visit the social network securely. Following on from this, the company is now giving Android users the ability to browse the site using Tor and the Facebook app.

 

Security, privacy and anonymity may be words readily associated with Tor, but few people would use them in the same sentence as Facebook. The social network says that there is increased demand for secure connections to Facebook from Tor-enabled browsers, hence spreading to the largest mobile platform. The news will make some mobile users happy, but there are currently no plans to migrate the feature from Android to iOS.

 

While the introduction of Tor support does nothing to change Facebook's own privacy policies, it does help to lock down communication further so that it cannot be accessed by third parties. Although initially funded by the US government, the Tor project has proved to be a valuable tool for those looking to evade the eyes of the NSA et al.

 

A spokeswoman for the Tor Project, Kate Krauss, said:

 

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Everybody in the world needs more privacy online and almost everybody is on Facebook. This will allow people to choose whether to share their location or not. For some people, this is convenience. For others it is lifesaving.

 

Introducing the new Tor support, Facebook explains how to get started:

 

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We're releasing this feature over the next few days to seek feedback which will help us create a great experience for using Facebook over Tor on Android. To get started you can head over to Google Play or the Orbot F-Droid repository and download Orbot: Proxy with Tor.

 

You can also find more instructions on the Tor Project’s Android page.

After installing Orbot, visit your Facebook “App Settings” menu to enable the feature using a new preference switch. Further information and updates will be posted on the Facebook over Tor page.

 

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