Facebook introduces Android app support for anonymity service Tor

Today, the social networking giant announced that it has added support for the anonymity service Tor on Android smartphones, which will let users to connect to Facebook without leaving a digital trial.

Necessary because Facebook’s security infrastructure conflicts with Tor’s intentional browsing obfuscation – so the direct link route offers a way for Facebook users to access the site through Tor “without losing the cryptographic protections provided by the Tor cloud”, as Facebook put it. then. The tool is normally used to overcome blocks imposed by websites, as well as preserve user privacy.

Facebook said in a blog post that usage of Tor for Facebook browsing on PCs has grown considerably since 2014, prompting calls for additional Tor support.

Asserting that “everybody in the world needs more privacy online and nearly everybody is on Facebook”, Krauss said that Facebook’s addition of Android support for Tor will “allow people to choose whether to share their location or not”. For some people, this is convenience.

Tor is used to hide computer IP addresses, typically by concealing the identity of an Internet user. “For others it is lifesaving”. Currently, it is only available for Android users. The feature stemmed from a suggestion by Will Shackleton, a British computer-science university student, during a summer internship at Facebook’s London offices.

In the meantime, Facebook encourages users to install the Orbot app from Google Play Store or through F-Droid using the Orbot F-Droid repository.

The catch was that users could only access the site from Tor-enabled browsers and not directly from its mobile app.

Once Orbot has been installed, Facebook users on Android will be able to activate the new privacy feature by toggling the “Use Tor via Orbot” setting in its App Settings page. Facebook hopes user feedback will help them iron the issues out.