Facebook Adds Tor Support on Android

[engine]

I find it interesting that Facebook is doing this, and it's somewhat ironic that people using the Tor network would usually want privacy: Surely, true privacy with Facebook doesn't match, as far as I understand.

...we are now offering experimental support for using Facebook over Tor via the Orbot proxy app for Android devices. Facebook Adds Tor Support on Android [facebook.com]

[bill]

They say it's more targeted toward people in repressive countries not wanting their ISPs to see them accessing FB, or from places where FB is blocked. I don't think many would log into their accounts on Tor otherwise. However, I could see it if you're travelling or using a work VPN where this might find some use.

I watched the recent State of the Onion talk given by the Tor people at 32c3 where they discussed this. Tor is trying to get more use of .onion services. Even the Tor people think FB is somewhat evil, but an employee of FB setup this .onion site. It increases the usefulness of Tor if major services also offer their sites on Tor. Then there's no exit node to be monitored; If everything is in Tor it decreases the risk of surveillance.

[engine]

They say it's more targeted toward people in repressive countries not wanting their ISPs to see them accessing FB, or from places where FB is blocked.

And that's a great way to solve the access problems. I would assume these people are not using their real names.

[bill]

You certainly could use FB with your real name through Tor. That's what FB is hoping people will do. Most Tor users would know that this would be a bit counter-intuitive in most use case scenarios. However, if you're using FB via Tor in an isolated browser (say in a Virtual Machine) and you just use it for that purpose, then FB wouldn't know where you're coming from even though you're logged in.Only FB would know that you're coming in through Tor. The GHCQ, Great Firewall, NSA and others would not know you're accessing FB. Whether FB shares this information via other channels is probably a topic for another thread.