Facebook’s Android App To Get Built-In Tor Support

The name Tor might not be familiar with some of you guys, but in recent times it has started to gain more attention (or notoriety) thanks to the Silk Road website that operated on it in which it allowed visitors to buy all kinds of drugs freely (albeit illegally). However that wasn’t always what Tor was meant for.

Tor was designed to provide users with anonymity, making it useful for people who valued their privacy, as well as professionals such as journalists to chat with sources without anyone being able to listen in on them. The good news is that if you’re the type that truly values their privacy, Facebook’s Android app will get getting built-in Tor support.

According to Facebook, “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.”

Getting started is easy. First you will need to download Orbot. You will then need to update to the latest version of Facebook, and within the settings you should see the toggle to use Tor via Orbot. Once that’s done, you’re good to go! However note that the update is being rolled out over the next few days, so if you don’t see it yet, don’t worry as it will be coming.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones, Web
Tags: Android, Apps, Facebook, Privacy, Security, Tor