Facebook makes Tor accessible via app

- Users of the Facebook Android app can now visit the social platform via the anonymous Tor network. This makes it possible to visit without Facebook that the location is known.

Since 2014 it has been possible to visit the Facebook site through the Tor browser on personal computers. Kate Kraus of the Tor project points out that Android support for Facebook helps to spread Tor among many users of Facebook. The social network has more than 1.5 million active users per month.

'Globally, people need more privacy online and almost everyone is on Facebook,' so let Kraus Reuters know via an encrypted email service. 'By choosing the Tor-support Facebook people can not or whether or not they want to share their location. For some people this is pleasant, for others it is of vital importance. '

Tor support by the world's largest social networking comes at a time when technology companies and policy makers to discuss whether digital privacy should be reduced to make it easier for legislators to track down cybercriminals.

Tor is used to hide IP addresses to conceal the identity of users. Tor's popularity has increased after the revelations of voormailig NSA employee Edward Snowden that the US government is spying on the Internet.

Tor is developed with financial support from the US government as a communication tool for dissidents in oppressed countries. However, US law enforcement agencies are not happy with the project because it is very difficult to track users of the platform.

In order to use Tor on Android must first install the app Orbot. Orbot makes the connection with Tor and ensures that the Facebook settings are updated. There are no plans to expand the Tor support to the iOS app from Facebook.