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Over 1 Million People Use Tor To Check Facebook Anonymously Each Month (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the anonymous-browsing dept.

An anonymous reader writes: More than one million people have used the Tor anonymizing browser to login to Facebook, according to Facebook. Facebook expanded its support for Tor earlier this year as it rolled-out support for the Android Orbot proxy, providing Android Facebook users easier access to use Tor. In October 2014, Facebook created a dedicated onion address for Tor access, once again, making it easier for users to connect via Tor. Tor said some 525,000 people accessed [Facebook] via Tor in June 2015, rising to more than one million this month. "This [Tor] growth is a reflection of the choices that people make to use Facebook over Tor, and the value that it provides them. We hope they will continue to provide feedback and help us keep improving," Facebook added. Users may use Tor to access Facebook because of the location obfuscation feature, as well as to ensure their identity doesn't leak to intermediaries -- such as ISPs or "an agency that surveils the Internet."

19 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Anonymously?! Haha by topham · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Facebook is on Tor so the CIA can do network analysis of known origin data. Sure sure, some people jump through proxies first VPn or otherwise, but most don't.

    1. Re:Anonymously?! Haha by radarskiy · · Score: 2

      For some people the CIA is not the organization most likely to kill them.

  2. anonymous browser to login... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    am I missing something here???

    1. Re:anonymous browser to login... by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes you are. Just because I can login to some website and post some comment under some strange pseudonym to discuss religious, cultural, political, or otherwise sensitive topics doesn't mean that I necessarily wish to allow those communications to be read by the government.

      What you're missing, is that some governments are hostile to speech while at the same time in no position to subpoena a company to hand over user details. In that regard having a secure anonymous connection between yourself and a server which resides outside of reach of said country is important even if the transaction with the final server is not anonymous.

  3. Re:Translation by lgw · · Score: 2

    Translation: "NSA Adds Over 1 Million People To Secret Watch List Each Month"

    I don't believe that for a second - that would imply there exists someone not already on that list!

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  4. Re:T.O.R. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know you're trolling, but here's a serious answer anyway.

    there's no reason you need to using T.O.R.

    Only in the sense that there was "no reason Rosa Parks needed to ride on the front of the bus".

    I won't comment on the dubious wisdom of logging into Facebook under TOR. But in a general sense, anything that frustrates the surveillance state and returns power from the state back to individuals has critical social benefits that make it worthwhile, even if it is inconvenient.

    There's "no reason" only if you don't give a shit about human rights.

  5. Out of shame probably. by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 3, Funny

    If I had a Facebook account I'd hide the fact too.

    Then again it could just be creepy basement denizens stalking the people they had a crush on back in their school days.

    1. Re:Out of shame probably. by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or maybe people in Thailand speaking out against their king, people in China speaking out against their government, or people in Russia proclaiming their love to their homosexual partner.

  6. Re:Translation by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Headline: "Over 1 Million People Use Tor To Check Facebook Anonymously Each Month"

    Translation: "NSA Adds Over 1 Million People To Secret Watch List Each Month"

    Amen. More noise to sift through.

    The fear is that the initial outfits will collect and parse all of our information. This is not worth worrying over. The toothpaste is pretty much out of the tube... the collection of everything is efficient and ongoing.

    We are saved from a realistic fruition of the 1984 prophecy not by compassion, plenty of warning, or good governing; but by the endless, insatiable greed of the governors.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  7. Re:T.O.R. by rmdingler · · Score: 2
    That is matter from the south end of a northbound bull.

    Perhaps I perceive that anonymity is a right to privacy issue that is constitutionally protected.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  8. Re:T.O.R. by digitig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The reason for accessing Facebook over TOR is noise. The more innocuous traffic on TOR, the harder it gets for anybody looking for the less innocuous stuff.

    --
    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  9. Re:T.O.R. by phayes · · Score: 2

    Looks to me that much of the tor traffic to fb is from the asses that clone accounts unde a new misspelled name, ask to be friended and then send messages asking for money. Their scam only works when tracking back to the IP is difficult.

    --
    Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
  10. Re:Why use Tor at all? by matbury · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say" -- Edward Snowden

  11. Well, OR... by Narcocide · · Score: 2

    ... one guy uses Tor to check Facebook anonymously 1 million times per month.

    1. Re:Well, OR... by vux984 · · Score: 2

      ... one guy uses Tor to check Facebook anonymously 1 million times per month.

      No, facebooks knows who the million are.

      So the headline should be 1 million idiots used tor thinking they connected to facebook anonymously and here follows a list of their names, addresses, birthdays, favorite snack, last vacation they went on, and who their dentist is.

    2. Re:Well, OR... by son1dow · · Score: 2

      Maybe many of them created temporary accounts to post on more sensitive topics, and they don't log into them without tor. Or they've used this to hide their IPs despite giving away their ID. That might be useful as well.

  12. Sorry for the hijacking, but this is too important by fustakrakich · · Score: 4, Informative

    Slashdot is deleting comments!

    I cannot overstress the importance of stopping this!

    Indelible, uneditable comments are Slashdot's last redeeming value! Without it all is lost!

    Please, help spread the word, and maybe we can nip this in the bud.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  13. Re:Why use Tor at all? by jma05 · · Score: 2

    Great quote. A comprehensive exploration of the topic is in: Nothing to Hide by Daniel J. Solove, a legal scholar.

  14. Re:Sorry for the hijacking, but this is too import by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    OK, no comments are being deleted, then.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20