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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."

5 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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?
  3. 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

  4. 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!”