Android users concerned about their privacy now have a new and extremely secure way to use Facebook.
The Facebook for Android now supports browsing through Tor, the social network announced Tuesday. The feature, which is still in experimental stages, lets you encrypt your browsing activity while using the Facebook Android app.
Facebook first introduced support for Tor in 2014, but it was only supported through the browser. After yesterday's update, you can now use Tor directly from the Android app. Tor is a tool that keeps your online activity anonymous, so websites can't track what you're doing. It's also used to allow access to blocked websites and services in countries where the Internet is censored. While most Facebook users probably won't need the extra security that Tor offers , it's especially useful for activists and others concerned about privacy and censorship online. The new, experimental, Android feature started as a summer internship project, Facebook said in a statement announcing the news.
To take advantage of the feature, Android users will need to use the Orbot Proxy app, which allows services to connect to Tor. Once installed, you can enable the “Facebook Over Tor” option in the app’s settings. (The Tor Project has created more detailed instructions on its website.)
As with most new features, Facebook says that Tor support will take a few days to be available to everyone, so the new settings may not appear in the app immediately.
