Facebook “joins” Tor – good-bye, privacy!

Multiple publications are touting the announcement by Facebook of a Tor-enabled version of the social networking website as nothing short of a breakthrough for anonymous access from “repressed nations”. They think that the people around the world who wish their identity and activity online to remain hidden will now have a great time of using Facebook through Tor.

In my point of view, the result is just the opposite. The users of Facebook sign in and are tracked across a multitude of collaborating sites. Using Facebook through Tor will actually disclose completely the identity and the activity of the person using it. This information will become available across several user-tracking websites. The user will completely lose the anonymity they so strongly desired.

Facebook previously denied access to its social network through the Tor network citing security concerns. Surely, you do not think they decided to provide Tor access because they decided to be nice to those few who use Tor? Facebook is a commercial company under control of United States government and don’t you forget it. The move to bring in a few thousand Tor users is unlikely to have any positive impact on their business but will require to provide additional infrastructure. Therefore, Facebook is acting selflessly and causing themselves trouble for no commercial gain. I view such a move as extremely suspicious. Most likely, the company’s network will be used in online operations to unmask the identity of Tor users.

Of course, the proper way to keep your privacy online is to never use any social networks of any kind and discard every session after a short period and when switching activities. Searching for movie tickets? Use a session and discard it when done. Looking up the hospital’s admission hours? Discard when done. In any other case, the network of tracking sites will connect the dots on you. If you are to use the Facebook in the same session, your identity is revealed instantly and all of that activity will be linked to the real you.

We released too much of our privacy to the Internet companies already. They are now slowly dismantling the last bastions, one of which is the Tor network, under the pretense of fighting online crime. Facebook, having a history of abusing its customers, should not be trusted on these matters. Their interest is not in protecting your privacy, they will betray you for money, rest assured.