Compliance Management, Privacy, Threat Management

Facebook creates onion address for Tor users

On Friday, Facebook launched a Tor hidden service, or a separate onion address version of its website that only works on Tor-enabled browsers.

The new URL, https://facebookcorewwwi.onion/, allows users to connect to Facebook without compromising Tor's identity-hiding features, according to a blog post. The social media site's security procedures typically blocked Tor users from accessing the site. Their accounts' geographical locations often changed regularly, which indicated to Facebook that the account was hacked and accessed through a botnet.

However, this wasn't always the case. Therefore, Tor users will now be able to end-to-end communicate directly with Facebook. They also can simultaneously use the browser's cryptographic protections provided by Tor cloud.

No Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) will be used at this address, but Facebook is providing an SSL certificate to remove Tor's “SSL Certificate Warning.”

Get daily email updates

SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news

By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.