You might be wondering if Facebook ever explored the concept How to access the dark web safely? You will be surprised to know that number of people accessing the dark web is about 1 million per month. The truth is that Facebook never encouraged its users to hide their identities online. However, Facebook recently decided to join web’s anonymous network. Facebook launched Tor hidden service.
The website operates based on the Tor software. The website can only get accessed by those users who make use of the Tor software.
What Tor does is that it preserves the identity of the user by disguising their location and the traffic gets bounced across a network of servers.
Facebook over Tor
The positive side of the picture is that Tor users on Facebook can protect their identity with ease. When you make use of Tor over Facebook, then you can get access to an additional security layer. Tor lets the users hide their identities from the sites that they visit. Facebook makes use of SSL connection so it becomes difficult to match the identity of a user with their Facebook identity.
Tor has open source code and the servers get operated by volunteers. The exciting part is that the number of people who use Facebook over Tor is increasing with every passing day. Way back in June 2019, 525,000 people accessed Facebook through the dark website.
The reason why people choose to communicate over Tor is that they find this method safe and secure. It seems that Facebook over Tor usage will continue to be a success. In January, Facebook decided to make the Onion site accessible through its Smartphone running the Android operating system.
How Facebook over Tor works
When you decide to access Facebook’s onion address, then your internet provider will not be able to identify the fact that you logged into the site. When you access your account, then Facebook will continue to monitor your activities.
The data hops around the different nodes when you access Facebook over Tor. Due to the implementation of the SSL protocol, the Facebook users are not vulnerable to any user controlling a specific node.
Facebook makes use of an SSL certificate for its onion site. What is surprising is that such a certificate has never been used for an onion site before.
The element of risk still exists
It is believed that using Facebook over Tor is safe. However, some reports surfaced up recently that may seem alarming. A report got released in December that claimed that 267 million usernames and Facebook ids of users were available over the dark web.
The worse part was that the information was available for free for about two weeks. It is assumed that information may have been obtained through a technique known as scraping. Facebook gave its explanation when they came across this issue.
Facebook mentioned the fact that they are looking into this issue. They believed that the information got leaked before Facebook implemented its security measures.
How to use Facebook over Tor
Now, let us use Facebook over Tor. First, you will need to download the Tor browser. What makes Tor browser stand out is that it is pre-configured to access the network. What is interesting is Tor browsers have a binary format that can operate from the USB flash drive.
Once you connect to the Tor browser, you will have the access to the updates also. You will have the freedom to install the updates. You must keep in mind that Tor browser is localized to the Tor network.
Once you are on the homepage of the Tor browser, you can enter the onion site link of Facebook in the Tor browser. Tor is comparatively slow in comparison to a normal browser so you will need to show a bit of patience. When the onion link of Facebook loads, you will notice that it looks like normal Facebook screen.
You have to verify that you are at the official Facebook Tor page. When you have to verify your connection to the Facebook server, you will need to click on the green padlock placed in the address bar. Now, you will get a chance to trace your steps across the Tor network.
When you click the arrow Secure connection, you will be able to view the relevant certification. If you get to see “DigiCert Inc”, then this means you are at the right place. Make sure that you disable the HTML5 canvas because it can get used to fingerprint your browser.
You can also use VPN with the Tor browser when you want to increase the level of security.
Follow these steps to make use of Facebook over Tor. However, your purpose should be legitimate. Facebook will monitor your activities once you login through the Tor. Now, this answers how to access the dark web safely through Facebook.