Who Turned Out The Rights?
Those unfamiliar with the constant war for net neutrality that rages on behind the net curtains of the internet may not be familiar with Tor, the open source service which pledges to "prevent somebody watching your internet connection." Tor is non-profit, and its main product is the Tor Browser, which claims to be entirely anonymous in every way.
In an old interview with the BBC, company executive director Andrew Lewman revealed that the Tor Browser worked by pinging your request to visit a website's servers across 6,000 hosts in 89 different countries. These relays happen in a different, random order every time, meaning that any prying eyes will see the data they collect as nothing more than a scrambled mess.
Today, Facebook have officially pledged their support to Tor, and improved how their website runs when accessed through its browser. Although the site was already accessible through it, some data was still collected by the social network's algorithms. Now, Facebook will collect absolutely nothing. No data, no statistics, no history. This is valuable for those concerned with Facebook's recent advertising developments, of course, but it should also prove to be a game-changer in heavily suppressed China. The new update also fixes a problem where those accessing the site through Tor were mistakenly flagged as having hacked accounts.
As well as planting their flag firmly on the side of 'The People' in the war for net neutrality, Facebook will receive a huge boost in their site's numbers with the move. In China, Iran, North Korea and Cuba, access to Facebook has been either partially or entirely blocked amid government paranoia that people are using the website to start a revolution. If these countries regain access to Facebook, it could receive millions of hits.
source: ibtimes.co.uk |
Oh, and I don't in fact plan to buy a new pair of roller-skates tomorrow. You can have that one for free, Mr. Cameron.