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'Tinfoil for Facebook' Android App

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  • 10-08-2014 9:54am
    #1
    Recondite49
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,004 ✭✭✭


    While the truly privacy conscious may avoid social networking websites altogether, there are some of us who aren't averse to keeping in touch with family in friends.

    As I am sure you're all aware, there's an excellent repository of free and open source software available via the F -droid app. ( https://f-droid.org/) which is where I found this one in turn.

    In essence it seems to be a custom version of the web browser with settings changed to avoid Facebook tracking you from page to page.

    Amongst the settings you can choose to use a proxy server which is excellent as it allows you to use it with Orbot, which for those who don't know allows your phone to connect to the tor network.

    Only been using for a few days but all is well so far.

    Anyone with any more tips for making Facebook a more private experience on Android, would love to hear your thoughts.


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    #2
    srsly78
    Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    Well if you don't use facebook it helps a lot.


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    #3
    Recondite49
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,004 ✭✭✭Recondite49


    Also worthy of mention is the application chatsecure which is available for most platforms at https://chatsecure.org/.

    Like the Tinfoil browser, the app can be configured to connect over tor and can be set up to work with Facebook Messenger.


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    #4
    Recondite49
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,004 ✭✭✭Recondite49


    srsly78 wrote: »
    Well if you don't use facebook it helps a lot.

    Thought I addressed that point in my first paragraph already but thank you for your thoughts all the same.


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    #5
    matrim
    Registered Users Posts: 7,517 ✭✭✭matrim


    Recondite49 wrote: »
    While the truly privacy conscious may avoid social networking websites altogether, there are some of us who aren't averse to keeping in touch with family in friends.

    As I am sure you're all aware, there's an excellent repository of free and open source software available via the F -droid app. ( https://f-droid.org/) which is where I found this one in turn.

    In essence it seems to be a custom version of the web browser with settings changed to avoid Facebook tracking you from page to page.

    Amongst the settings you can choose to use a proxy server which is excellent as it allows you to use it with Orbot, which for those who don't know allows your phone to connect to the tor network.

    Only been using for a few days but all is well so far.

    Anyone with any more tips for making Facebook a more private experience on Android, would love to hear your thoughts.

    What's the difference between something like this and just going into incognito mode whenever you want to check facebook?


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    #6
    Yawns
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,255 ✭✭✭Yawns


    incognito mode doesn't stop websites from tracking you


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    #7
    Recondite49
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,004 ✭✭✭Recondite49


    matrim wrote: »
    What's the difference between something like this and just going into incognito mode whenever you want to check facebook?

    An excellent question matrim, as Yawns said, this won't protect you fully. That said if you're using a browser like Chrome or Firefox, I'd certainly recommend using the Incognito and private browsing mode respectively to reduce the chance that traces of your browsing habits don't remain on your device but it's important to bear in mind that's all it does.

    The advantage as well of using it in conjunction with Orbot is it's much more difficult to trace from where you're connecting, although this can tell against you as if you use a Tor exit node based in the US, then one in say Singapore, the system assumes you're a hacker and asks you to confirm your login information again.

    It is possible to add a couple of lines to Tor's configuration file both on a mobile and a computer to make sure only exit nodes in a particular country are used. I'd recommend using a jurisdiction which doesn't have a great history of cooperation with Western Europe/USA e.g Russia. Naturally it's important to make sure that you choose a country other than the one in which you live at the moment! :)

    Of course even if you do this, if you're tagged in a certain photo and the location is clear, or someone uses that abysmal "check in" feature against you, your efforts will be for nothing. It also may be possible to pinpoint your location from examining the public profiles of your friends, so it's probably best to hide your friends list from anyone but yourself.


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    #8
    matrim
    Registered Users Posts: 7,517 ✭✭✭matrim


    Recondite49 wrote: »
    An excellent question matrim, as Yawns said, this won't protect you fully. That said if you're using a browser like Chrome or Firefox, I'd certainly recommend using the Incognito and private browsing mode respectively to reduce the chance that traces of your browsing habits don't remain on your device but it's important to bear in mind that's all it does.

    The advantage as well of using it in conjunction with Orbot is it's much more difficult to trace from where you're connecting, although this can tell against you as if you use a Tor exit node based in the US, then one in say Singapore, the system assumes you're a hacker and asks you to confirm your login information again.

    It is possible to add a couple of lines to Tor's configuration file both on a mobile and a computer to make sure only exit nodes in a particular country are used. I'd recommend using a jurisdiction which doesn't have a great history of cooperation with Western Europe/USA e.g Russia. Naturally it's important to make sure that you choose a country other than the one in which you live at the moment! :)

    Of course even if you do this, if you're tagged in a certain photo and the location is clear, or someone uses that abysmal "check in" feature against you, your efforts will be for nothing. It also may be possible to pinpoint your location from examining the public profiles of your friends, so it's probably best to hide your friends list from anyone but yourself.

    But if the proxy mode in this is optional then when it's not in use you can still be IP tracked. Using the normal browser you can just use something like ProxyDroid to set you proxy if you wanted to stop IP tracking

    Or alternatively just use OrWeb with orbit to use Tor

    Basically I fail to see why installing a custom web browser for one website is any more secure than just using one of the many ways there already is to hide tracking. If you want to stop IP tracking, then you still need a third party proxy app like Orbit with this app. If you just want to stop cookie tracking, then you can use incognito mode (although that may not stop certain things like canvas tracking)

    Also source code for anyone interested : https://github.com/velazcod/Tinfoil-Facebook


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    #9
    Recondite49
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,004 ✭✭✭Recondite49


    matrim wrote: »
    But if the proxy mode in this is optional then when it's not in use you can still be IP tracked. Using the normal browser you can just use something like ProxyDroid to set you proxy if you wanted to stop IP tracking

    Or alternatively just use OrWeb with orbit to use Tor

    Basically I fail to see why installing a custom web browser for one website is any more secure than just using one of the many ways there already is to hide tracking. If you want to stop IP tracking, then you still need a third party proxy app like Orbit with this app. If you just want to stop cookie tracking, then you can use incognito mode (although that may not stop certain things like canvas tracking)

    Also source code for anyone interested : https://github.com/velazcod/Tinfoil-Facebook

    Thanks matrim,

    I agree it may be safer to use Orweb though for reasons of convenience I think it might be an idea still to use Chatsecure for your messaging.

    Naturally if you can persuade others to do the same you're conversations will be protected with OTR messaging to, although for reasons I can't begin to fathom it would seem that Facebook retains a copy of encrypted chats.

    Ideally of course it would be best to torify everything through your phone but to do that you'd need to root it, plus it would make viewing YouTube etc. Near nigh impossible.

    The age old trade off between convenience and security rears its head! :-)


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