The Tor Project has started beta testing its secure messaging app

Tor has been described by the NSA as the undisputed king of online anonymity, and it’s an essential tool for Internet users who want to protect themselves from prying eyes. The Tor Project, which is responsible for maintaining Tor, has integrated Tor into other applications, such as with the Tor Browser, in order to give people more tools to protect their anonymity, and the organizations latest such application is Tor Messenger. Similar to how the Tor Browser is a heavily modified version of Firefox that automatically connects to the Tor network, Tor Messenger uses a modified version of Instantbird to allow users to send messages through the Tor Network. 

The Tor Project has announced the beta release of Tor Messenger, a cross-platform multi-network messaging application that allows you to connect to services like Yahoo! Messenger, IRC, Google Talk and Facebook chat, among others, all over the Tor network by default with the full security that being on the Tor network provides. Being an application developed by the Tor Project, much like how the Tor Browser modifies Firefox to a more secure state by default, the same thing is happening in with Tor Messenger. While the base application its built on is Instantbird, the developers with the Tor Project have modified the default settings and included things like Off-the-record messaging all by default, ensuring that the chats that take place are secure. The Tor Project does mention a catch, though, which is that although the application itself and the way it works is as secure as it could possibly be, the fundamental way in which most chat services operate means that metadata, specifically the relationships between contacts, can still be logged by the chat network’s servers. This initial release is just a beta and a final version will come eventually, but that’s likely not going to happen for a while. If you’re interested in the application, you can download it for your platform from the following links.