- ooni-talk - lists.torproject.org

Launched: New OONI Probe Desktop App for Windows & macOS
by Maria Xynou 21 Apr '20

21 Apr '20

Hello, The OONI team is thrilled to announce the public launch of the new OONI Probe desktop app for Windows and macOS! You can download & install the new app here: https://ooni.org/install/desktop Learn all about the new OONI Probe desktop app here: https://ooni.org/post/2020-ooni-probe-desktop-app/ We are super excited because this is the first time that we're officially supporting Windows, and it's the first time that we're releasing a native OONI Probe desktop app. Along with the new OONI Probe desktop app, we're excited to release 2 new tests: 1. Tor test (https://ooni.org/nettest/tor/) => For measuring the blocking of Tor (https://www.torproject.org/) 2. Psiphon test (https://ooni.org/nettest/psiphon/) => For measuring the blocking of the Psiphon app (https://psiphon.ca/) With these new tests, measuring the blocking of circumvention tools becomes easier than ever before! The new OONI Probe desktop app also allows for more comprehensive website testing (in comparison to the OONI Probe mobile app), as you can test more than 1,000 websites in one run! Thanks to the amazing Localization Lab community, the new OONI Probe desktop app is translated into 12 languages: Chinese, Russian, Spanish, French, Thai, Turkish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Slovak, Catalan, and German. The Arabic and Farsi translations will also be released soon! Warm thanks to the OTF for supporting the development of the OONI Probe desktop app. Special thanks to community members for testing and translating the new OONI Probe desktop app, and for sharing extremely helpful feedback! We hope you all find the new OONI Probe desktop app useful! For any further feedback or bug reports, please consider filing tickets (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues) or writing to us (contact(a)openobservatory.org) Please help spread the word: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1252594768330309632 Thank you for helping us measure the Internet! Stay safe! ~ OONI team. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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Subject: FYI: Measurement Kit is deprecated and will be discontinued on 2021-03-14
by Simone Basso 20 Apr '20

20 Apr '20

Dear all, The OONI team has been using the Measurement Kit <https://github.com/measurement-kit/measurement-kit> (MK) library since 2017 as its network measurement engine. Because every measurement run using MK by default also submits measurements to the OONI collector, we know that there are several people who have also integrated MK into their network measurement tools and apps. If you are one of those folks using MK, we’d like to thank you for using it and inform you that it is now deprecated. At OONI, we are now switching to a new engine <https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine> written in Go which will be easier for us to maintain in the long-term. We encourage you to consider adoption of the new Go probe-engine for your tools. We will keep maintaining MK for roughly one year and we will stop producing builds and applying fixes after March 14, 2021. We articulated an upgrade path in the new README of the Measurement Kit repo <https://github.com/measurement-kit/measurement-kit/blob/master/README.md> for all the MK use cases that we know of. If you have questions, comments, suggestions, or use cases that we didn’t consider, please let us know, either here or on GitHub <https://github.com/measurement-kit/measurement-kit/issues>. Thank you, best, Simone & the OONI team

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Updated OONI Data Policy
by Maria Xynou 17 Apr '20

17 Apr '20

Hello friends, Hope you're all staying safe and healthy. I'm reaching out to let you know that we have updated the OONI Data Policy. The latest version of the OONI Data Policy is available here: https://ooni.org/about/data-policy/ In the updated policy, we share the principles that govern our data practices, and we explain what data we collect, process, store, and publish when you use OONI Probe. We also share which analytics we use for the OONI website, OONI Explorer, and the OONI desktop app, and we explain how you can opt out from analytics all-together. Throughout the Data Policy, we also explain how you can opt out of the various forms of data collection and publication. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Warm regards, Maria. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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Building a smart URL list system: Policy for URL prioritization
by Maria Xynou 15 Apr '20

15 Apr '20

Hello friends, To improve the monitoring of website censorship around the world, OONI aims to create a "smart URL list system", which would prioritize the testing of certain URLs over others. In every case, the smart URL list system would only prioritize URLs that are already included in the Citizen Lab test lists and which have therefore been reviewed by the community and vetted in terms of safety. We have published a document that describes the smart URL list system, the goals and criteria for URL prioritization, and how you can contribute (by reviewing the Citizen Lab test lists): https://ooni.org/post/ooni-smart-url-list-system/ A summarized version of our Policy for URL prioritization is available here: https://ooni.org/post/policy-url-prioritization/ooni-policy-url-prioritizat… As we're in the initial stages of design and development, any feedback you may have would be greatly appreciated! We also welcome any questions you may have. Kind regards, Maria. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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Funding for research related to COVID-19
by Maria Xynou 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

Hello friends, Hope you're all staying safe and healthy. I'm reaching out to share a funding opportunity for doing research and other work related to COVID-19: https://www.opentech.fund/news/increasing-rapid-response-support-covid-19/ More specifically, the Open Technology Fund (OTF) is seeking to provide "rapid response" support for the following types of projects: * Circumvention solutions to access blocked health and safety information and to respond to increased COVID-19-related censorship * Secure hosting for health and safety websites * Guidance / assistance on digital security best practices while working from home, including updating existing resources * Research and documentation on censorship of COVID-19 health and safety information and/or the increasing use of surveillance technology Please share this opportunity with anyone else who you think may be interested in applying for this. Warm regards, Maria. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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OONI Community Meeting: Tuesday, 31st March 2020
by Maria Xynou 30 Mar '20

30 Mar '20

Hello, The OONI team warmly welcomes you to join us next Tuesday for our monthly community meeting. => Where? OONI Slack channel: https://slack.ooni.org/ (bridged with IRC: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/#ooni) => When? Tuesday, 31st March 2020 at 14:00 UTC (for 1 hour) Please add topics that you'd like to discuss during the meeting in this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep The monthly OONI community meetings aim to: * Collect community feedback on OONI tools & methodologies * Address questions in relation to the use of OONI tools and OONI data * Foster discussions on internet censorship issues * Receive updates from the community We'd love to meet you and hear from you, and we hope you can join us! All the best, ~ OONI team -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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Test COVID-19 websites
by Maria Xynou 23 Mar '20

23 Mar '20

Hello friends, Ensuring a free and open internet during emergencies is important, but access to COVID-19 information has already been censored in China & Venezuela. We therefore invite you to participate in a global measurement campaign, to measure the accessibility of COVID-19 websites in your country & share relevant measurement data with the world! To test COVID-19 websites, please follow the 4 steps in this blog post: https://ooni.org/post/covid-19-ooni-measurement/ You can also find the "COVID-19" button for OONI Probe testing here: https://ooni.org/get-involved/run/ Results from around the world will be published on OONI Explorer: https://explorer.ooni.org/ Please help spread the word: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1242116342930722816 Thank you for contributing measurements during these difficult times. Please stay safe and healthy! Warm regards, Maria. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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Year in Review: OONI in 2019
by Maria Xynou 20 Mar '20

20 Mar '20

Hello friends, Hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. We just published this blog post, "Year in Review: OONI in 2019": https://ooni.org/post/ooni-in-2019/ Through this post, we share some highlights from the OONI-verse over the last year, as well as some of the amazing ways that many of you have used OONI Probe and OONI data as part of your work. We also share some thoughts for 2020 -- particularly on how to connect online amid the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Warm thanks to all of you for your important work and for contributing to the OONI-verse! My team and I look forward to supporting you in 2020. Warm regards, Maria. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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OONI Probe 2.3.0 is out!
by Maria Xynou 06 Mar '20

06 Mar '20

Hello Oonitarians, OONI Probe mobile 2.3.0 is out! You can update to the latest OONI Probe version directly from the app store of your platform: * Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.openobservatory.ooniprobe * iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1199566366 * F-Droid (coming soon): https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.openobservatory.ooniprobe/ The latest OONI Probe release for Android & iOS includes the following exciting new features: 1. Ability to re-test URLs. This means that as soon as you have tested a batch of URLs, you can very easily re-test them all with the tap of a button. This is particularly useful if you're testing a set of URLs from an OONI Run link, and you'd like to keep testing the same batch of URLs on an ongoing basis. The more data we can collect on the same URLs, the better! 2. Ability to test ALL of the URLs in the Citizen Lab test lists in one go! Previously, you could only test a random selection of URLs via the mobile app due to bandwidth constraints. Now with this new feature, if you're connected to WiFi, you can disable the test duration in the settings and test all of the URLs included in the Citizen Lab global + country-specific test lists. Essentially, what this means is that you can test a larger volume of websites in one go! Learn more about test lists here: https://ooni.org/get-involved/contribute-test-lists The new release also includes a series of bug fixes and improvements, as documented here: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/v2.3.0 A noteworthy bug fix is that this release fixes the WhatsApp test bug that was leading to false positives (following recent changes to WhatsApp's infrastructure). Hope you enjoy the latest release! Please spread the word: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1235884637567795200 Thanks, ~ OONI team. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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Report: Blocking of Wikipedia in Iran
by Maria Xynou 04 Mar '20

04 Mar '20

Hello, We published a report on the temporary blocking of the Farsi language edition of Wikipedia in Iran: https://ooni.org/post/2020-iran-blocks-farsi-wikipedia/ OONI measurements collected over the last days show that the Farsi edition of Wikipedia (fa.wikipedia.org) was blocked on at least 6 networks in Iran between 2nd to 3rd March 2020. This may be the first time that we're seeing the whole Farsi language edition of Wikipedia blocked in Iran. Previously, the block was limited to the HTTP version of specific Wikipedia articles, but that probably wasn't very noticeable over the last years, since Iranian internet users could easily access censored Wikipedia pages over HTTPS. We also found the Farsi edition of Wikinews (fa.wikinews.org) blocked in Iran, though we're being told that it's been blocked for several years now. Both Farsi Wikipedia and Wikinews were blocked by means of DNS tampering and SNI filtering. In our report, we share relevant data. Farsi Wikipedia has been unblocked (confirmed by OONI measurements collected from 13:29 UTC on 3rd March 2020 onwards), while Farsi Wikinews remains blocked in Iran. It's worth highlighting that the mobile version of the Farsi edition of Wikipedia (fa.m.wikipedia.org) remained accessible in Iran, as did the English version of Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) You can continue to track the situation through openly published OONI measurements: https://explorer.ooni.org/search?until=2020-03-05&probe_cc=IR&test_name=web… Best, Maria. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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