September 2020 - tor-project - lists.torproject.org

Tails report for August 2020
by sajolida＠pimienta.org 12 Sep '20

12 Sep '20

Tails report for August, 2020 [1] RELEASES * Tails 4.10 was released on August 25 [2]. * Tails 4.11 is scheduled for September 22 [3]. The following changes were introduced in Tails 4.10: * Update Linux to 5.7.10. This should improve the support for newer hardware (graphics, Wi-Fi, etc.). * Hide the welcome message when starting Thunderbird. * Fix support for USB Wi-Fi adapters with Atheros AR9271 hardware. (#17834 [4]) * Fix USB tethering from iPhone. (#17820 [5]) CODE * Added support for older TREZOR firmware (!142 [6]). * Started working on the upgrade to Thunderbird 78 ESR, and in particular its new OpenPGP support (#17148 [7]). * Automated generation of our Changelog (#17886 [8]). * Automated generation of the security advisory boilerplate from a template that technical writers can improve (!128 [9]). * Hidden broken "Turn on Wi-Fi Hotspot" feature in GNOME Wi-Fi settings (#17887 [10]). * Fixed sorting Intel GPUs last in the "Error starting GDM" message (#17903 [11]). * Upgraded Linux to 5.7.17-1 (#17895 [12]). DOCUMENTATION AND WEBSITE * Changed massively our instructions on how to start Tails: * Documented Shift + Restart on Windows [13]. (#16456 [14]) We're not telling Windows users to use the Boot Menu key anymore. It's still the default for Linux [15]. * Wrote dedicated pages for starting Tails on PC [16] and Mac [17]. * Simplified troubleshooting sections. We simplified and made consistent the troubleshooting instructions [18] in all installation scenarios. * Removed instructions to report to Help Desk from the installation scenarios but kept them on doc/first steps/start [19]. We believe that all these changes will lower your workload and make more people start Tails at the same time. * Rephrased our FAQ about VPN [20]. (#15783 [21]) * Wrote an FAQ about 32-bit computers [22]. (#17866 [23]) * Fixed all outdated links to torproject.org. (#17717 [24]) * Used ikiwiki's automatic referencing of HTML ids in table of content on the pages that have the longest tables of content. (#17844 [25]) Now you can copy links directly from the table of content to point to: https://tails.boum.org/support/faq/#javascript USER EXPERIENCE * Analyzed the responses of the OpenPGP and Pidgin survey [26]. (#17821 [27]) It's pretty exciting because we barely have quantitative data about our user base at large. Highlights: * Our users find Tails relatively easy to use compared to an industry average. * Linux users are still the biggest share of the respondents and this hasn't changed much since 2017. * The top 5 wishes of our users are, in rough order: * Do nothing because Tails is great already :) * More persistent settings: security level in Tor Browser, background, keyboard, and language * Messaging applications and voice calls * Make Tor less painful for web browsing * Better upgrades * OpenPGP is much more popular outside Thunderbird: 49% vs. 16%. * Enigmail users are more technical than OpenPGP users overall. * Electrum (28%) is more used than Thunderbird (27%), which is more used than XMPP (17%). * IRC is used by a non-negligible 8% of respondents. HOT TOPICS ON OUR HELP DESK This last month we felt that the social crisis created by covid is starting to take a toll on our users mental state, and we received more derailed emails than usual. Hopefully there are local resources you can count on for this difficult times. Take care! * Many users wrote to us with problems related to MacbookPros from 2020. Apple in general does not prioritize collaborating with Free Software projects, and their newest hardware is usually very hard for Free Software developers to get working with Linux, and thus Tails. In comparison, hardware for PC tends to be more open and get support for Linux faster. Please take that into consideration if you are buying hardware to run Tails. * The last release also saw some users with graphics cards issues. Please read the page shown on the error message [28] before mailing us, because there might be a solution for your graphics card. * Some users had problems [29] to do automatic upgrades to Tails 4.10. Update: this was fixed. INFRASTRUCTURE * Set up infrastructure that will allow Release Managers to upload to git-annex faster (tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17687 [30]). * Started coordination for requiring Buster or newer for running our test suite (#17842 [31]). * Started upgrading our Jenkins "isotester" workers to Buster. * Summed up [32] the findings from "Gather usability data about our current CI" (#16959 [33]). FUNDING GRANTS * Our grant to Reset [34] from May 1 was rejected. * We applied to RIPE NCC [35] to work on usability improvements for censorship circumvention. DONATIONS * We surveyed "lapsed donors" [36] who haven't donated since 2019 and analyzed 121 responses. Conclusions: * We're doing good! Negative comments were few exceptions in a mass of love: the work that we do is very important and we do it well. * We should communicate a bit more and better with past donors: * The main reason for lapsed donors not to renew their donation is lack of awareness. * We should write a newsletter to donors half-way through the year or when we have major improvements. * Adding an opt-in mechanism for our newsletter would allow us to be less shy to write them. * LimeSurvey is more convenient to send mass emails to donors. * We should communicate more about the impact of donations and how we spend the money. * About our donors and their interests: * Donors are mostly users (74%) but they are really into helping others (70%). * Donors mostly talk about: * Privacy (24) * Protection from oppressive governments and persecution (18) * Liberty and freedom of speech (16) * We merged a first batch of improvements to our Donate [37] page: * To better explain our mission: * We wrote new slogans. * We improved the text on the left. * To better explain how we spend our money: * We simplified the chart and added short text to explain each of maintenance, improvements, user experience, and administration. * We added a section about our impact with numbers of daily users. * To increase trust: * We duplicated the recommendations from the Home page. * We improved the color scheme of the charts. PARTNERS * We added Freiheitsfoo as partner [38]. ON-GOING DISCUSSIONS * Exporting secret PGP key in SeaHorse: Link to the thread [39]. * GitLab MR terminology update: WIP→ Draft : Link to the thread [40]. * Reviewers: Link to the thread [41]. TRANSLATIONS ALL THE WEBSITE * de: 29% (1921) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy * es: 49% (3241) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy * fa: 21% (1401) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy * fr: 80% (5231) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy * it: 27% (1805) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy * pt: 19% (1289) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy CORE PAGES OF THE WEBSITE [42] * de: 47% (992) strings translated, 23% strings fuzzy * es: 83% (1744) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy * fa: 20% (422) strings translated, 15% strings fuzzy * fr: 79% (1651) strings translated, 12% strings fuzzy * it: 48% (1010) strings translated, 21% strings fuzzy * pt: 38% (803) strings translated, 15% strings fuzzy CORE PAGES OF THE WEBSITE FOR LANGUAGES NOT ACTIVATED ON THE WEBSITE YET * ar: 8% (172) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy * ca: 8% (185) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy * id: 8% (189) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy * pl: 9% (214) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy * ru: 10% (230) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy * sr_Latn: 7% (164) strings translated, 3% strings fuzzy * tr: 9% (216) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy * zh: 12% (272) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy * zh_TW: 23% (505) strings translated, 13% strings fuzzy METRICS * Tails has been started more than 939 540 times this month. This makes 30 308 boots a day on average. How do we know this? [43] Links: ------ [1] https://tails.boum.org/news/report_2020_08/ [2] https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.10/index.en.html [3] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/calendar/ [4] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17834 [5] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17820 [6] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/merge_requests/142 [7] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17148 [8] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17886 [9] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/merge_requests/128 [10] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17887 [11] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17903 [12] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17895 [13] https://tails.boum.org/install/win/usb/index.en.html#start-tails [14] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/16456 [15] https://tails.boum.org/install/linux/index.en.html#start-tails [16] https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/start/pc/index.en.html [17] https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/start/mac/index.en.html [18] https://tails.boum.org/install/win/usb/index.en.html#troubleshooting [19] https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/start/pc/index.en.html#help-desk [20] https://tails.boum.org/support/faq/index.en.html#vpn [21] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/15783 [22] https://tails.boum.org/support/faq/index.en.html#32-bit [23] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17866 [24] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17717 [25] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17844 [26] https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/user_survey/#openpgp-pidgin [27] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17821 [28] https://tails.boum.org/gdm [29] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17908 [30] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/sysadmin/-/issues/17687 [31] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17842 [32] https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/CI_usability/ [33] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/16959 [34] https://reset.tech/ [35] https://www.ripe.net/support/cpf/call-for-applications [36] https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/donation_process/#survey [37] https://tails.boum.org/donate/index.en.html [38] https://tails.boum.org/partners/index.en.html [39] https://lists.autistici.org/thread/20200909.161300.5d51a9ea.en.html#i202009… [40] https://lists.autistici.org/thread/20200831.183100.8fbe036d.en.html [41] https://lists.autistici.org/thread/20200819.102500.4dd81e8c.en.html [42] https://tails.boum.org/contribute/l10n_tricks/core_po_files.txt [43] https://tails.boum.org/support/faq/index.en.html#boot-statistics

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 10 Sep 2020
by Philipp Winter 10 Sep '20

10 Sep '20

Hi all, Here are our meeting minutes: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-09-10-15.58.html And here is our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday September 10th 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress). == Goal of this meeting == Weekly checkin about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == * Our anti-censorship roadmap: * Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards * The anti-censorship team's wiki page: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home * Past meeting notes can be found at: * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ * Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: * All needs review tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Sponsor 30 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/4 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/7 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/5 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/6 * Sponsor 28 * must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 * possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… * Anti-censorship related tickets that we want other teams to fix: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-tickets-keep <-- it will be moved into gitlab with TPO labels * Public bug-reporting pad: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep == Announcements == * Filed several "First Contribution" tickets for rdsys: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues * Let's use "Research" label for issues that have a research component to it * Helpful for students who are looking for projects. * Internews is organising a pluggable transport implementers meeting on Oct 12-16. * Attendance will be remote. * RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd778O0ChoPwvilhpSMUvufsfE-6HzkHtG… == Discussion == * Write occasional "tech talk"-style blog posts? * E.g. present rdsys's design and architecture. * May result in valuable feedback. == Actions == * == Interesting links == * == Reading group == * We will discuss "HTTPT: A Probe-Resistant Proxy" on Sep 10 * https://censorbib.nymity.ch/pdf/Frolov2020b.pdf * Questions to ask and goals to have: * What aspects of the paper are questionable? * Are there immediate actions we can take based on this work? * Are there long-term actions we can take based on this work? * Is there future work that we want to call out, in hopes that others will pick it up? == Updates == Name: This week: - What you worked on this week. Next week: - What you are planning to work on next week. Help with: - Something you need help with. phw: This week (2020-09-10): * Wrote and published August 2020 team report. * https://blog.torproject.org/anti-censorship-august-2020 * Signed up for a lightning talk for the pluggable transport implementers meeting. * Will present the design of rdsys and solicit feedback. * Worked with Hashik on getting his GSoC 2020 blog post published. * https://blog.torproject.org/gsoc-2020-snowflake-proxy-mobile * Sponsor 30 ticket and roadmap maintenance. * Created wiki page that summarises the process of writing our monthly report. * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/Processes/Mo… * Proposed project ideas to a BSc student at my old college. * Lots of refactoring of rdsys. * Created an HTTP streaming interface that lets the backend notify distributors of changes to resources. * Realised that monit alerts didn't make it to mailing list because my mail provider classified them as spam. * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/monit-configuration/-/iss… * Read Sergey's HTTPT paper. Next week: * Wrap up a prototype of Salmon. Help with: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/trac/-/issues/31874 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/bridgedb/-/issues/31871 cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2020-08-27 Last week: - deployed snowflake#40008 - started snowflake measurements in china to track performance and censorship attempts (snowflake#32657) - continuous monitoring of NAT situation - prep for being away next month - meeting with tunnel bear This week: - Away Needs help with: - still need a review of fix for snowflake#21314 (snowflake!9) juggy : This week: - Got very basic "suggested readings" list up and running here : https://jugheadjones10.github.io/anti-censorship-reading/ Next week: - Keep studying BridgeDB to write architectural overview Help with: - Open issues here (https://github.com/jugheadjones10/anti-censorship-reading ) for papers/resources/readings that you think might be useful for newcomers arlolra: 2020-06-11 Last week: - Next week: - follow ups to #33365 - start on #31201 Help with: - dcf: 2020-09-10 Last week: Next week: Help with: Antonela: 2020-08-27 This week: - Wrapping Babatunde's research on the use of circumvention tools during internet censorship in Africa. Wrapping Personas for s30 with it. For september: - We are planning interviews with users in China to run our bridges discovery issues script in real time. We discussed to include TBA + snowflake as a task for users to run over a week or two and report back. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/issues/4 - I still have bridges.tpo to lektor issue open - More work on UX/UI for TB 10.0/10.5 - Review Salmon related tickets (im late with it!) agix:2020-09-03 Last week: -Nothing to add for last week Next week: -Finish #34318 -Look into #31873 Help with: - hanneloresx: 2020-09-03 Last week: Next week: - Start on #33727 - Continue investigating and respond to comments on #32117 Help with: - thymbahutymba: 2020-04-02 Last week: - CI/CD pipeline for multiarch docker images, which has a problem with the apt tor version even though the apt repository have been changed into the Dockerfile. Next week: Help with: HashikD: 2020-08-27 This week: - GSoC blog Next week: - Away on exams Help with: -

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Anti-censorship team monthly report: August 2020
by Philipp Winter 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

Hi all, Here's what we accomplished in August 2020: Snowflake --------- * We set up an anonymous bug-reporting pad for the team. Take a look at our reporting instructions: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * NAT type matching in Snowflake browser proxies. Released version 0.4.1 of the browser extension. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Perform a test for symmetric NATs on startup. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Implemented a fix so Snowflake stops using the client's network when Tor isn't making reqests. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Hashik Donthineni, our GSoC 2020 student, successfully finished his Android proxy app project! It needs more UI improvements and testing before being ready for use. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Made progress on allowing clients to split traffic across multiple proxies. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Updated Snowflake stats to include counts of restricted, unrestricted, and unknown proxies. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… BridgeDB -------- * Inspected several months worth of BridgeDB's HTTPS distributor logs and distilled a few insights. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/bridgedb/-/issues/31871 * Took a closer look at bot scraping attempts. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/bridgedb/-/issues/32117 Rdsys ----- * Decided to call our BridgeDB redesign rdsys, which is short for "resource distribution system." Do you have a better name? If so, let us know! * Created a GitLab repository for rdsys. The code is a messy construction site and will continue to be in the foreseeable future. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys * Improved the way rdsys talks to bridgestrap to verify that bridges are working. * Built an HTTP streaming interface between rdsys's backend and its distributors. This interface allows the backend to stream resource updates to the distributors without delay. The goal is that resources (i.e. bridges) are distributed to users immediately after they are added to the system. Salmon ------ * Implemented a crude prototype of the Salmon bridge distribution mechanism. Brainstormed a handful of privacy-preserving features that would improve the original design. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/1 Bridgestrap ----------- * Improved the service's shutdown procedure, caching mechanism, its documentation, and its HTTP API. Added a command line flag to print bridgestrap's cache. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/bridgestrap * Added a token bucket mechanism to limit the number of requests that the service accepts. Emma ---- * Updated the resources that emma tries to connect to (replaced a guard relay and removed the default bridge "frosty"). Changed trac links to GitLab links. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/emma Miscellaneous ------------- * Retired the default bridge "frosty" because the colocation site where the bridge was running will be shut down. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/issues/4… Outreach -------- * Published a blog post on our challenges, priorities, and progress. https://blog.torproject.org/anti-censorship-challenges-priorities-progress * Published our July 2020 report as blog post. https://blog.torproject.org/anti-censorship-july-2020 * David presented his Turbo Tunnel paper at FOCI'2020. His talk is available online: https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci20/presentation/fifield * Roger participated in a FOCI'2020 panel on "Internet Freedom in the Domestic Arena." * Cecylia was a panelist at Tor's latest PrivChat iteration, called "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Censorship Circumvention." The recording is available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOChyMCZH4

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Browser meeting is happening on Tuesday instead of Monday
by Gaba 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

Hi! For next week only we are moving the Browser meeting from Monday to Tuesday the 8th of September at 18:00 UTC on #tor-meeting on OFTC. Pad: http://kfahv6wfkbezjyg4r6mlhpmieydbebr5vkok5r34ya464gqz6c44bnyd.onion/p/tor… cheers, gaba -- she/her are my pronouns GPG Fingerprint EE3F DF5C AD91 643C 21BE 8370 180D B06C 59CA BD19

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Network Team Meeting on Monday is moved to Tuesday
by Alexander Færøy 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

Hello, Because of Labor Day in the US, we move the Network Team meeting from Monday to Tuesday the 8th of September at 17:00 UTC on #tor-meeting on OFTC. All the best, Alex. -- Alexander Færøy

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 03 Sep 2020
by Philipp Winter 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

Hi all, Here are our meeting minutes: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-09-03-15.59.html And here is our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday September 3rd 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress). == Goal of this meeting == Weekly checkin about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == * Our anti-censorship roadmap: * Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards * The anti-censorship team's wiki page: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home * Past meeting notes can be found at: * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ * Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: * All needs review tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Sponsor 30 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/4 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/7 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/5 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/6 * Sponsor 28 * must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 * possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… * Anti-censorship related tickets that we want other teams to fix: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-tickets-keep <-- it will be moved into gitlab with TPO labels * Public bug-reporting pad: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep == Announcements == * Please add your August 2020 work highlights to our monthly report: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/uO519p_UMtZiRFQrAXUz == Discussion == * == Actions == * == Interesting links == * https://www.oilandfish.com/posts/tor-cloak.html * How to set up a Tor bridge behind Cloak == Reading group == * We will discuss "HTTPT: A Probe-Resistant Proxy" on Sep 10 * https://censorbib.nymity.ch/pdf/Frolov2020b.pdf * Questions to ask and goals to have: * What aspects of the paper are questionable? * Are there immediate actions we can take based on this work? * Are there long-term actions we can take based on this work? * Is there future work that we want to call out, in hopes that others will pick it up? == Updates == Name: This week: - What you worked on this week. Next week: - What you are planning to work on next week. Help with: - Something you need help with. phw: This week (2020-09-03): * More progress on our BridgeDB rewrite, now called rdsys. * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys * Removed default bridge frosty. * Some wiki maintenance. * Created new survival guide for Check and moved other survival guides from trac to GitLab. Next week: * Help with: * cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2020-08-27 Last week: - deployed snowflake#40008 - started snowflake measurements in china to track performance and censorship attempts (snowflake#32657) - continuous monitoring of NAT situation - prep for being away next month - meeting with tunnel bear This week: - Away Needs help with: - still need a review of fix for snowflake#21314 (snowflake!9) juggy : This week: - Got very basic "suggested readings" list up and running here : https://jugheadjones10.github.io/anti-censorship-reading/ Next week: - Keep studying BridgeDB to write architectural overview Help with: - Open issues here (https://github.com/jugheadjones10/anti-censorship-reading ) for papers/resources/readings that you think might be useful for newcomers arlolra: 2020-06-11 Last week: - Next week: - follow ups to #33365 - start on #31201 Help with: - dcf: 2020-09-03 Last week: - set up the new metrics timeline repo https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/metrics-team/2020-August/001162.html - more Azure bookkeeping - had a look at cohosh's snowflake multiplexing branch https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - filed ticket to update translations on snowflake.torproject.org https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: Help with: Antonela: 2020-08-27 This week: - Wrapping Babatunde's research on the use of circumvention tools during internet censorship in Africa. Wrapping Personas for s30 with it. For september: - We are planning interviews with users in China to run our bridges discovery issues script in real time. We discussed to include TBA + snowflake as a task for users to run over a week or two and report back. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/issues/4 - I still have bridges.tpo to lektor issue open - More work on UX/UI for TB 10.0/10.5 - Review Salmon related tickets (im late with it!) agix:2020-09-03 Last week: -Nothing to add for last week Next week: -Finish #34318 -Look into #31873 Help with: - hanneloresx: 2020-09-03 Last week: Next week: - Start on #33727 - Continue investigating and respond to comments on #32117 Help with: - thymbahutymba: 2020-04-02 Last week: - CI/CD pipeline for multiarch docker images, which has a problem with the apt tor version even though the apt repository have been changed into the Dockerfile. Next week: Help with: HashikD: 2020-08-27 This week: - GSoC blog Next week: - Away on exams Help with: -

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OONI Monthly Report: August 2020
by Maria Xynou 02 Sep '20

02 Sep '20

Hi, Throughout August 2020, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 19 - Bottleno se (3rd August 2020 - 16th August 2020) * Sprint 20 - Willy (17th August 2020 - 30th August 2020) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. ## OONI Probe mobile app On OONI Probe Mobile, we worked on: * Automating the process of taking screenshots and uploading them to the store (on Android): https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/903 * Creating an app modal for requesting notification permissions: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1210 * Releasing an apk and testflight with countly and the oonitest:// link * Adding a privacy icon in the apps * Testing the Go version of the Web Connectivity experiment on Android and iOS: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/353 & https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/384 ## Making the OONI Probe apps rely entirely on the golang engine In August 2020, we completed the process of making the OONI Probe desktop app rely entirely on our Go-based engine! Previously, the OONI Probe apps were powered by the Measurement Kit engine, which is written in C++. To improve the sustainability of our software ecosystem and enable code-sharing across projects, we have been working on making the OONI Probe apps rely entirely on our new golang engine (https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine) over the last year. We now released a beta version of OONI Probe CLI that does not depend on Measurement Kit: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/releases/tag/v3.0.7-beta.1 As part of this work, we: * Finished rewriting the OONI Web Connectivity experiment in Go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/810 & https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/852 * Documented what is needed for completing the process of making the OONI Probe mobile app rely entirely on the golang engine (and replacing Measurement Kit entirely): https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/893 The master branch of the OONI Probe Command Line Interface (CLI) is now free of the C++ Measurement Kit engine, and solely relies on our golang probe-engine. This means that OONI Probe is easier to compile for users (Go is fast to compile and much easier than C++ to cross-compile) and for us (Go code is easier to maintain, which means more time could be spent doing research). Community members have also informed us that it is now much easier to compile OONI Probe on Raspberry Pis. ## Expanding OONI Probe measurement methodologies As part of our ongoing efforts to improve upon and expand our measurement methodologies, we created a design document for measuring DoT/DoH resolvers: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/862 This design expands upon the methodology we previously used for measuring DoT blocking in Iran (https://ooni.org/post/2020-iran-dot) The objective is to add an implementation of this design (written in Go) to the OONI engine, in order to simplify the process of running DoT/DoH experiments for advanced users. This work is done in collaboration with researchers at India’s Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). ## Migrating OONI infrastructure to Amsterdam As a result of OTF funding being frozen, Greenhost is shutting down its eclips.is servers in Hong Kong by the end of September 2020. However, we still have critical OONI infrastructure that lives on those machines: the batch OONI data processing pipeline and our master postgreSQL database. We have therefore been working on migrating this infrastructure from Hong Kong to Greenhost’s servers in Amsterdam (https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/594) This involved: * Setting up an AMS-PG host and updating the ansible scripts (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/400) * Rerunning the fastpath to recreate the entire dataset * Creating a copy of autoclaved tables * Testing options to implement new canning ## Refactoring the OONI API codebase We are working towards ensuring that the OONI API only uses the tables generated by the fastpath pipeline (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/437) This is part of our broader work towards dropping the batch pipeline and only using the fastpath pipeline (which processes and publishes measurements from around the world in real-time). We have therefore been working on refactoring the OONI API codebase so that it can use the new tables of the OONI fast-path pipeline, instead of the old tables of the batch pipeline. This work involved: * Consolidating Probe Services: Moving a handful of HTTP services into the consolidate API to significantly reduce complexity and simplify deployment and testing. * Removing dependencies from the batch pipeline: Updating the API to move away from tables generated by the legacy pipeline (e.g. “measurement”, “ooexpl_*” tables). As part of this we are going to significantly decrease the number of database tables used and improve access speed. * Supporting CI deployment, relying on stable libraries from Debian Buster: Deploying the database, fastpath and API should become easy enough that it can be done automatically as part of the CI (testing) process. The consolidated API will allow the addition of authentication features to support user accounts. Our ongoing work on refactoring the OONI API codebase is documented through the following issue: https://github.com/ooni/api/pull/192 ## Machine learning experiment for the classification of measurements Attempts at manually handling fingerprints and investigating measurements are going to become less effective as the volume and diversity of measurements increase. We also want to improve how OONI measurements are classified, in order to improve our data analysis heuristics for automatically detecting cases of blocking. We have therefore been working on a simple machine learning experiment with CatBoost, which is documented here: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/435 This experiment included training the machine learning algorithm using the “anomaly/confirmed/failure” flags and then classify and review, and flag low-confidence measurements. At this early stage, the machine learning prototype was able to spot measurements that were affected by bugs already known to us. In the longer term, the machine learning algorithm could assist as in: * Identifying unseen correlations and patterns between input data and blocking patterns that will help us improve our data processing pipeline; * Flagging low-confidence measurements and reducing the ratio of false positives and negatives. ## Testing and quality assurance As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of OONI software and services, we: * Created a plan for tracking and documenting data quality issues: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/808 * Categorized bugs that potentially lead to data quality issues: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/892 * Carried out more testing and bug fixes: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/655 ## Replacing the MaxMind ASN database Since late 2019, when MaxMind announced that its databases were no longer available using an open source license, we have been working to implement a replacement. We could find a free country database provided by https://db-ip.com/ but we could not find a free database providing the mapping between IP addresses and autonomous system numbers (i.e. numbers uniquely identifying networks managed by ISPs). We therefore started implementing our own database as documented in the following issue: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/269 As part of this work, during August 2020 in particular, we generated an ASN measurement database from CI: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/438 & https://github.com/ooni/asn-db-generator/pull/1 In particular, we configured the CI to run at least every week. This means that we will be able to pull a fresh, automatically generated database every time we need to prepare a new release -- without human effort (and without the risk of human-introduced errors). ## Collaboration with Netalitica As part of our collaboration with Netalitica, we further reviewed their test list updates and opened pull requests for the following test lists: * Indonesia: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/663 * Iraq: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/664 * Thailand: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/665 ## Belarus test list update Thanks to URLs shared by community members, we updated the Belarusian test list to include recently blocked websites: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/666 As part of this update, we categorized each of the newly added URLs. ## Recorded OONI webinar OONI’s Maria recorded a 40-minute webinar which explains how human rights defenders can use OONI Probe and OONI data to investigate the blocking of websites and apps around the world. Several assignments were also prepared for this webinar. This webinar will eventually get published as part of a longer training program for human rights defenders. ## Google Summer of Code (GSoC) student Throughout the summer of 2020, we had the opportunity to host a great Google Summer of Code (GSoC) student from Pakistan, whose internship ended on 31st August 2020. Krona Emmanuel started his GSoC internship with OONI in May 2020 and it involved making improvements that are related to social media sharing on OONI Explorer. A general overview of this project is available here: https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/ooni-explorer-findings/ Further details on the project goals, what has been accomplished throughout the GSoC internship, and next steps are documented here: https://gist.github.com/kronaemmanuel/ae1ebafa039a3361fb422462109ae035 More specifically, Krona: * Improved the meta tags for country pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/430 * Improved the meta tags for measurement pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/478 * Created a meta tag og:image for measurement and country pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/480 * Created sharing buttons for both the measurement and country pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/476 * Implemented tests for the measurement page og:description tag: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/478/commits/de3127ddcdd43d740b53bad15… We are very pleased with and grateful for the great work Krona accomplished throughout his GSoC internship with OONI! ## Community activities ### OONI Community Meeting On 25th August 2020, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/) during which we discussed the following topics: 1. Adding RiseupVPN to circumvention tool testing suite 2. Measuring an internet blackout: Proxy support for speaking to backend services ### Tor PrivChat panel On 28th August 2020, OONI’s Arturo was invited to participate in the Tor Project’s PrivChat panel on “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Censorship Circumvention”. Information about this panel is available here: https://www.torproject.org/privchat/ As part of his participation, Arturo discussed OONI for censorship measurement and the challenges around censorship circumvention. This PrivChat panel discussion can be viewed on the Tor Project’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOChyMCZH4 ## Userbase In August 2020, 7,344,940 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 5,573 networks in 205 countries around the world. This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”): https://explorer.ooni.org/ ~ The 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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User Experience Team monthly meeting notes, September 1st
by Antonela D 01 Sep '20

01 Sep '20

Hello! Today's meeting features Babatunde Okunoye, our 2020 OTF ICFP, who has been researching the use of circumvention tools during African countries' information controls. Thanks for joining us today, Tunde! Open IRC meetings happen monthly every first Tuesday of the month 1400 UTC in #tor-meeting on OFTC. Next meeting is on* Tuesday, October 6th 1400 UTC in #tor-meeting on OFTC.* Here are the minutes for the meeting of September 1st: Log: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-09-01-13.59.log… Here are the minutes for the meeting of August 4th: Log: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-08-04-13.58.log… Here are the minutes for the meeting of July 2nd: Log: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-07-07-13.59.log… Pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/1D8sK8Zy74b_0qclC97I-ux-team-monthly-2020-keep -------------------------- *Tuesday **September* *1s**t 14:00 UTC* -------------------------- == What projects are we working on? == S9 - Usability and Community Intervention on Support for Democracy and Human Rights - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%209&label_name[]=UX S30 - Empowering Communities in the Global South to Bypass Censorship - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%2030&label_name[]=UX S58 - Tor Browser Security, Performance, & Usability Improvements - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%2058&label_name[]=UX S84 - Onion Guides - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%2084 == Announcements == * Tor Browser 9.5.4 Release - https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-954 - https://torproject.org/download/ * OONI Probe 2.5 Release - Desktop > https://ooni.org/install/desktop - Mobile > https://ooni.org/install/mobile == Agenda == - Tor Metrics user research - metrics.torproject.org - https://tools.simplysecure.org/survey/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=39865&la… - Tor Demos when September ends - https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-monthly-hall-demos-august-september-2020-keep - ICFP final report: "Understanding the use of tools during Internet censorship in Africa: Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe as case studies" with Tunde - Open floor == Open Calls == For Design & User Research == *Usage of Tor Bridges* We'll be interviewing users to collect feedback about Tor Bridges Usage. If you are interested in participating with your community as an interviewee or researcher, please ping me directly: antonela(a)torproject.org. My keys https://www.torproject.org/static/keys/antonela.txt Thanks, A -- Antonela Debiasi UX Team Lead torproject.org @antonela E2330A6D1EB5A0C8

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