TL;DR: the 2021 roadmap was adopted, see the details here:
<https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/roadmap/2021>
Followup of the [last meeting][] to complete the work on the 2021
roadmp.
[last meeting]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/meeting/2021-01-19
# Roll call: who's there and emergencies
anarcat, gaba, hiro
[Problem with gmail][], not a rush but priority.
[problem with gmail]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues/40149
# Roadmap review
We looked at the [draft 2021 roadmap proposal][] anarcat sent last
week.
[draft 2021 roadmap proposal]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/roadmap/2021
## Need to have / nice to have / non-goals
* need to prioritise fixing the blog (formatting, moderation), but
those fixes will probably not come before Q3, because of capacity
* we decided to *not* retire schleuder: hiro fixed a bunch of stuff
yesterday, it should work better now. no need to retire it as we
will still want encrypted mailing lists in the future
* service admins; let's not reopen that discussion
* added the bullseye upgrade to "nice to have", but not a hard
priority for 2021 (and will be, along with the python3 upgrade, for
2022)
* search.tpo (#33106) and "web metrics" (#32996) are postponed to
2022
* people suggested retiring "testnet" in the survey, but we don't
quite know what that is, so we presumably need to talk with the
network team about this
* we agreed to cover for some metrics: we updated [ticket 40125][]
with the remaining services to reallocate. covering for a service
means that TPA will reboot services and allocate disk/ram as
needed, but we are not in a position to make major reengineering
changes
[ticket 40125]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues/40125
## Quarterly prioritization
* there's a lot in Q1, but a lot of it is actually already done
* sponsor 9 requires work from hiro, so we might have capacity
problems
We added a few of the "needs to have" in the quarterly allocation to
make sure those are covered. We agreed we'd review the global roadmap
every quarter, and continue doing the monthly "kanban board" review
for the more daily progress.
# Next meeting
Going back to our regular programming, i have set a recurring meeting
on tuesdays, 1500UTC on the first tuesday of the month, for TPA.
# Metrics of the month
Skipped because last meeting was a week ago. ;)
--
Antoine Beaupré
torproject.org system administration
Hello everyone,
We have an update and a new job opening to share!
1. Cecylia Bocovich (cohosh), presently our developer on the Anti-Censorship Team, will stepping up to lead the team as Philipp moves on. Thank you, Cecylia!
2. With the upcoming vacancy on the Anti-Censorship Team, we have a new job opening! You can find the job description pasted below, attached as a PDF, and on our website athttps://www.torproject.org/about/jobs/software-developer-anticensorship/.
We are hoping to fill this position as soon as possible, so please help us spread the word! :)
Thank you!
Best,
Erin Wyatt
Director of People Operations
ewyatt(a)torproject.org
PGP: 35E7 2A9F 6655 45F9 2CB6 6624 BA0C 9400 F80F 91CE
https://www.torproject.org | http://expyuzz4wqqyqhjn.onion/
----------------------------->8
Internet Freedom Nonprofit Seeks Software Developer for Anti-Censorship Team
The Tor Project, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open source anonymity and privacy technologies, is seeking an experienced Software Developer to take our anti-censorship work to the next level.
This developer will be tasked with improving the user experience and process of finding alternate routes to the Tor network when global censorship events block access to the Tor network. A personal commitment to free and open source software and the application of advanced programming skills for the greater good is essential.
This is a full-time remote position.
This developer position will be an integral part of our Anti-Censorship Team. Main responsibilities for this position are:
- Continue development of our bridge distribution system, rdsys.
- Maintain and improve the pipeline that distributes bridges to censored users.
- Evaluate and incorporate new pluggable transports.
- Collaborate with other teams in the Tor Project, external software projects (e.g. OONI), and research groups to move forward anti-censorship technology.
Required qualifications:
- Experience with designing, implementing, testing, and reviewing complex codebases (ideally in Go and Python).
- Ability to work in a self-directed and independent way.
- Comfortable with working remotely, across time zones.
- Strong familiarity with computer science fundamentals.
- Familiarity with Internet security and censorship circumvention technologies.
Preferred qualifications:
- Familiarity with reading research papers and turning research ideas into prototypes.
- Understanding of the Tor pluggable transport ecosystem and the censorship circumvention research space.
- Past contributions to and familiarity with the practices of free software projects.
- Passion and dedication to Internet freedom is an added plus.
To apply, submit a cover letter, your CV/resume (including three professional references), and a link to a code sample or some non-trivial software project you have significantly contributed to. In your cover letter, please include the reason you want to work at the Tor Project.
IMPORTANT: Please email application materials in plain text or PDF format, if possible, to job-anticensor at torproject dot org with “Anti-Censorship Developer” in the subject line.
Tor is for everyone, and we are actively working to build a team that represents people from all over the world — people from diverse ethnic, national, and cultural backgrounds – people from all walks of life. We encourage applications from BIPOC, non-cis people, women, and from people in any group that is underrepresented in tech.
The Tor Project's workforce is smart, committed, and hard working. We currently have a paid and contract staff of around 24 developers and operational support people, plus many thousands of volunteers who contribute to our work. The Tor Project is funded in part by government research and development grants, and in part by individual, foundation, and corporate donations.
Salary for this position depends on experience and there is voluntary opt-in salary transparency for employees and contractors.
The Tor Project has a competitive benefits package, including a generous PTO policy, 16 paid holidays per year (including the week between Christmas and New Year's, when the office is closed), and flexible work schedule. Insurance benefits vary by employment status and country of residence.
The Tor Project, Inc., is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer.
Hi!
It feels so strange to say that this year around, but... happy new year
everyone! Let's hope we can do better this time around. ;)
Here's your first sysadmin report for 2021, hopefully we'll keep you
informed of our progress steadily in the coming year. Right now we're
working on the roadmap and, even though we asked you for feedback in the
user survey, it's still time to steer us in the good direction. We have
a meeting coming up where we're likely to set that more in stone, so now
is a good time if you forgot to respond to the survey...
Now onto the minutes.
Agenda:
- Roll call: who's there and emergencies
- Dashboard review
- Roadmap 2021 proposal
- 2020 retrospective
- Services survey
- Goals for 2021
- Other discussions
- Next meeting
- Metrics of the month
# Roll call: who's there and emergencies
present: hiro, gaba, anarcat
[GitLab backups are broken][]: it might need more disk space than we
need. just bump disk space in the short term, consider changing the
backups system, in the long term.
[GitLab backups are broken]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues/40143
# Dashboard review
We [reviewed the dashboard][], too much stuff in January, but we'll
review in February.
[reviewed the dashboard]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/boards
# Roadmap 2021 proposal
We discussed the [roadmap project][] anarcat worked on. We reviewed
the 2020 retrospective, talked about the services survey, and
discussed goals for 2021.
[roadmap project]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/roadmap/2021
## 2020 retrospective
We reviewed and discussed the [2020 roadmap evaluation][] that anarcat
prepared:
[2020 roadmap evaluation]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/roadmap/2021#2020-roadma…
* **what worked?** we did the "need to have" even through the
apocalypse, staff reduction and all the craziness of 2020! success!
* **what was a challenge?**
* monthly tracking was not practical, and hard to do in
Trac. things are a lot easier with GitLab's dashboard.
* it was hard to work through the pandemic.
* **what can we change?**
* do quarterly-based planning
* estimates were off because so many things happened that we did
not expect. reserve time for the unexpected, reduce expectations.
* ticket triage is rotated now.
## Services survey
We discussed the [survey results analysis][] briefly, and how it is
used as a basis for the roadmap brainstorm. The two major services
people use are GitLab and email, and those will be the focus of the
roadmap for the coming year.
[survey results analysis]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/roadmap/2021#survey-resu…
## Goals for 2021
* email services stabilisation ("submission server", "my email end up
in spam", CiviCRM bounce handling, etc) - consider [outsourcing
email services][]
* gitlab migration continues (Jenkins, gitolite)
* simplify / improve puppet code base
* stabilise services (e.g. gitlab, schleuder)
[outsourcing email services]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/howto/submission#cost
Next steps for the roadmap:
* try to make estimates
* add need to have, nice to have
* anarcat will work on a draft based on the brainstorm
* we meet again in one week to discuss it
# Other discussions
Postponed: metrics services to maintain until we hire new person
# Next meeting
Same time, next week.
# Metrics of the month
Fun fact: we crossed the 2TiB total available memory back in November
2020, almost double from the previous report (in July), even with the
number of hosts in Puppet remained mostly constant (78 vs 72). This is
due (among other things) to the new Cymru Ganeti cluster that added a
whopping 1.2TiB of memory to our infrastructure!
* hosts in Puppet: 82, LDAP: 85, Prometheus exporters: 134
* number of Apache servers monitored: 27, hits per second: 198
* number of Nginx servers: 2, hits per second: 3, hit ratio: 0.86
* number of self-hosted nameservers: 6, mail servers: 12
* pending upgrades: 3, reboots: 0
* average load: 0.29, memory available: 2.00 TiB/2.61 TiB, running
processes: 512
* bytes sent: 265.07 MB/s, received: 155.20 MB/s
* [GitLab tickets][]: 113 tickets including...
* open: 0
* icebox: 91
* backlog: 20
* next: 12
* doing: 10
* (closed: 2165)
[Gitlab tickets]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/boards
Now also available as the main Grafana dashboard. Head to
<https://grafana.torproject.org/>, change the time period to 30 days,
and wait a while for results to render.
--
Antoine Beaupré
torproject.org system administration
Hello everyone!
This is a report of some of the work done by the Community Team in the past month (December 2020) and general user feedback that we've received across our official support channels.
--- Request Tracker ---
Tickets Resolved in the past month: ~230 (December 2020)
Here is a list of issues which got the most attention (at least 3 tickets on RT):
# Tor Browser
Breakdown with respect to operating system:
Windows (10,8,7 ..all the way upto XP) - 31
MacOS - 21
GNU/Linux - 8
Android - 26
(Note: This includes tickets where the user mentioned the operating system or it was evident from the issue they were running into or enclosed screenshots.)
1. 24 tickets - Failure to launch Tor Browser. We created a "Six-point basic troubleshooting" article (a template) on the RT to help users.
2. 9 tickets - Tabs crashing on Tor Browser running on Apple Silicon (M1) chip on the latest Macbooks. We opened an umbrella ticket [1] covering this issue and also to collect user responses. This ticket also got a mention in Mozilla's bugzilla [2].
3. 4 tickets - Cannot upload or download files on Tor Browser for Android. Issues with download was fixed with the latest release but issue with uploading files still persists. Here's a GitLab ticket [3].
4. 4 tickets - Tor Browser for Android not working on older versions of Android (reports for 5.1, 6, 7 and 8). Gus and myself couldn't reproduce this issue on our older Android devices, i.e. running Android 5.1,6 and 7.
Feedback -
5. "Can't set Tor Browser as default on Android because urls won't directly open in the browser. Either you have to have Tor Browser running in the background or launch (the browser) and manually paste the url in the url bar."
# UI/UX and documentation
1. Lot of discussion around the new UI after the latest releases of Tor Browser for Android.
1.1 On Google Play Store, the responses have been mixed. Mostly negative (with 1-2 star ratings) but the 'top'(most 'liked') responses are positive responses with a 5 star rating.
1.2 On RT, there were 2 tickets related to this topic. Negative reviews.
We updated the 'Tor Mobile' documentation [4] in mid-December and have not been receiving any UI related tickets on RT ever since.
2. Complaints about wiki pages on GitLab. "Cannot search for something specific. We miss trac."
3. Some complaints about 'Relay Operators' documentation. We have a ticket on our GitLab covering one aspect of this issue. [5]
4. Some complaints on "verifying Tor Browser signature" documentation.
# Anti-censorship and metrics
1. In the aftermath of the Meek-Azure and Moat issue [6] we got 3 private bridge requests on RT and 2 on IRC.
2. In general, including RT and #tor, we got a total of 10 requests for bridges which have been mostly from China (six requests) and Iran (two requests).
3. Users unable to connect to some of the bridges and/or relay statistics not showing up on metrics. We have the following GitLab tickets to cover this issue. [7][8]
We created/updated the following articles (templates) on the RT:
1. Six-point basic troubleshooting (to launch Tor Browser)
2. Fake Tor Browser apps on iOS
2. How to help us with Translations
3. Tor Browser Signing Key update
4. Tabs crashing on M1 Macbook
# Tor Stack Exchange
Unfortunately we haven't been officially providing support here but these are the statistics of what the discussion has been about (10 most active tags):
1.tor-browser-bundle- 1263 questions
2.configuration (questions about configuring Tor software)- 873 questions
3.hidden-services- 546 questions
4.anonymity- 482 questions
5.security- 459 questions
6.relays- 437 questions
7.tails- 315 questions
8.windows- 291 questions
9.exit relays- 279 questions
10.onion-routing- 224 questions
If you have any suggestions, questions or want to discuss anything in detail please feel free to reach out to me and the Community Team!
Thanks,
Joydeep
Links:
[1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40262
[2]: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1682976#c3
[3]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40283
[4]: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/mobile-tor/
[5]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/community/-/issues/72
[6]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/meek…
[7]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/outreach/-/issues/40001
[8]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40005
--
Joydeep Sen Gupta
GPG: C8C8 6A4B E247 2D2D C345 9046 5B57 1AA7 D685 E67D
IRC: championquizzer
Tails report for December, 2020 [1]
IN MEMORIAM OF KARSTEN LOESING
We join the Tor project in mourning Karsten Loesing [2]. Our sincere
condolences to Karsten's family and colleagues.
Those of us who were lucky enough to cross Karsten's path remember him
as a very kind, thoughtful, and smart person.
Rest in peace, Karsten.
RELEASES
*
Tails 4.14 was released on December 15 [3].
*
Tails 4.15 is scheduled for January 26 [4].
The following changes were introduced in Tails 4.15:
*
Add support for the Ledger hardware wallets in _Electrum_. (#15353 [5])
*
Remove the _Unifont_ font. (!263 [6])
*
Fix Additional Software by updating the APT key for deb.torproject.org.
(#18042 [7])
*
Fix changing the administration password stored in the Persistent
Storage. (#18018 [8])
*
Fix opening the Persistent Storage of another Tails USB stick in the
_Files_ browser. (#18050 [9])
*
Restore automatically a _GnuPG_ public keyring from its backup when it
gets corrupt. (#17807 [10])
🎉 NEW CORE DEVELOPER 🎂
Today, we celebrate the arrival in our Foundations Team [11] of a new
member: boyska. His skills and experience in operating systems, software
development, and collective projects will:
*
Accelerate development of new features, user experience improvements,
and bug fixes.
*
Make our day-to-day maintenance work more sustainable.
This work has no visible impact most of the time, except that Tails is
still alive after more than a decade, and here to stay!
*
Decrease our reliance on a tiny number of key persons.
This is one important step we're taking, among others, towards making
Tails a healthier project.
> I'm boyska, a fellow who always loved computers. When I realized the profound social implications of technology, I tried to make my part: that's how I got involved with free software, security and hacking in general. A post-it note in my brain remembers me that computing should be fun, not scary.
Additionally, we would like to thank:
*
the thousands of people whose donation allowed us to fund this new
position
Please consider donating today [12] to fight surveillance and
censorship.
*
the dozens of people who applied to this job offer [13]
It's been truly heart-warming to see so many great applicants interested
in working with us.
Welcome, boyska! :)
CODE
*
We implemented a mechanism for adding a "Don't Show Again" button to
some notifications. We'll try it out in Tails 4.15 for the warning
displayed when starting Tails in a virtual machine; then we'll iterate
from there.
*
We finished porting our Python code to Python 3. Yeah!
*
We made plans for rewriting _Persistent Storage_ in Python, making it
compatible with Wayland, and redesigning its UX from scratch.
DOCUMENTATION AND WEBSITE
*
Started rewriting /doc/about/warning:
*
Samuel DiBella rewrote the section about contextual identities [14]
(#17882 [15])
*
We rewrote the sections about confirmation attacks and global
adversaries [16] (#17869 [17])
*
Added an FAQ about "Is it safe to use an older version of Tails? [18]"
(#18001 [19])
*
Improved our security [20] page and replaced "hole" by "vulnerability"
everywhere on our website, as per our style guide. (#18032 [21])
USER EXPERIENCE
*
Started analyzing the search queries on our website, following a
methodology by Susan Farrell [22]. (#11649 [23])
*
Started preparing the redesign of the Persistent Storage that we'll work
on in January. (#15572 [24])
*
Investigated what it would take to stop distributing ISO images:
* #18047 [25]: Users unintentionally install ISO to USB instead of the
.img
* #18054 [26]: Distribute USB images by default for all virtual
machines
* #18055 [27]: Stop distributing ISO images
*
Added some depth to the buttons on our website. (#15111 [28])
FUNDING
GRANTS
* Our proposal to the UXFund to work on a replacement for Tor Launcher
was approved buy scaled down by 20%.
DONATIONS
*
Received 57.8kEUR from 88 donations at CCT since the beginning of the
campaign.
It's 70% more donations, that's the important part, and 599% more money
thanks to a 50kEUR donation from some crypto trading company, that's the
big cherry on top of the cake!
*
Blogged about our achievements in 2020 [29].
SPONSORS
*
Renamed "partners" as "sponsors [30]" after DeepOnion listed Tails as
their partner on their website.
The word "partners" implies reciprocity and a deeper relationship, while
the word "sponsor" doesn't and is more accurate, honest, and common.
*
Got invited to the Lifetime Raffle [31] of ProtonMail.
OUTREACH
PAST EVENTS
* Tails and Tor were presented (among other tools) to journalism
students at Sciences Po Rennes [32] (Rennes, France) as part of their
digital safety lessons.
TRANSLATIONS
ALL THE WEBSITE
* fr: 79% (5378) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy
* es: 48% (3273) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy
* it: 28% (1945) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy
* de: 27% (1829) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy
* fa: 20% (1359) strings translated, 12% strings fuzzy
* pt: 18% (1266) strings translated, 9% strings fuzzy
CORE PAGES OF THE WEBSITE [33]
* es: 82% (1741) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy
* fr: 79% (1676) strings translated, 10% strings fuzzy
* it: 54% (1151) strings translated, 20% strings fuzzy
* de: 44% (935) strings translated, 24% strings fuzzy
* pt: 38% (818) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy
* fa: 19% (407) strings translated, 15% strings fuzzy
CORE PAGES OF THE WEBSITE FOR LANGUAGES NOT ACTIVATED ON THE WEBSITE YET
* zh_TW: 21% (451) strings translated, 14% strings fuzzy
* zh: 10% (218) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy
* tr: 7% (155) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy
* ca: 7% (153) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy
* ru: 7% (152) strings translated, 7% strings fuzzy
* pl: 7% (150) strings translated, 6% strings fuzzy
* ar: 7% (146) strings translated, 8% strings fuzzy
* id: 5% (115) strings translated, 5% strings fuzzy
* sr_Latn: 4% (93) strings translated, 4% strings fuzzy
METRICS
* Tails has been started more than 978 192 times this month. This
makes 31 554 boots a day on average.
How do we know this? [34]
Links:
------
[1]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/news/report_2020_12.html
[2] https://blog.torproject.org/in-memoriam-of-karsten-loesing
[3]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/news/version_4.14.html
[4]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/contribute/calendar.html
[5] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/15353
[6] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/merge_requests/263
[7] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18042
[8] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18018
[9] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18050
[10] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17807
[11]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/contribute/working_together/roles/foundations_team.html
[12] file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/donate.html
[13]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/jobs/Linux_generalist.html
[14]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/doc/about/warning.html#identities
[15] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17882
[16]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/doc/about/warning.html#correlation
[17] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17869
[18]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/support/faq.html#older-version
[19] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18001
[20] file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/security.html
[21] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18032
[22] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/search-log-analysis/
[23] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/11649
[24] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/15572
[25] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18047
[26] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18054
[27] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/18055
[28] https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/15111
[29]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/news/achievements_in_2020.html
[30] file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/sponsors.html
[31] https://protonmail.com/blog/lifetime-account-auction-2020/
[32] http://www.sciencespo-rennes.fr/en/
[33]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/contribute/l10n_tricks/core_po_files.txt
[34]
file:///home/amnesia/Persistent/Tor%20Browser/master/support/faq.html#boot-statistics