October 2021 - tor-project - lists.torproject.org

Are there countries where using Tor is illegal?
by Cristian Consonni 11 May '25

11 May '25

Hi, (Sorry if this question has already been asked in the past, feel free to point me to the relevant resources.) I know that the legal FAQs by the EFF state that: «we believe that running a Tor relay — including an exit relay that allows people to anonymously send and receive traffic — is legal under U.S. law.»[1] I also know there is a list of countries for which there is legislation that exclude communication service providers from liability. They are indicated in the Legal of the Tor Exit Guidelines page[2], they are USA, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, France, and Sweden. >From some articles in the press[3a][3b] it may be illegal - depending on how you interpret the wording[*] - to use Tor (and other technologies such as VPNs or proxies) in the UAE, with fines ranging in the millions of dirhams (hundreds of thousand of dollars). A couple of weeks ago it was discussed - on this list as well - that a law was introduced to the state parliament to ban Tor[4a][4b]. This follows a case of some months ago of a Russian Tor exit node operator being arrested for inciting mass riots and terrorism[4c][4d]. The idea of blocking VPNs or Tor seems to have already been considered in the past[4e]. This infographic about pluggable transports[5] suggests access to the Tor network is censored or limited in China, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Kazakhstan. Tor being censored orblocked may be different from it being illegal. What about other countries? Is there a place where I can find more about this topic? Cristian [1]: https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq.html.en [2]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorExitGuidelines [3a]: http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/dh500-000-fine-if-you-use-fraud-ip… [3b]: http://news.softpedia.com/news/people-caught-using-vpns-tor-or-proxies-in-t… [*]: «Whoever uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address (IP address) by using a false address or a third-party address by any other means for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery» [4a]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2017-June/043293.html [4b]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/22055 [4c]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2017-April/043109.html [4d]: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/24/dmitry-bogatov-tor-russia/ [4e]; https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-and-tor-ban-looming-on-the-horizon-for-russia-… [5]: https://www.torproject.org/images/PT/2016-07-how-to-use-PT.png

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Anti-censorship meeting notes
by Cecylia Bocovich 29 Oct '21

29 Oct '21

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-10-28-16.00.html and the meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday October 28th 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. == Announcements == == Discussion == snowflake v2 library https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… last chance to make changes to the API before increasing the major version number look at particularly the proxy, client, and server libraries and comment on the ticket if there are changes you'd like to see scheduling reboot/migration of snowflake VPS https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2021-October/00… dcf plans to do it early 2021-10-31 UTC https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… change in proxy NAT types? https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2021-October/00… may be a problem with probetest https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… was a past instance of probetest using a lot of CPU probetest is using 100% CPU at the moment too ticket to diagnose the problem with probetest: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ticket to install an alert for NAT assignment: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… == Actions == == Interesting links == https://github.com/Pluggable-Transports/Pluggable-Transports-spec/blob/70bc… proposal for a logging interface in the PT API, somewhat relevant to the discussion about STATUS from https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2021-October/003194.html https://github.com/Pluggable-Transports/Pluggable-Transports-spec/blob/70bc… proposed EVENT message, this is actually an earlier version of what became STATUS in Tor's pt-spec https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2018-October/013512.html https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/issues/28181#note_2487268 https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/pt-spec.txt?id=1ecf3f6658681… == Reading group == We will discuss "Measuring QQMail's automated email censorship in China" on 2021-11-21 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3473604.3474560 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. cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2021-10-28 Last week: - debugged bridgestrap issues - closed bridgestrap#7 because it could no longer be reproduced - code reviews - grant planning - finished changes to snowflake proxy library (snowflake!60) - read performance paper for reading group - more work on snowflake performance measurments This week: - automate blocking detection for rotating IP bridges (censorship-analysis#40020) - finish up snowflake library changes for v2 (snowflake#40063) - more snowflake performance work (snowflake#40026) Needs help with: - any thoughts on snowflake v2 library arlolra: 2021-08-12 Last week: - Migrate to v3 of the webextension manifest Next week: - Maybe get back to snowflake-webext #10 - Write up the pitch for our use case for supporting creating PeerConnections in background service workers https://github.com/w3c/webrtc-extensions/issues/77 Help with: - dcf: 2021-10-28 Last week: Next week: - reboot snowflake VPSes https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Help with: agix:2021-07-15 Last week: -Off due to final exams Next week: -Work on bridgebox for rdsys -More research on httpt #4 Help with: - hanneloresx: 2021-3-4 Last week: - Submitted MR for bridgestrap issue #14 Next week: - Finish bridgestrap #14 - Find new issue to work on Help with: - maxb: 2021-09-23 Last week: - Worked on https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… re: utls for broker negotiation - Had conversation with someone about upstream utls http round tripper https://github.com/refraction-networking/utls/pull/74 - Too busy with work :/ Next week: - _Really_ want to get a PR for utls round tripper meskio: 2021-10-28 Last week: - merge rdsys honour operators distribution choice (rdsys!39) - fixes on snowflake proxy docker image (docker-snowflake-proxy!2) - digg into bridgedb bridge storage to replace it by rdsys (bridgedb#40031) - review snowflakes lib fixes (snowflake!60) Next week: - make bridgedb a rdsys distributor (bridgedb#40031) - improve bridgestrap manage of the cache (bridgestrap#27)

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Community Team meeting notes, 2021 October 25
by gus 26 Oct '21

26 Oct '21

Hello, Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-10-25-13.59.log… and our meeting pad: ## Tor Community Team meeting pad Next meeting: Monday, November 1, 2021 - 1400 UTC Weekly meetings, every Monday at 14:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) ## Goal of this meeting Weekly checkin about the status of Community team work at Tor. ## Links to Useful documents - 'Run a bridge' campaign plan: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/relays/-/issues/24 - Tor Forum: https://forum.torproject.net/ ## Discussion * Tor Forum soft launch tasks: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40039 - Merge Discourse logo (ty @hackerncoder!, np!) - Forum moderation - Update Support portal: https://support.torproject.org and link e Tor forum - Invite Friends of Tor to join the forum: - IFF Mattermost (emmapeel) - Reddit r/TOR (hackerncoder) - Tor Mailing lists (tor-relays, tor-project, global-south, ux) (gus) - Community mailing lists (gus) Action: Schedule a meeting with UX team to update 'How to report bugs or feedback' page in November https://support.torproject.org/misc/bug-or-feedback/ * Tor Forum official launch: - Official launch postponed to Nov 1st - We will publish a blog post announcing the new forum, new blog and share on social media. On RT we will add an invitation to the forum on our replies. * 'Run a bridge campaign': tpo/community/relays/-/issues/24 - Review the supporter names (maybe you have a better suggestion!) - Do we want a new slogan? * Outreachies Q&A and weekly report - Please feel free to ask questions about the project - Report your weekly progress ## Updates Name: This week: - What you worked on this week. Help with: - Something you need help with. Gus: This week: - Forum soft releasing tasks - More Tor training in Brazil (S30/60) planning with Nah. We will be offline between November 3 - 5th. - Help Outreachies and their proposals - 'Run a Bridge' campaign planning - Meeting CDR people this week to see Link demo <https://docs.digiresilience.org/link/> - Write official release tasks: blog post, social media. - Tor Training this Wednesday in Guatemala Help with: - Something you need help with. emmapeel: This week: - Tested the forum - Updated support.tpo, tb-manual.tpo translations - https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/support/-/issues/269 (force LTR) and corrections to the Arabic translation. - Spammed about https://forum.torproject.net/t/language-accords-style-and-other-decisions-a… Help with: - I would like more people to participate on https://forum.torproject.net/t/language-accords-style-and-other-decisions-a… joydeep: This week: - Tasks related to forum soft-launch - RT tickets - Forum moderation training - Meeting CDR people with gus - testing TB 11 alpha - general user support work - irc, social media and so on Help with: Shreya: This week: - Completed first task: learned about Tor and relays Help with: - I have an idea of how I'm going to go about the points system for second task. I'm making a detailed document of how it should work. Where can I share the document for feedback? - Do I have to design the badges too for third task or just mention the details about the badges? -- The Tor Project Community Team Lead

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Privacy is a human right - Tor fundraising campaign
by Al Smith 25 Oct '21

25 Oct '21

Hello Tor world! We have just launched the Tor Project’s annual year-end fundraising campaign! This year, our theme is simple: Privacy is a Human Right. You can see the campaign live on https://torproject.org and https://donate.torproject.org. You’ll also see campaign graphics on about:tor when you update Tor Browser. With this campaign comes new swag and an opportunity to support Tor and its power to help people everywhere exercise their human right to privacy. Plus, every donation to the Tor Project during this campaign will be matched, 1:1, by the Friends of Tor, up to $150,000. That means your contributions are doubled! Read more about the campaign and Friends of Tor here: https://blog.torproject.org/privacy-is-a-human-right Be on the lookout for events, giveaways, and new merch available from now until December 31. And be sure to check out https://donate.torproject.org for the new t-shirt and hoodie designs, because personally, they are some of my favorite so far. You can help the success of our campaign by making a donation, sharing this message, or amplifying what the Tor Project’s account does on Twitter / Mastodon / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook. Sharing makes a huge impact! Thanks for your support. I look forward to hearing what you think about the campaign! Al -- Al Smith (they/them) Fundraising Director The Tor Project https://www.torproject.org | http://2gzyxa5ihm7nsggfxnu52rck2vv4rvmdlkiu3zzui5du4xyclen53wid.onion/

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 2021 October 21
by Cecylia Bocovich 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-10-21-16.00.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday October 21st 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. == Announcements == == Discussion == Unifying bridge/broker domain names? All these different names point to the same place proxy uses snowflake-broker.bamsoftware.com and snowflake.bamsoftware.com webext uses snowflake-broker.freehaven.net and snowflake.freehaven.net client uses snowflake-broker.torproject.net https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… This is merged, not deployed yet. New 'Run a Bridge' campaign - November 2021 (S96): https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/relays/-/issues/24 will offer T-shirt rewards One positive outcome of such a campaign would be to encourage people to join discussion groups and support one another in bridge operation in november forum.torproject.net will be official we have already met the goal for new snowflakes, > 12,000 unique snowflake ips per day what is the status of non-nat snowflake bridges? from the prometheus metrics it looks like we're doing okay we have many more idle snowflakes for clients with restrictive NATs than denials ggus will need help tracking, testing, and counting new obfs4 bridges during the campaign What happened in the presentation yesterday, "How to Make a Blizzard: Recruiting Snowflake Proxies and Rewarding Resource Sharing"? Calyx ran a campaign to recruit snowflakes (~50) with T-shirt incentives PT spec standardization discussion from Pluggable Transport Implementers' Meeting this week https://github.com/Pluggable-Transports/Pluggable-Transports-spec/blob/70bc… proposals that are candidates for being added to the next version The EVENT proposal is an older version of what became STATUS in Tor's spec PT spec maintainers may get in touch for discussion and updating The logging proposal is for a different purpose, a common API and log levels PT standardization and Tor discussion at PTIM about the difficulty of fitting diverse transports into one mold, is it necessary? "at some point when we do PT's for Arti, i think we should take a bit of a brutal look of how the interaction between the host and its PT can be made better, but in a way such that we can still execute PT processes, but also load them as libraries" == Actions == == Interesting links == https://github.com/Pluggable-Transports/Pluggable-Transports-spec/blob/70bc… proposal for a logging interface in the PT API, somewhat relevant to the discussion about STATUS from https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2021-October/003194.html https://github.com/Pluggable-Transports/Pluggable-Transports-spec/blob/70bc… proposed EVENT message, this is actually an earlier version of what became STATUS in Tor's pt-spec https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2018-October/013512.html https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/issues/28181#note_2487268 https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/pt-spec.txt?id=1ecf3f6658681… == Reading group == We will discuss "Characterizing Transnational Internet Performance and the Great Bottleneck of China" on 2021-10-28 https://censorbib.nymity.ch/#Zhu2020a 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. cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2021-10-21 Last week: - mostly PTIM - looked at some bridgestrap issues (bridgestrap#27) - s96 report and indicators This week: - automate blocking detection for rotating IP bridges (censorship-analysis#40020) - finish up snowflake library changes for v2 (snowflake#40063) - more snowflake performance work (snowflake#40026) - catch up on reviews Needs help with: arlolra: 2021-08-12 Last week: - Migrate to v3 of the webextension manifest Next week: - Maybe get back to snowflake-webext #10 - Write up the pitch for our use case for supporting creating PeerConnections in background service workers https://github.com/w3c/webrtc-extensions/issues/77 Help with: - dcf: 2021-10-21 Last week: - reviewed broker domain name normalization https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: Help with: agix:2021-07-15 Last week: -Off due to final exams Next week: -Work on bridgebox for rdsys -More research on httpt #4 Help with: - hanneloresx: 2021-3-4 Last week: - Submitted MR for bridgestrap issue #14 Next week: - Finish bridgestrap #14 - Find new issue to work on Help with: - maxb: 2021-09-23 Last week: - Worked on https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… re: utls for broker negotiation - Had conversation with someone about upstream utls http round tripper https://github.com/refraction-networking/utls/pull/74 - Too busy with work :/ Next week: - _Really_ want to get a PR for utls round tripper meskio: 2021-10-21 Last week: - update gettor links (gettor#82) - fix the gitlab gettor links (gettor!18) - circumvention map/settings moat API redesign (bridgedb#40025) - digg into bridgedb bridge storage to replace it by rdsys (bridgedb#40031) - PTIM Next week: - make bridgedb a rdsys distributor (bridgedb#40031)

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PSA: fpcentral / forrestii retirement notice
by Matthew Finkel 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

Hello! The service "fpcentral" (https://fpcentral.tbb.torproject.org/) will be retired on October 20th 2021 (6 months from now), along with the server it is running on (forrestii). We do not have the resources to maintain the service. Besides, other, and better alternatives have emerged since then, like, for example the EFF's Cover Your Tracks service (https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/, previously known as the Panopticlick) and TorZillaPrint (https://arkenfox.github.io/TZP/) On the retirement date, the server will be shutdown, rendering the service completely unavailable. A week later, the server will be destroyed, and its backups will be destroyed 30 days after the retirement date. The Internet Archive has an up to date copy of the site's static assets and will be able to keep it for posterity. It is recommended that you fix any bookmarks, links, or other references you have to this site. If you have concerns about the retirement or wish to delay the procedure, you can add a comment to the tracking issue (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues/40009) or contact TPA: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/policy/tpa-rfc-2-support…

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Community Team meeting notes, 2021 October 19
by gus 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

Hello, Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-10-19-13.59.log… and our meeting pad: Tor Community Team meeting pad ------------------------------ Next meeting: Monday, October 25, 2021 - 1400 UTC Weekly meetings, every Monday at 14:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) == Goal of this meeting == Weekly checkin about the status of Community team work at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == == Discussion == - Forum soft release: - Moderation training reschedule to this Friday, 1400 UTC - Soft launch on Monday (October 25) - Check and edit all categories descriptions (championquizzer is working on it) - Community Team OKRs - Bridges campaign in November https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/relays/-/issues/24 - Welcome Outreachies == Updates == Name: This week: - What you worked on this week. Help with: - Something you need help with. Gus: Last week: - Answered Outreachies questions about the project - Sent the forum timeline proposal - Tor training in Brazil (S30/60) planning This week: - Meeting today potential partner for a Tor training - Community Team OKRs presentation on Wednesday - YEC work - Talking with potential new default bridge operator - Privacy talk for students of statistics in Brazil (October 20, 1830 UTC) - Helping some EOL relay operators to upgrade their relays - Tor webinar in Mombasa (October 22, 11 UTC) - Review Tanzania training report - More Tor training in Brazil (S30/60) planning with Nah - Sending relay op meetup invitation this week - Move ahead with OTF fellowship proposal - Help Outreachies and their proposals Joydeep: Last Week: - Backlog of tickets on rt and the current tickets - user support on all official channels - more analysis into spam on RT - Tor L10n Hangout for October! (many people joined this time! yay!) This Week: - file a report on the spam: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues/40425 - moderation for forum - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… Needs help: - gus, can you check my gitlab permissions on the web repo? :) -- The Tor Project Community Team Lead

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 2021 October 7
by Cecylia Bocovich 14 Oct '21

14 Oct '21

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-10-14-15.59.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday October 14th 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. == Announcements == == Discussion == Snowflake usage is approaching meek levels https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-transport.html?start=2021-0… Comparison of throughput through bridges: flakey: https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/5481936581E23D2D178105D44DB6… meek bridge: https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/8F4541EEE3F2306B7B9FEF1795EC… PT spec v2.2.1 [RFC] -- https://github.com/Pluggable-Transports/Pluggable-Transports-spec/tree/main… comments requested for now, put feedback in github issues anadahz is working on providing a text format for easier commenting PTIM 2021 registration closes at October 17th 2021 AoE -- https://www.pluggabletransports.info/ptim2021/ Unifying bridge/broker domain names? All these different names point to the same place proxy uses snowflake-broker.bamsoftware.com and snowflake.bamsoftware.com webext uses snowflake-broker.freehaven.net and snowflake.freehaven.net client uses snowflake-broker.torproject.net https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… would make all use torproject.net; closed without action, see http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2019/tor-meeting.2019-08-15-16.59.log… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… changed CNAME for freehaven.net to avoid malware detection problems https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… if other people start embedding domain names in their configs, it becomes harder for us to change in the future Note that torproject.net might be blocked in the UK: https://gitlab.torproject.org/legacy/trac/-/issues/31250#note_2330960 Choose a reading to discuss :) == Actions == == Interesting links == Using censor middleboxes to amplify DoS attacks: https://geneva.cs.umd.edu/posts/usenix21-weaponizing-censors/ https://lwn.net/Articles/869842/ == Reading group == We will discuss "Characterizing Transnational Internet Performance and the Great Bottleneck of China" on 2021-10-28 https://censorbib.nymity.ch/#Zhu2020a 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. cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2021-10-14 Last week: - worked on snowflake simulations in shadow (snowflake#40026) - updated docker obfs4 bridge image to 0.7 - https://hub.docker.com/r/thetorproject/obfs4-bridge/tags - helped network health team contact bridge operators running old tor versions (core/tor#40480) - generated reachability plots for our new rotating IP bridges (censorship-analysis#40020) - opened MR to unify broker/bridge domains for snowflake.git (snowflake!59, snowflake-webext!22) This week: - automate blocking detection for rotating IP bridges (censorship-analysis#40020) - finish up snowflake library changes for v2 (snowflake#40063) - more snowflake performance work (snowflake#40026) Needs help with: - review of snowflake!59 and snowflake-webext!22 arlolra: 2021-08-12 Last week: - Migrate to v3 of the webextension manifest Next week: - Maybe get back to snowflake-webext #10 - Write up the pitch for our use case for supporting creating PeerConnections in background service workers https://github.com/w3c/webrtc-extensions/issues/77 Help with: - dcf: 2021-10-14 Last week: - snowflake Azure bookkeeping https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/Snowflake-co… Next week: - review broker domain name normalization https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Help with: agix:2021-07-15 Last week: -Off due to final exams Next week: -Work on bridgebox for rdsys -More research on httpt #4 Help with: - hanneloresx: 2021-3-4 Last week: - Submitted MR for bridgestrap issue #14 Next week: - Finish bridgestrap #14 - Find new issue to work on Help with: - maxb: 2021-09-23 Last week: - Worked on https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… re: utls for broker negotiation - Had conversation with someone about upstream utls http round tripper https://github.com/refraction-networking/utls/pull/74 - Too busy with work :/ Next week: - _Really_ want to get a PR for utls round tripper meskio: 2021-10-14 Last week: - honour bridge operator distribution request (rdsys!16) - update circumvention settings distributor for TB needs (rdsys#59) - extend zoossh to parse bridge descriptors and consensus files https://github.com/NullHypothesis/zoossh/pull/13/ - digg into bridgedb bridge storage to replace it by rdsys (bridgedb#40031) - update obfs4 bridge docker documentation https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/community/-/merge_requests/99 Next week: - make bridgedb a rdsys distributor (bridgedb#40031) - update gettor links (gettor#82) - figure out what happens with gitlab gettor repo

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OONI Monthly Report: September 2021
by Maria Xynou 14 Oct '21

14 Oct '21

Hello, Throughout September 2021, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 47 - Caribbean Reef Octopus (1st - 12th September 2021) * Sprint 48 - Amazon river dolphin (13th - 26th September 2021) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## New OONI Probe experiment for website testing* We completed the implementation of our new Websteps experiment for measuring the blocking of websites ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1733) This new experiment is the successor to our Web Connectivity network test ( https://github.com/ooni/spec/blob/master/nettests/ts-017-web-connectivity.md) The research question that this experiment tries to address is that of enumerating all the possible ways by which a specific URL can be blocked. This means that this experiment does not stop when it detects the first type of blocking, but rather drills deeper to discover all the ways by which blocking is implemented. The main differences compared to Web Connectivity that are worth highlighting include: * We use a new test helper mechanism for enumerating all the endpoints that need to be tested for a target URL. This includes all the IPs that a particular domain resolves to, as well as the full redirect chain from an uncensored vantage point. * We also use QUIC to measure websites. * We expand the taxonomy for classifying the various means by which blocking is implemented. * We add support for measuring all IP:URL pairs to detect IP blocking that only targets certain addresses. In writing this new test, we also made significant improvements to our measurement engine. In particular, we implemented several new primitives for performing the various stages of a URL request (that can eventually be reused by other tests as well): https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/528. In doing so, we also documented (in our tutorial on writing OONI Probe tests, see the following section) how third parties can go about using these functions for writing their own tests. Once the improvements to the measurement engine were made, we wrote the new implementation of Websteps using these new functions: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/530 Currently, it’s only possible to run the Websteps experiment through the miniooni researcher tool (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli#miniooni) Our next steps for rolling the experiment out in production include: * Comparing Websteps to Web Connectivity in terms of bandwidth used; * Comparing Websteps to Web Connectivity in terms of overall test runtime; * Comparing Websteps to Web Connectivity in terms of accuracy at detecting blocking events; * Deploying the new Websteps test helper in production; * Integrating the Websites experiment into the OONI Probe experimental card; * Collecting real world data and analyzing the results for accuracy; * Fully replacing the Web Connectivity test with Websteps and implementing all the needed UI changes in the user facing tools. *## Published new tutorial for writing OONI Probe tests* We published a new tutorial which explains how to write OONI Probe tests. The starting point of the tutorial is here: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/tree/master/internal/tutorial This in-depth tutorial is meant for developers who are interested in contributing new experiments to OONI Probe. The tutorial includes multiple chapters that explain how to practically write a network measurement experiment (using the torsf experiment as an example), how to use the measurex package to write network experiments, and how to use the netxlite networking library. The tutorial includes code based on existing network measurement experiments. OONI Probe has always been free and open source to encourage independent third-party review of our methodologies. We have always hoped that the openness of OONI Probe would also encourage talented developers to contribute new experiments. Now, with the help of our new tutorial, community members can contribute their own network measurement tests. If integrated into OONI Probe, their test will be run in around 200 countries and territories every month, with test results published as open data (https://ooni.org/data/) We have already integrated the RiseupVPN test developed by the LEAP collective, and we have worked with M-Lab on integrating the NDT and DASH tests. We look forward to integrating more tests from the community! *## Published new OONI Probe CLI guide* We published a new user guide for the OONI Probe Command Line Interface (CLI): https://ooni.org/support/ooni-probe-cli Our new user guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to use OONI Probe CLI on macOS, Debian/Ubuntu Linux, and on Raspberry Pis. In particular, the user guide explains how to install and run OONI Probe CLI, enable automated testing, and view OONI Probe CLI test results. We also provide a reference for every command supported by the OONI Probe CLI. *## Published a research report on the blocking of Gutenberg site in Italy* In collaboration with Davide Brunello (independent researcher), we published a new report which examines the blocking of the Gutenberg book publishing website across networks in Italy based on OONI data. Read the report here: https://ooni.org/post/2021-italy-blocks-gutenberg-book-publishing-website/ Since May 2020, access to the Gutenberg book publishing website has been blocked in Italy (in compliance with a decree of the court of Rome) over copyright violation. OONI measurement analysis shows that access to www.gutenberg.org is blocked on at least 7 AS networks in Italy. Most ISPs primarily block access by means of DNS tampering. In blocking www.gutenberg.org, some ISPs in Italy (e.g Fastweb & Tiscali) return an NXDOMAIN, others (e.g. TIM, Telecom Italia, Iliad) return the IP address 127.0.0.1, while Vodafone Italia returns the IP address 83.224.65.170. Regardless of what is returned in the DNS response, what all ISPs in Italy (at least those included in this study) appear to have in common is the lack of transparency of the fact that access to www.gutenberg.org is intentionally blocked. Internet users just see an error message. *## Job Opening for OONI Mobile Developer* We are currently looking for a dedicated mobile developer to lead the development of the OONI Probe mobile app. In September 2021, we published the job opening, providing information about the job description, qualification requirements, and how to apply for the OONI Mobile Developer position. Our job opening is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2021-job-opening-ooni-mobile-developer/ Following the publication of this job opening, we worked on outreach efforts to help ensure that mobile developers from diverse backgrounds learn about the opportunity and feel encouraged to apply. To this end, we shared the job opening extensively on all OONI social media channels, and with relevant mailing lists and community spaces. We also posted the job opening on a number of job boards, such as FOSS Jobs ( https://www.fossjobs.net/job/10668/mobile-developer-for-ooni-probe-at-open-…) the Digital Rights Board (https://www.digitalrights.community/job-board) and Ada’s list, among others. As applications started to trickle in, we worked on organizing applications and following-up with applicants to communicate next steps. *## OONI Probe Mobile* We released OONI Probe Mobile 3.3.0 for Android ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.3.0) and iOS ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v3.3.0) With this release, we improved the layout of the measurement screens with the goal of improving the accessibility of information. In particular, we removed the menu settings that used to exist in each test result page (to avoid nesting information too much), and we moved those settings (log, data, OONI Explorer link) to the main measurement screen of each test result. We also included a share button on the top right corner of each test result, enabling users to easily share each measurement directly with their contacts. Thanks to support from Zaina Foundation and the Localization Lab community, the latest version of the OONI Probe mobile app now supports 2 new languages: Swahili and Dutch. We also implemented a modal to ask users to update their OONI Probe mobile app to the latest version, as documented through the following ticket and pull requests: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1237, https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/449 and https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/447. Over the last months, we had the opportunity to work with Bloco on improving the code quality and testing of the OONI Probe Android app. Bloco document their collaboration with us through their blog post: https://www.bloco.io/blog/building-test-suite-ooni-probe-android On OONI Probe Linux, we increased the frequency of automated testing to 12h. *## OONI Explorer* We added support to OONI Explorer for displaying measurements (and filtering by anomaly status) from our new Tor Snowflake experiment: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/commit/d75fa69fbcfe40ed95a240a25e6c023b83c… We also added support to the OONI Explorer search listing for filtering and displaying the anomaly status of OONI Probe Signal, Psiphon, and RiseupVPN test results: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/commit/35aac4a23b9394e205894060e2aa5b9a7b3… *## OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT)* We made several important improvements to the OONI Measurement Aggregation Toolkit (MAT). Specifically, we added support for ensuring that there are no holes in the charts so that multi-axis charts are properly aligned. Moreover, we added support for a custom tooltip that contains a link to the raw measurements. This work is documented through the following pull request: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/600 *## Building a web platform for test list updates* We made some progress on the web platform that we’re building to enable community contributions to the Citizen Lab test lists ( https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists) As part of these UI improvements, we added a descriptive warning when a user adds a website that is already included in test lists ( https://github.com/ooni/test-lists-ui/issues/3) and we ensured that comments are only enabled when users edit or delete entries (but not when they add new entries). *## OONI backend* In September 2021, we worked on the following OONI backend activities: * URL prioritization in the OONI API: Deployed prioritization fixes, monitored URL prioritization and created relevant internal dashboards, sorted the prioritization rules listing; * Looked into missing measurements in the jsonl table; * Added support for returning the current time as a UTC timestamp via the check-in API, which is useful for detecting when the probe system clock is out of sync; * Fixed URL prioritization further and added more end-to-end testing ( https://github.com/ooni/api/pull/264) Re-checked the test list coverage and created new internal dashboards; * URL prioritization: Debugged missing “NEWS” category prioritization rule, configured prioritization rules for Cuba and Afghanistan, added support for refraining to test “risky” category codes (see: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/530) * Continued to work on updating our fast-path pipeline; * Continued to monitor OONI measurement coverage from unattended runs on OONI Probe Mobile and Desktop; * Added support to the data processing pipeline for selectively reprocessing data from a specific country or of a specific experiment; * Added scoring for the Signal test to the fastpath pipeline and reprocessed OONI data; * Continued to work on updating the logic used to populate the counter tables which are used for performing aggregation queries (counters_table_updater); * Worked on deploying an upgraded version of our monitoring infrastructure. We investigated alternative database solutions that we can potentially use to boost the performance of our services and better meet our data needs. As part of this investigation, we looked into the following database solutions: * BigQuery: We dumped the fastpath in JSONL and ran benchmark queries against the whole dataset; * ScyllaDB (we had a call with them to discuss our use cases and needs); * PostgreSQL 13 (we setup a testing instance of it to test migrating our data over); * Clickhouse (we setup a testing instance of Clickhouse and ran some experiments to estimate the performance); * DuckDB: We ran benchmark queries and looked into packaging the library. We also created and plotted database-heavy queries that we can run against the database solutions that we are testing, and we looked into alternative hosting platforms. *## OONI data analysis* Leading up to Russia’s 2021 legislative election, we analyzed OONI measurements collected from Russia with the goal of understanding which platforms were already blocked in the country. Based on our analysis, we produced 2 charts on the blocking of news media and circumvention tool websites in Russia, which we shared on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1438913975752740866 We also shared OONI measurements which show that ISPs in Russia continued to block access to opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s website: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1438912653607555077 *## Research reports* Throughout September 2021, we worked on 2 research reports (in addition to our report on the blocking of the Gutenberg site in Italy, which we published in September: https://ooni.org/post/2021-italy-blocks-gutenberg-book-publishing-website/) that required relevant OONI data analysis and writing. We completed these research reports by the end of September 2021, but we will publish them in October 2021, once relevant external review is complete. *## Notable community use of OONI Probe and OONI data### iThena integration of OONI Probe* In September 2021, OONI Probe was integrated into iThena ( https://root.ithena.net/) a volunteer distributed computing initiative running on the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. This integration is documented by iThena here: https://root.ithena.net/usr/forum_thread.php?id=151 Thanks to iThena’s integration of OONI Probe, OONI measurement coverage has increased significantly! We created some charts based on OONI measurement coverage (illustrating the volume of OONI measurement coverage by platform), which clearly show the spike in coverage by iThena’s OONI Probe integration. We shared these charts on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1443944726235856901 *### NetDAN assistive tool* On 30th September 2021, Unwanted Witness (a digital rights organization in Uganda) launched the NetDAN assistive tool which notifies people with visual disabilities of network disruptions in Uganda based on OONI data ( https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1443560903073538053) The NetDAN assistive tool can be accessed here: https://app.netdan.org/ Alternatively, users can interact with NetDAN via phone by calling a toll-free number (+256 800 113 269). NetDAN is an assistive tool that detects and audibly informs the users about the connectivity status of the most commonly used websites and applications in Uganda, using OONI data. *### OONI data cited in Freedom on the Net 2021 reports* In September 2021, Freedom House published its annual Freedom on the Net country reports ( https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2021/global-drive-control-big-t… ). OONI data (primarily through OONI research reports) was cited in the following reports: * Freedom on the Net 2021: Uganda, https://freedomhouse.org/country/uganda/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Italy, https://freedomhouse.org/country/italy/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Myanmar, https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Azerbaijan, https://freedomhouse.org/country/azerbaijan/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Iran, https://freedomhouse.org/country/iran/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Malaysia, https://freedomhouse.org/country/malaysia/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Saudi Arabia, https://freedomhouse.org/country/saudi-arabia/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Zambia, https://freedomhouse.org/country/zambia/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Brazil, https://freedomhouse.org/country/brazil/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Colombia, https://freedomhouse.org/country/colombia/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Jordan, https://freedomhouse.org/country/jordan/freedom-net/2021 * Freedom on the Net 2021: Ethiopia, https://freedomhouse.org/country/ethiopia/freedom-net/2021 *## Community activities### Participation in Access Now Twitter Space on internet shutdowns* On 15th September 2021, OONI’s Maria participated as a speaker in Access Now’s Twitter Space discussion titled “Global Rise of Internet Shutdowns #KeepItOn” (https://twitter.com/accessnow/status/1437893160856870915) As part of her participation in this discussion, Maria discussed how OONI tools and data can be used for measuring “partial internet shutdowns” (involving the blocking of websites and apps), as well as OONI’s role in Access Now’s #KeepItOn campaign fighting internet shutdowns worldwide. *### Participation on Kenya Internet Governance Forum (KIGF) 2021 panel* On 21st September 2021, OONI’s Maria participated as a speaker in a (pre-event) panel session on “Leveraging the Philanthropic Sector” at the Kenya Internet Governance Forum (KIGF) 2021 (organized by KICTANet). General information about KIGF 2021 is available here: https://kigf.or.ke/kenya-igf-2021/ This panel discussion highlighted the digital rights issues in the Eastern Africa region and Africa, exploring ways through which partners can leverage resources (financial, technical, networks, expertise, etc.) to better respond to threats on digital rights in the region. As part of her participation, Maria discussed OONI’s partnership program and explained how OONI collaborates with digital rights groups in Africa to measure and respond to internet censorship events. Maria also highlighted the types of resources that such groups can make use of to support their digital rights work in the region. *### OutRight Action International Webinar on launch of LGBTIQ website censorship report* On 29th September 2021, OONI’s Maria participated in OutRight Action International’s webinar ( https://twitter.com/OutRightIntl/status/1438251801212596227) to discuss the recent launch of our joint research report “No Access: LGBTIQ Website Censorship in Six Countries” ( https://ooni.org/post/2021-no-access-lgbtiq-website-censorship-six-countrie… ). The webinar panelists included prominent LGBTIQ researchers and advocates from Russia and Indonesia, as well as the founder of My.Kali (an online pan-Arab LGBT magazine), who shared important insights on the impact of LGBTIQ website censorship in their regions. OONI’s Maria and the Citizen Lab’s Irene Poetranto attended to help address any questions related to our research report. The webinar recording is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W_Py9uXpz0 *### OONI Community Meeting* On 28th September 2021, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/) during which we discussed the following topics: 1. OONI updates: (1) Job Opening for OONI Probe Mobile Developer, (2) New User Guide for OONI Probe CLI. 2. VE sin Filtro’s public image for running OONI Probe on Raspberry Pis. 3. Measuring server side-blocking and DNS poisoning. *## Userbase* In September 2021, 16,887,184 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 4,765 AS networks in 192 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/ ~ OONI team.

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Localization: this Friday we hangout!
by emmapeel＠torproject.org 13 Oct '21

13 Oct '21

Hello, sorry for cross-posting! This coming Friday October 15th is the next Localization Hangout! On our call we are going to talk about translations QA (quality assurance): Tools showcase, tips to make sure that we don't break the website with a translation (never have I ever!), tutorials, resources we use to translate, or to review translations. See here for more information: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/l10n/-/wikis/Monthly-Tor-Locali… Thanks for reading emmapeel Localization Coordinator Tor Project

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