tor-project February 2021

tor-project@lists.torproject.org

6 participants
11 discussions

Anti-censorship meeting notes, 25 February 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Hi everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-02-25-15.58.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday February 25th 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 … [View More]

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February 2021 Tor DEMO Day - (Open) Call for proposals
by gus 23 Feb '21

23 Feb '21

Hi Tor, Tor DEMO days are back! And this is happening at the end of the month, February 24 @ 1600 UTC. Feel free to list yourself in the pad. http://kfahv6wfkbezjyg4r6mlhpmieydbebr5vkok5r34ya464gqz6c44bnyd.onion/p/tor… https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-demo-day-february-2021-keep cheers, Gus Tor DEMO DAY ============ Why? ---- - We want to spice up our remote working routine and also break the silos between teams. - Tor Demo Days are a success and we want to share this experience with … [View More]

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 18 February 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 18 Feb '21

18 Feb '21

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-02-18-15.57.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday February 18th 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 … [View More]

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 11 February 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 14 Feb '21

14 Feb '21

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-02-11-15.58.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday February 11th16:00 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 … [View More]

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User Feedback Report - January 2021
by Joydeep Sen Gupta 11 Feb '21

11 Feb '21

Hello everyone! This is a report of some of the work done by the Community Team in the past month and general user feedback that we've received across our official support channels. --- Request Tracker --- Tickets received in the past month: 257 Tickets resolved in the past month: 190 # New RT templates We aggregated statistics of what issues Tor users are frequently running into and made their solutions into articles/templates on the RT. This will help folks working on the RT to better … [View More]support users. We created/updated the following articles: 1. Basic troubleshooting when users can't access any particular website 2. Antivirus software blocking Tor Browser 3. How to contribute? - code, report issues, help with docs, etc. 4. How Tor works? 5. How to obtain Tor logs and share them with us? 6. How to connect to built-in Bridges? Here is a list of issues which got the most attention (at least 3 tickets on RT): # Tor Browser Breakdown of number of RT tickets received with respect to operating system: Windows (10,8,7 ...all the way upto XP) - 17 MacOS - 9 GNU/Linux - 3 Android - 14 (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. 14 RT tickets - Failure to launch Tor Browser. We point users to the "Six-point basic troubleshooting" article (template) on the RT to help users. 2. 4 RT tickets - Cannot upload files on Tor Browser for Android. Regarding this we have a ticket open on our GitLab [1]. We have also added this issue to the 'Known Issues' section in the Tor Browser User Manual [2] 3. 4 RT tickets - Questions on how to bookmark webpages in Tor Browser. We direct users to the article in the Support Portal [3] 4. 3 RT tickets - Error "RSA_get0_d could not be located in the dynamic link library tor.exe" on Windows. We have a GitLab ticket regarding this long standing issue [4] 5. 3 RT tickets - Confusion around what apk to download from our Download page (under Android) [5] # Onion Services 3 tickets- v3 onion service outages. All of these tickets have come from folks who read random clickbait articles on the internet and wanted our comments on the same. # General Issues 1. 5 RT tickets - Lot of queries around Mozilla's blog post in January and how that 'affects' Tor Browser. [6] 2. 3 RT tickets - Users unable to subscribe to the Newsletter since some major email services are bouncing our emails. There's some discussion on this ticket. [7] 3. 3 RT tickets - Users unable to subscribe to the newsletter when visiting it's onion address. We have a ticket to cover this issue [8] 4. This is an issue **we** are facing. We are receiving a large amount of spam on the RT every day. In the past month, 1770 spam tickets were either detected by the filters or we had to sort them by hand (the actual number of spam tickets is much larger than that) :) # UI/UX and documentation 1. 7 RT tickets - Reddit blocking Tor. Youtube making it very difficult for users to connect to while using Tor. We are covering this issue under a ticket to document websites, especially the ones in the top 500 in terms of traffic, which are blocking or making it difficult for users to connect to while using Tor [9]. Also see a post on Reddit regarding this issue [10] 2. Before the launch of the survey regarding Snowflake with the next version of Tor Browser Alpha [11], we have added some FAQ entries on Snowflake in the Support Portal [12] 3. We also made some notable changes to the documentation and updated the 'Known Issues' page [13] and added instructions on how users can obtain their Tor logs and share them with us [14]. We have been unable to officially provide support in the following channels but here's what the discussion was about in the past month: 4. Google Play Store - In terms of user experience, I am happy to report that unlike last month, we have received more positive reviews. The 'most liked' comments either have a 4-star or 5-star rating reviews. We still have some heavily liked comments with one 1-star and negative reviews though. 5. Tor Stack Exchange - Statistics of what the discussion has been about (5 most active tags): tor-browser-bundle- 27 questions configuration (questions about configuring Tor software)- 10 questions hidden-services- 8 questions anonymity- 15 questions security- 7 questions 6. Reddit- Discussion has mostly been around the v3 onion service outages, censorship and internet shutdown events in the Global South and Reddit itself blocking connections over Tor. # Anti-censorship and metrics 1. Including RT and #tor, we got a total of 8 requests for private bridges which have been from China (three requests), Turkmenistan (two requests), Turkey (one request), Iran (one request) and Eastern Europe (Russian locale) (one request). 2. In the past month, there have been numerous instances of censorship and internet shutdowns in the Global South - namely in Uganda, India and Myanmar. For one user in Uganda who was using an iOS device and didn't have OnionBrowser installed on their phone before Apple's App Store was censored, we collaborated with folks to provide them with configuration files to activate VPN natively on their device in order to access the App Store and download OnionBrowser (for some context, apps cannot be sideloaded on iOS and therefore the GetTor method doesn't work in this case). 3. Ongoing issue of 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. [15][16] If you have any suggestions, questions or want to discuss anything in detail please feel free to reach out to me and/or anyone from the Community Team! Thanks, Joydeep Links: [1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40283 [2]: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/mobile-tor/#known-issues [3]: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/export-and-import-bookmarks/ [4]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/issues/33702 [5]: https://www.torproject.org/download/#android [6]: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2021/01/08/we-need-more-than-deplatforming/ [7]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues/40164 [8]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/newsletter/-/issues/13 [9]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40013 [10]: https://old.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/l4cexf/tor_and_reddit_problems_faq/ [11]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… [12]: https://support.torproject.org/censorship/ [13]: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/known-issues/ [14]: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/troubleshooting/ [15]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/outreach/-/issues/40001 [16]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40005 -- Joydeep Sen Gupta IRC: championquizzer GPG: C8C8 6A4B E247 2D2D C345 9046 5B57 1AA7 D685 E67D [View Less]

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UX team monthly meeting notes, Feb 9th
by Duncan Larsen-Russell 09 Feb '21

09 Feb '21

Hello! Thanks everyone who made it to today's UX team monthly meeting, and we're looking forward to seeing you all again in March. Here are the minutes: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-02-09-13.58.log… <http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-02-09-13.58.log…> During today’s meeting we introduced a new project for the UX team: S103 – Collaborative ResistancE to Web Surveillance (CREWS), planned the final details of the upcoming Tor … [View More]

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The Tor Project job opening - Metrics Team
by Erin Wyatt 05 Feb '21

05 Feb '21

Hello everyone, We have another new job opening to share: Metrics Data Architect (https://www.torproject.org/about/jobs/metrics-data-architect/). The job description is attached as a PDF and pasted below in plain text. We are also 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://… [View More]expyuzz4wqqyqhjn.onion/ ——————————————>8 Internet Freedom Nonprofit Seeks Metrics Data Architect February 4, 2021 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 Data Architect to take our metrics work to the next level. 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. Racial minorities, non-gender-binary people, women, and people from any group that is generally underrepresented in tech are encouraged to apply. This is a full-time remote position. Our Metrics Team has been collecting data since 2004 to help improve the tools we build and learn more about the Tor network. For example, we monitor the number of relays and clients in the network, their respective capabilities, the number of clients connecting via bridges, fluctuations in network speed, etc. Gathering this data results in huge data archives, so we are also working to develop tools to process this data and make it available to everyone. How we achieve our goals: • Robustness (We want to avoid bugs and/or bad design decisions that cause us to miss data) • Timeliness (users need up-to-date network status information) • Scalability (as the network grows, so does our data) • Transparency (our community rightly wants to know what data we're collecting) The most interesting challenge for metrics collection at Tor is how to gather data on an anonymity system without de-anonymizing users. We are integrating the metrics team with a new network health team that will be also focusing on taking care of the health of the Tor network. Additionally, Tor has just begin a large network performance improvement project that will vastly increase network utilization and client performance. There will be close interaction between this role and our performance effort, in the form of ensuring data is collected properly during deployment of new performance features and performance tuning. This will also include producing custom visualizations, doing analysis, and comparisons between historical and current data. The person in this position will work directly with helping us maintain existing systems, and design new systems for gathering and analyzing data. They will help the rest of the teams understand the data available to improve our tools as well as the Tor network's health. The bulk of our code is written in Java, but smaller portions are written in R, Python, PostgreSQL, and JavaScript. Part of this job will be to analyze and fix bugs in our current code and review patches. You will be working with the existing teams in Tor with support and advice on data collection and measurements for their needs in their respective projects. Our main five codebases: • Collector • metrics-lib • Onionoo • Exonerator • metrics-web Requirements: Technical abilities/experience: • Have experience finding your way into existing Java, R, and PostgreSQL-based code bases and the ability to review patches and make changes to fix bugs/smaller enhancements. • Have experience with web application development in the Python programming language. Experience with known frameworks is a plus. • Able to identify shortcomings in our data pipeline and suggest improvements to reduce complexity and future maintenance efforts. • Experience working with Git and Gitlab or similar issue tracking tools. • Ability to learn quickly and can adapt to our current processes; being able to improve future processes for releasing software and operating services. • Understanding of the inherent privacy implications of gathering data in an anonymity system, the security implications of gathering metrics data from semi-trusted relays in the Tor network, and the challenges of processing large amounts of data per day (specifically performance and scalability challenges). • Data analysis: Ability to make sense of data sets and use data analysis tools to find and visualize interesting patterns. • Mathematics: Knowledge of basic statistics. Collaborative requirements: • Ability to work remotely 100% of the time, as synchronization happens via email and/or IRC. • Participation in weekly IRC meetings and monthly team video chats. • Language: write and speak fluent English. • Comfortable posting to a public mailing list or speaking up in a public IRC channel to ask questions, even when you think the question might be obvious or silly. Bonus skills: • Open source experience: You have contributed to an open source project before, and you're accustomed to a pattern of early and frequent releases without attempting to finalize things on your own. • Scientific writing: Experience writing technical reports about data findings. • Networking background: Experience working with networks and measurements in the past. • You support Internet Freedom! 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 to job-metrics at torproject dot org with “Metrics Data Architect” in the subject line. 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. [View Less]

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minutes from the sysadmin meeting
by Antoine Beaupré 05 Feb '21

05 Feb '21

Hi everyone, Here's a (somewhat late) report from our monthly sysadmin meeting. # Roll call: who's there and emergencies anarcat, gaba, hiro * hiro will be doing security reboots for [DSA-483][] [DSA-483]: https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4843 # Dashboard review We reviewed the [dashboard][] to prioritise the work in February. [dashboard]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/boards anarcat is doing triage for the next two weeks, as now indicated in the IRC channel … [View More]topic. # Communications discussion We wanted to touch base on how we organise and communicate, but didn't have time to do so. Postponed to next meeting. Reminder: * Documentation about documentation: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/service/documentation * Policies: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/policy # Next meeting March 2nd, 2021, same time # Metrics of the month * hosts in Puppet: 83, LDAP: 86, Prometheus exporters: 135 * number of Apache servers monitored: 27, hits per second: 182 * number of Nginx servers: 2, hits per second: 3, hit ratio: 0.83 * number of self-hosted nameservers: 6, mail servers: 12 * pending upgrades: 11, reboots: 71 * average load: 0.41, memory available: 1.94 TiB/2.67 TiB, running processes: 520 * bytes sent: 281.62 MB/s, received: 163.47 MB/s * [GitLab tickets][]: 130 tickets including... * open: 0 * icebox: 96 * backlog: 18 * next: 10 * doing: 7 * (closed: 2182) [Gitlab tickets]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/boards I've been collecting those dashboard metrics for a while, and while I don't have pretty graphs to show you yet, I do have this fancy table: | date | open | icebox | backlog | next | doing | closed | |------------|------|--------|---------|------|-------|--------| | 2020-07-01 | 125 | 0 | 26 | 13 | 7 | 2075 | | 2020-11-18 | 1 | 84 | 32 | 5 | 4 | 2119 | | 2020-12-02 | 0 | 92 | 20 | 9 | 8 | 2130 | | 2021-01-19 | 0 | 91 | 20 | 12 | 10 | 2165 | | 2021-02-02 | 0 | 96 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 2182 | Some observations: * the "Icebox" keeps piling up * we are closing tens and tens of tickets (about 20-30 a month) * we are getting better at keeping Backlog/Next/Doing small * triage is working: the "Open" queue is generally empty after the meeting As usual, some of those stats are available in 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 [View Less]

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 4 February 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 04 Feb '21

04 Feb '21

Hi everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-02-04-15.58.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday February 4th 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 … [View More]

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Anti-censorship team monthly report: January 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 04 Feb '21

04 Feb '21

Anti-censorship team Jan 2021 report ==================================== Snowflake --------- *There was an unexplained 4-day decrease in the number of Snowflake users, almost to zero. https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2021-January/00… * Changed some domains used by the Snowflake proxy browser extension, to avoid antivirus warnings. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Updated version of webrtc dependency to … [View More]

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tor-project February 2021