May 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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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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Outreachy Intern Introduction
by Kulsoom Zahra 04 Jun '21

04 Jun '21

Greetings everyone! My name is Kulsoom Zahra (she/her). I'm from India. I'm happy to share that I've been selected as an Outreachy Intern for the May-Aug 2021 corhot! Project - Help Tor Project support our users Mentored by Gus I developed interest into privacy and digital security long back and heard of Tor. Being actually a part of the project is undoubtedly an overwhelming experience! I'm exicted to learn and grow with the community. My nickname on IRC is kulsoom_z. Regards, Kulsoom Zahra

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Next Network Health meeting is on Monday, 6/7 1600 UTC
by Georg Koppen 31 May '21

31 May '21

Hi, As today, 5/31, is a national holiday in the US (Memorial Day) we'll skip the Network Health meeting this week. Sorry for the late notice. The next meeting will then be at Mon, 6/7, 1600 UTC in #tor-meeting on irc.oftc.net. See you there, Georg

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 27 May 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 27 May '21

27 May '21

Hey everyone, Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-05-27-16.00.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday May 27th 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) == Goal of this meeting == Weekly checkin about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == Our anti-censorship roadmap: Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards The anti-censorship team's wiki page: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home Past meeting notes can be found at: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: All needs review tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… Sponsor 30 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/4 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/7 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/5 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/6 Sponsor 28 must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… Public bug-reporting pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep <-- we have anonymous tickets handling now. Let's see which anti-censorship repos to include. == Announcements == Snowflake user survey report published https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/ux/2021-May/000569.html https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/raw/master/reports/2021/pub… == Discussion == == Actions == == Interesting links == https://www.jacobo.org/ansible-snowflake/ == Reading group == We will discuss "" on 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 2020-05-27 Last week: - deployed new version of snowflake probetest - fixed up moat shim for bridgedb#32276 and started deployment - revised snowflake!26 for snowflake#29293 - responded to problems with IPtProxy (snowflake#40045) - roadmapping and ticket maintenance - reviewed snowflake!34 - took a look at arlo's refactor for splitting the broker into components (snowflake!36) - provided some feedback for ooni on PT tests during the community meeting - started some new performance tests for snowflake (snowflake#40026, snowflake#32545) This week: - more performance investigations for snowflake#40026 - work more on snowflake documentation (snowflake#40031) - rdsys + bridgedb integration work (rdsys#12) - follow up on NAT testbed (snowflake#25595) Needs help with: - review of snowflake#29293 arlolra: 2021-05-20 Last week: - Next week: - Maybe more !39 Help with: - !37 - !39 dcf: 2021-05-27 Last week: - reviewed prometheus metrics refactoring https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - helped debug IPtProxy problems https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: - re-review Snowflake JSON rendezvous https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - main branch name change in goptlib https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/6 - merge resource leak fix https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Help with: Antonela: 2020-08-27 This week: agix:2021-05-27 Last week: -Busy with university stuff 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: 2021-04-29 Last week: - Busy w/ life and new job, but been looking at https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… and working on a Docker-based network testbed POC Next week: - Really want to have a POC to show/get feedback on meskio: 2021-05-27 Last week: - explore rdsys code - make a flatpak package for snowflake proxy (snowflake#19409) Next week: - debian package snowflake client and proxy (snowflake#19409) - start gettor rewrite in rdsys (rdsys#32) Help with: - HashikD: 2021-01-22 This week: - Next week: - Help with: -

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You're invited: PrivChat, Onion Routing 25th anniversary
by Al Smith 26 May '21

26 May '21

Hello Tor! Onion routing is turning 25 month! We are holding our 4th PrivChat next week to celebrate. When: Wed., May 26 at 18:00 UTC / 2:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM Pacific Where: https://youtu.be/-wbivkG8TcU Host: Gabriella Coleman, Tor board member Panelists: Paul Syverson, Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson We'd love to see you there, and if you could spread the word with others that might be interested, that would be most appreciated. Here's a tweet you can share: https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1395093100456943619?s=20 Here's the event link: https://torproject.org/privchat Have a nice weekend, Al -- Al Smith (they/them) Fundraising • Communications The Tor Project https://www.torproject.org | http://2gzyxa5ihm7nsggfxnu52rck2vv4rvmdlkiu3zzui5du4xyclen53wid.onion/

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May 2021 Tor DEMO Day
by Gaba 25 May '21

25 May '21

Hi! We will have a Tor DEMO day this Wednesday May 26t! When ---- During Tor All Hands meeting on Wednesday May 26th at 1600 UTC Where ------ BBB in https://tor.meet.coop/gus-tvm-llm-bem How ---- 3 to 5 minutes length presentations. Agenda ----- - Anti-censorship alerts with prometheus (anarcat and cohosh) - Book "How the Internet Really Works: An Illustrated Guide to Protocols, Privacy, Censorship, and Governance" (ulrike) - LEAP VPN (meskio) cheers, gaba

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Tor Localization Monthly Hangout
by emma peel 21 May '21

21 May '21

Today we are hosting our very first Localization Hangout! You are all invited to come and share your doubts, interests, tricks for translating apps. (favorite translation music, funny anecdotes, long held questions...) More information: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/l10n/-/wikis/Monthly-Tor-Locali… emmapeel Localization Coordinator Tor Project

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 20 May 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 20 May '21

20 May '21

Hey everyone, Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-05-20-16.00.html and our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday May 20th 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) == Goal of this meeting == Weekly checkin about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == Our anti-censorship roadmap: Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards The anti-censorship team's wiki page: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home Past meeting notes can be found at: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: All needs review tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… Sponsor 30 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/4 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/7 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/5 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/6 Sponsor 28 must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… Public bug-reporting pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep <-- we have anonymous tickets handling now. Let's see which anti-censorship repos to include. == Announcements == == Discussion == ok to merge snowflake!38 with attribution to dcf? yes, it's ok many clients need NAT-unrestricted proxies, but there aren't enough of them to go around likely the cause of e.g. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… 'Esp. on iOS, I always seem to get only the "unrestricted" types.' thinking of doing a community push for people to install the standalone go proxy on VPS to get more unrestricted snowflakes we could also increase the default capacity of the standalone bridges (currently is 10) docker image for snowflake proxy? we have already at https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/thetorproject/snowflake-proxy recent discussion at https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… == Actions == == Interesting links == https://www.jacobo.org/ansible-snowflake/ == Reading group == We will discuss "" on 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 2020-05-20 Last week: - added community pages for setting up snowflake proxies (snowflake#40031) - added a cronjob on polyanthum to restart bridgestrap dail to avoid the bug where tor's PT process exits and can't restart - met to talk about snowflake refactors - preparation for and attending the s28 PI meeting - reviews - helped with a BridgeDB deployment and updated the survival guide This week: - revise snowflake!36 - more performance investigations for snowflake#40026 - read up on arlo's work on snowflake#26092 arlolra: 2021-05-20 Last week: - Next week: - Maybe more !39 Help with: - !37 - !39 dcf: 2021-05-20 Last week: - reviewed prometheus metrics refactoring https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: - main branch name change in goptlib https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/6 - rebase and merge resource leak fix https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Help with: Antonela: 2020-08-27 This week: agix:2021-05-13 Last week: -Busy with university stuff 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: 2021-04-29 Last week: - Busy w/ life and new job, but been looking at https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… and working on a Docker-based network testbed POC Next week: - Really want to have a POC to show/get feedback on meskio: 2021-05-20 Last week: - release bridgedb - CPU issue with snowflake/probetest (snowflake#40039) Next week: - packaging snowflake (snowflake#19409) Help with: - HashikD: 2021-01-22 This week: - Next week: - Help with: -

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 06 May 2021
by Cecylia Bocovich 13 May '21

13 May '21

Hi, Looks like I forgot to send out last week's meeting notes. Here are our logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2021/tor-meeting.2021-05-06-15.59.html and here is our pad from last week: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday May 6th 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) == Goal of this meeting == Weekly checkin about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == Our anti-censorship roadmap: Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards The anti-censorship team's wiki page: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home Past meeting notes can be found at: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: All needs review tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… Sponsor 30 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/4 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/7 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/5 https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/6 Sponsor 28 must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… Public bug-reporting pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep <-- we have anonymous tickets handling now. Let's see which anti-censorship repos to include. == Announcements == Welcome meskio \o/ == Discussion == == Actions == Comment with any last feedback on switching the default branch: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/6 == Interesting links == == Reading group == We will discuss "" on 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 2020-05-06 Last week: - s28 prep - posted report on Belarus - finished snowflake!31 revision - wrote a patch to fix goroutine leaks in snowflake server (snowflake#40033) - reviewed emma#4 - more preparation for branch rename (anti-censorship/team#6) - reviewed bridgedb gitlab-ci (bridgedb#40012) - implemented changes to client-broker messages (snowflake#29293) - commented with more background info on snowflake#25592 This week: - congestion logging patches for snowflake#40026 - install our snowflake app on android and try it out for a few days - more work in snowflake standalone proxy documentation (snowflake#40031) Needs help with: - review of snowflake!31 (PT v2 Go API) - review of snowflake!35 (fix goroutine leak) - review of snowflake!36 (update to client-broker messages) - review of bridgedb#32276 (moat shim based off goptlib) arlolra: 2020-10-29 Last week: - Next week: - getting back up to speed - follow ups to #33365 - start on #31201 Help with: - dcf: 2021-05-06 Last week: - snowflake CDN bookkeeping https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/Snowflake-co… - commented on resource leaks in snowflake server https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: - review switching broker messages to JSON https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - more review of PT v2 patch https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Help with: Antonela: 2020-08-27 This week: agix:2021-05-06 Last week: -Busy with university stuff 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: 2021-04-29 Last week: - Busy w/ life and new job, but been looking at https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… and working on a Docker-based network testbed POC Next week: - Really want to have a POC to show/get feedback on meskio: 2021-05-06 Last week: - Getting to know the anti censorship team - gitlab CI for bridgedb - reading about decoy routing (bridgedb#40012) Next week: - bridgedb distribute obfs4 by default (bridgedb#40011) - bridgedb send qr codes over email (bridgedb#40008) Help with: - HashikD: 2021-01-22 This week: - Next week: - Help with: -

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