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OONI Monthly Report: October 2024
by Maria Xynou 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Hello, This email shares OONI's monthly report for October 2024. *# OONI Monthly Report: October 2024* Throughout October 2024, the OONI team’s work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. *## Launched OONI Run v2* In October 2024, we launched OONI Run v2: the next generation version of OONI Run (https://run.ooni.org/) Since 2017, OONI Run has supported community-driven efforts aimed at coordinating the testing of website blocks -- particularly during political events which triggered censorship events. With the launch of OONI Run v2, we address key community feedback (identified through an extensive usability study). We published a blog post which shares detailed information, as well as a step-by-step guide (with screenshots) for using OONI Run v2: https://ooni.org/post/2024-launch-ooni-run-v2/ OONI Run v2 (https://run.ooni.org/) is a major revamp, enabling you to dynamically coordinate censorship testing with OONI Probe users around the world. With OONI Run v2: * Create a (short!) link for the websites you want to measure for censorship * Share that link with OONI Probe users * Update your OONI Run link anytime if you want to add/change URLs (your community of testers will get updates automatically!) * Automated testing is supported (for you and your community) * Find your OONI Run v2 measurements on OONI Explorer ( https://explorer.ooni.org/) as open data in real-time (based on the OONI Run link ID) OONI Run v2 is currently only supported on Android. Please update to the latest OONI Probe Android version (4.0.0) to start using OONI Run v2: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.openobservatory.ooniprobe With the launch of OONI Run v2, we also introduced UI improvements to OONI Probe Android: https://ooni.org/post/2024-launch-ooni-run-v2/#ui-changes-to-ooni-probe-and… We thank the OONI community for their invaluable feedback, which informed the design of OONI Run v2! *## Updated OONI Data Policy* In October 2024, we updated the OONI Data Policy to account for changes introduced with the launch of OONI Run v2. The edits to the OONI Data Policy are available through this pull request: https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/1601 The updated OONI Data Policy is available here: https://ooni.org/about/data-policy *## Published animation about the OONI Partner Gathering 2024* In May 2024, we had the opportunity to host the OONI Partner Gathering 2024: a two-day event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we brought our partners from Asia and the Middle East together to exchange skills and knowledge on internet censorship research ( https://ooni.org/post/2024-ooni-partner-gathering-report/) In October 2024, we published a new animation about the OONI Partner Gathering, which is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2024-ooni-partner-gathering-animation/ This animation provides a glimpse into the event, highlighting the importance of community participation in censorship measurement research. We thank Robotina (https://www.robotina.it/) for collaborating with us on the creation of this animation. We also thank the Ford Foundation and Luminate for supporting the OONI Partner Gathering 2024, as well as our partners for making the event an important experience through their participation. *## Published OONI Community Interview with Chido Musodza from Localization Lab* In October 2024, we published a new OONI Community Interview with Chido Musodza, Program Associate, Community Engagement at Localization Lab ( https://www.localizationlab.org/) You can watch Chido’s interview and learn about her work here: https://ooni.org/post/2024-interview-with-chido-musodza/ Through the OONI Community Interview series, we aim to share the amazing work of our partners, highlighting the different ways through which they make use of OONI tools and data. You can find more OONI Community Interviews through our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrclQ2QZjVo&list=PL1sH9kYR-16nWkDJwY-NAaMbr… *## Presenting thematic censorship findings on OONI Explorer* In October 2024, we focused on developing the new thematic censorship findings pages for OONI Explorer. These pages will focus on OONI measurements pertaining to News Media ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/940) Social Media ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/939) and Circumvention Tools ( https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/941) and will offer users a way to explore OONI data focused on these specific themes. Notably, we completed the core development work necessary to unblock our internal testing and polishing of the pages prior to the upcoming launch. We made significant improvements to our findings API to enhance censorship event analysis. Specifically, we: * Added support for filtering by theme, domains, country codes and ASNs ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/890) * Implemented support for storing and filtering findings by theme ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/889) * Added the ability to filter by domain name in the findings endpoints ( https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/881) These API improvements make it significantly easier for researchers and analysts to identify and investigate potential censorship events across different regions and themes. *## Automating censorship detection and characterization based on OONI measurements* In October 2024, we made significant progress in improving our censorship detection capabilities and data processing pipeline infrastructure. Specifically, we expanded our blocking fingerprint database by: * Adding new Indonesian fingerprints that were reported through our community channels (https://github.com/ooni/blocking-fingerprints/pull/19) * Incorporating the piracyshield blockpage fingerprint ( https://github.com/ooni/blocking-fingerprints/pull/18) These additions enhance our ability to automatically identify and categorize different types of internet censorship across various regions. We continued working towards the deployment and optimization of the OONI Pipeline v5 by: * Setting up production deployment infrastructure through ansible, improving our ability to consistently deploy and manage the pipeline ( https://github.com/ooni/devops/pull/105) * Initiating the reprocessing of all 2024 data on data.ooni.org following our schema improvements (https://github.com/ooni/data/issues/90) * Moving critical infrastructure components from ooni/sysadmin to ooni/devops, making our deployment process more streamlined and maintainable. *## Activities supported by OTF FOSS### OONI Probe Engine* In October 2024, we addressed an issue where measurements could not be run if the Psiphon proxy was used (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2810) We also started working towards shipping OONI Probe 3.24.0 ( https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2813) *### OONI Probe Mobile#### Released OONI Probe Android 4.0.0 with support for OONI Run v2* Notably, we released OONI Probe Android 4.0.0 with support for OONI Run v2: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v4.0.0 Specifically, the OONI Probe Android 4.0.0 includes the following important changes: * Next generation of OONI Run - OONI Run v2! * Updated UI of the cards displayed on the dashboard * Test settings for individual tests on each card * Changes to the "Run" button to allow users to enable/disable specific tests, including both OONI Probe tests and installed OONI Run links Further details about the UI improvements introduced to OONI Probe Android are available here: https://ooni.org/post/2024-launch-ooni-run-v2/#ui-changes-to-ooni-probe-and… *#### Multiplatform project* We continued to make progress on our multi-platform project that aims to refactor the OONI Probe mobile app. We continued iterating on the News Media Scan iOS app by ensuring the UI matches the Android app ( https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/122) We also began our internal QA for the News Media Scan app, as well as for the OONI Probe application. We worked on many details necessary to get us closer to launching the re-architected OONI Probe applications. These included: * Completing the onboarding flow: https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/156 * Adding support for automated testing: https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/pull/150 * Ensuring all proper icons are used: https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/161 * Ensuring the app is usable in landscape orientation: https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/196 * Fixing some issues that appeared when the font was enlarged: https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues/132 Here is a list of all issues closed in October 2024: https://github.com/ooni/probe-multiplatform/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed… *### OONI Run* Throughout October 2024, we continued with our preparations for the launch of OONI Run v2 on Android. We first released the OONI Run v2-enabled version of OONI Probe to our open testing or “beta” channel on the Google Play store (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2803) We then monitored the measurement volume for a period of several weeks, and compared it to a previous beta release. This helped increase our confidence that we would not ship any bugs that could impact overall measurement volume. After this additional testing and monitoring we proceeded with the launch of OONI Run v2. *### OONI Backend Maintenance & DevOps* In addition to the regular maintenance and monitoring of our infrastructure, specific tasks that we worked on this month include the following: * We made progress on refactoring our measurements service to adhere to our current standards/patterns for development: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/877 * We took steps to set up a new primary test server and aimed to ensure it replicates production as close as possible: https://github.com/ooni/devops/issues/110 * We worked on reducing the sizes of our machines to be more cost effective: https://github.com/ooni/devops/pull/107 * We implemented log rotation for docker files after 100MB to prevent disk space issues: https://github.com/ooni/devops/pull/108 Overall, thanks to the various improvements to our infrastructure deployment, we were able to significantly reduce cloud costs by a factor of 2. We aim to continue these improvements as we move forward. *## Published updated backend developer job opening* As part of our ongoing search (which started in June 2024) to hire another backend developer for OONI, we updated our existing backend developer job opening and re-published it in October 2024 ( https://ooni.org/post/2024-job-opening-ooni-backend-developer/) This resulted in receiving many more strong applications from developers around the world. We therefore allocated time towards reviewing new applications, following up with candidates, and interviewing shortlisted candidates. *## OONI partner workshop series* In support of our global network of partners (https://ooni.org/partners) we initiated an online workshop series with the goal of sharing skills and knowledge for censorship measurement research. In October 2024, we facilitated 2 workshops for our partners. Specifically, OONI’s Elizaveta facilitated the following workshops for our partners: * Introduction to Internet Censorship (9th October 2024) * Network Measurement: What exactly are we measuring and how can one contribute? (17th October 2024) *## Updated our research report on internet censorship in Kazakhstan* Based on community feedback, we made some minor edits to the TLS MITM section of the research report that we previously published on internet censorship in Kazakhstan (https://ooni.org/post/2024-kazakhstan-report/) We applied these edits to both versions of our report in: * English: https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/1615 * Russian: https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/1616 *## Test list updates* In October 2024, we reviewed and merged several community contributions adding news media websites to the Hong Kong test list: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1826/ https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1828 In preparation for Georgia’s 2024 elections, we merged several contributions to the Georgian test list to encourage the testing of news media websites covering the elections: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1837 https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1838 https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1851 https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1849 https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1847 *## Rapid response### Blocking of Twitter/X in Azerbaijan* On 8th October 2024, Azerbaijan blocked access to Twitter/X. On the same day, we responded by sharing relevant OONI data through social media channels: https://x.com/OpenObservatory/status/1843812546765267382 We also shared OONI data on the blocking of Twitter/X in Azerbaijan with advocacy groups. *### Blocking of Discord in Russia and Turkiye* On 8th October 2024, both Russia and Turkiye started blocking access to Discord. On the same day, we responded by sharing relevant OONI data through social media channels: https://x.com/OpenObservatory/status/1843815747094753847 *## Community use of OONI data### iMAP 2024 reports on internet censorship in 9 Asian countries* On 22nd October 2024, our long-term partner, Sinar Project ( https://ooni.org/partners/sinar-project/) in collaboration with their Internet Monitoring Action Project (iMAP) partners, launched the iMAP 2024 State of Internet Censorship Report covering 9 countries: Cambodia, Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. All of these research reports are based on the analysis of OONI data. All iMAP 2024 reports are available here: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024 Specifically, the iMAP 2024 reports document internet censorship (based on OONI data) in the following countries: * Cambodia: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-cambodia-2024-internet-cens… * Hong Kong (China): https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-hong-kong-china-2024-intern… * India: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-india-2024-internet-censors… * Indonesia: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-indonesia-2024-internet-cen… * Malaysia: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-malaysia-2024-internet-cens… * Myanmar: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-myanmar-2024-internet-censo… * Philippines: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-philippines-2024-internet-c… * Thailand: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-thailand-2024-internet-cens… * Vietnam: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-vietnam-2024-internet-censo… *### Freedom on the Net 2024 reports* Freedom House published their annual Freedom on the Net report ( https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2024/struggle-trust-online) which includes numerous country reports ( https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-net/scores) This year, OONI data was cited in 35 (out of 72) Freedom on the Net 2024 reports. Specifically, OONI data is cited in the following Freedom on the Net country reports: * Azerbaijan: https://freedomhouse.org/country/azerbaijan/freedom-net/2024 * Bangladesh: https://freedomhouse.org/country/bangladesh/freedom-net/2024 * Belarus: https://freedomhouse.org/country/belarus/freedom-net/2024 * Brazil: https://freedomhouse.org/country/brazil/freedom-net/2024 * Cambodia: https://freedomhouse.org/country/cambodia/freedom-net/2024 * Cuba: https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-net/2024 * Egypt: https://freedomhouse.org/country/egypt/freedom-net/2024 * Ethiopia: https://freedomhouse.org/country/ethiopia/freedom-net/2024 * India: https://freedomhouse.org/country/india/freedom-net/2024 * Iran: https://freedomhouse.org/country/iran/freedom-net/2024 * Italy: https://freedomhouse.org/country/italy/freedom-net/2024 * Jordan: https://freedomhouse.org/country/jordan/freedom-net/2024 * Kenya: https://freedomhouse.org/country/kenya/freedom-net/2024 * Lebanon: https://freedomhouse.org/country/lebanon/freedom-net/2024 * Libya: https://freedomhouse.org/country/libya/freedom-net/2024 * Malaysia: https://freedomhouse.org/country/malaysia/freedom-net/2024 * Mexico: https://freedomhouse.org/country/mexico/freedom-net/2024 * Myanmar: https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2024 * Nigeria: https://freedomhouse.org/country/nigeria/freedom-net/2024 * Pakistan: https://freedomhouse.org/country/pakistan/freedom-net/2024 * Russia: https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-net/2024 * Rwanda: https://freedomhouse.org/country/rwanda/freedom-net/2024 * Saudi Arabia: https://freedomhouse.org/country/saudi-arabia/freedom-net/2024 * Sri Lanka: https://freedomhouse.org/country/sri-lanka/freedom-net/2024 * Sudan: https://freedomhouse.org/country/sudan/freedom-net/2024 * Thailand: https://freedomhouse.org/country/thailand/freedom-net/2024 * Tunis: https://freedomhouse.org/country/tunisia/freedom-net/2024 * Turkey: https://freedomhouse.org/country/turkey/freedom-net/2024 * Uganda: https://freedomhouse.org/country/uganda/freedom-net/2024 * UAE: https://freedomhouse.org/country/united-arab-emirates/freedom-net/2024 * UK: https://freedomhouse.org/country/united-kingdom/freedom-net/2024 * Uzbekistan: https://freedomhouse.org/country/uzbekistan/freedom-net/2024 * Venezuela: https://freedomhouse.org/country/venezuela/freedom-net/2024 * Zambia: https://freedomhouse.org/country/zambia/freedom-net/2024 * Zimbabwe: https://freedomhouse.org/country/zimbabwe/freedom-net/2024 *### Report on internet health in Cuba* In October 2024, community members published a report on internet health in Cuba, which makes use of OONI data: https://guardianesdigitales.blogspot.com/2024/10/informe-6-sobre-la-salud-d… As part of this report, they used OONI Probe to collect measurements and they used OONI Explorer to analyze OONI data and generate charts to document blocks in Cuba. They have also published several other reports over the past year, documenting internet censorship in Cuba based on OONI data: https://guardianesdigitales.blogspot.com/2024/07/informe-5-sobre-la-salud-d… https://guardianesdigitales.blogspot.com/2024/04/informe-4-sobre-la-salud-d… https://guardianesdigitales.blogspot.com/2023/12/estudio-trimestral-sobre-l… https://guardianesdigitales.blogspot.com/2023/12/censura-y-restricciones-de… *### Karisma Foundation report on blocks in Colombia* Our partner, Karisma Foundation ( https://ooni.org/partners/karisma-foundation/) published a report on emergent blocks in Colombia based on OONI data: https://obi.karisma.org.co/2024-10-28-colombia-bloqueo-bitcoin-e-independen… Specifically, their report documents the blocking of Bitcoin and The Independent news media website in Colombia based on OONI data. *## Community-led presentations### Phnom Penh Internet Forum 2024* On 18th October 2024, the Advocacy and Policy Institute (API) presented the iMAP Cambodia 2024 Internet Censorship Report (which is based on OONI data) at the Phnom Penh Internet Forum ( https://ppifcambodia.net/ppif-home/agenda-en/) Read the iMAP Cambodia 2024 Internet Censorship Report here: https://imap.sinarproject.org/reports/2024/imap-cambodia-2024-internet-cens… The event and presentation of the censorship findings received the following press coverage: https://cambojanews.com/phnom-penh-internet-forum-calls-attention-to-digita… *## Community activities### Lightning talk at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University* On 8th October 2024, OONI’s Maria gave a lightning talk at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society (https://cyber.harvard.edu/) where she introduced other fellows to her fellowship research, which aims to explore how internet censorship changed globally over the past eight years. As part of this lightning talk, Maria also briefly introduced participants to OONI tools and data. *### Panel discussion on internet censorship policies in Indonesia* On 10th October 2024, OONI’s Mehul participated in a panel discussion (“Unraveling Government’s Content Moderation and Internet Access Restrictions Policies and Implementation Techniques”) – organized by our partner, SAFEnet (https://ooni.org/partners/safenet/) – on internet censorship policies in Indonesia. As part of his participation, Mehul introduced participants to OONI tools and methods and he shared some censorship findings from OONI measurements collected from Indonesia. *### OONI training session for SHOOA* On 10th October 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta hosted an OONI training session for SHOAA (https://shoaa.org/) a digital rights organization from Algeria. During this session, participants learned how to use OONI Probe, OONI Run, the OONI Test Lists Editor and OONI Explorer to document and investigate internet censorship. *### OONI training of trainers (ToT) for civil society activists in Senegal* On 11th October 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta facilitated a full-day, hybrid, training of trainers (ToT) for civil society activists from Senegal. This training of trainers event was organized by our Senegalese partners, Computech Institute (https://ooni.org/partners/computech/) and Jonction. As part of the training, Elizaveta covered all OONI tools (OONI Probe, OONI Run, Test Lists Editor, OONI Explorer) and prepared 10 civil society activists to run similar training sessions in their regions in Senegal. *### Presentation of research report at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2024 Kazakhstan* On 16th October 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta presented the findings from our new research report on internet censorship in Kazakhstan ( https://ooni.org/post/2024-kazakhstan-report/) at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2024 Kazakhstan (https://igf.kz/en/main/#agenda) The presentation of the report at the event received the following press coverage: https://bes.media/news/mitm-ataki-i-tsenzura-raskriti-metodi-pravitelstvenn… *### M-Lab Community Call on large scale internet measurements* On 17th October 2024, OONI’s Maria participated as a panelist in M-Lab’s community call discussion on challenges and lessons learned from large scale internet measurements. Watch the full Community Call discussion on M-Lab’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq-v5GfYInQ *### Panel at Decrypting Digital Authoritarianism conference* On 29th October 2024, OONI’s Arturo participated in the conference "Decrypting Digital Authoritarianism" at the European University Institute, which focused on examining how internet usage can impact democracy and human rights. Arturo was a speaker in the roundtable discussion "Strategies and counterstrategies of digital authoritarianism in practice," alongside representatives from Freedom House, Deutsche Welle, Meta, Project Liberty – Sciences Po, and the Freedom Online Coalition ( https://x.com/EUI_Schuman/status/1851192966615896490) The session, chaired by Patryk Pawlak, explored various approaches to identifying and countering digital authoritarian practices. Throughout the conference, Arturo engaged in discussions with other participants about documenting and responding to digital authoritarianism globally. *### OONI Run v2 demo for Localization Lab community* On 30th October 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta provided a live demo of using our new OONI Run v2 tool (https://run.ooni.org/) for the Localization Lab community (https://www.localizationlab.org/) The goal of this session was to introduce the Localization Lab’s translator community (who localize OONI tools) to OONI Run v2, address their questions, and collect their feedback. *### OONI Community Meeting* On 29th October 2024, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/) We dedicated this meeting to the discussion of the recently launched OONI Run v2 tool (https://ooni.org/post/2024-launch-ooni-run-v2/) Community members asked many questions, shared feedback and feature requests, as documented in our community meeting pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep *## Measurement coverage* In October 2024, 56,985,335 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,964 networks in 176 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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Anti-censorship team meeting notes, 2025-01-16
by Shelikhoo 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: https://pad.riseup.net/p/r.9574e996bb9c0266213d38b91b56c469 And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Anti-censorship -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday,January 23 16:00 UTC Facilitator: meskio ^^^(See Facilitator Queue at tail) Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) This week's Facilitator: shelikhoo == Goal of this meeting == Weekly check-in about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at the Tor Project and Tor community. == 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 projects, we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Project 158 <-- meskio working on it * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/issues/?label_na… == Announcements == * SQS rendezvous exceeded free tier limit * https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/anti-censorship-team@… * Edgio Azure CDN was supposed to have shut down 8 hours ago, snowflake-broker.azureedge.net is still running for the moment * https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/anti-censorship-team@… * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… == Discussion == * Should we proceed with "Dockerfile: run proxy as non-root user" (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) * Unreliable WebRTC mode really is faster! https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Status of Tor Browser build with Snowflake with covert-dtls? * Thanks for the reminder. == Actions == == Interesting links == == Reading group == * We will discuss "Discovering and Measuring CDNs Prone to Domain Fronting" on January 16th * https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3589334.3645656 * https://github.com/karthikaS03/DomainFrontingDiscovery * 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): 2025-01-016 Last week: - debugged some let's encrypt cert issues on old versions of android - lyrebird#40012 - https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/anti-censorship-team@… - snowflake!483 - helped onyinyang set up a conjure test environment - worked a bit more on expanding the geoip library to use CAIDA AS routeviews data - looked into SQS exceeding free-tier usage limit This week: - finish catching up on reviews - asn mapping geoip feature dcf: 2025-01-16 (since 2024-12-19) Last week: - with shelikhoo, let the new snowflake broker respond to snowflake-broker.bamsoftware.com, as a workaround for the apparently unchangeable origin SNI in the Edgio CDN https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - opened an issue to shut down the snowflake-broker.azureedge.net (Edgio) CDN profile after it stops working https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - azure snowflake CDN bookkeeping https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/Snowflake-co… - responded to a question about ampcache rendezvous https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - opened an issue for snowflake-client SOCKS args clobbering each other when multiple bridge lines are used https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: - open issue to have snowflake-client log whenever KCPInErrors is nonzero https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - parent: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - open issue to disable /debug endpoint on snowflake broker Help with: meskio: 2024-01-16 Last week: - coordinate with debian developers to package snowflake dependencies (snowflake#40410) - add country based metrics to the snowflake proxy (snowflake!482) - look into 8.8.8.8 being distributed as bridge (team#156) Next week: - snowflake debian package Shelikhoo: 2024-01-16 Last Week: - [Pending] snowflake broker update/reinstall(cont.): https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - [Awaiting Review] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) improvements - Merge request reviews - Automate bridgeline update for snowflake(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/connectivity-me… ) Next Week/TODO: - Merge request reviews - [Resume] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) improvements onyinyang: 2025-01-16 Last week(s): - Get conjure up and running (at least locally) - WIP Conjure stuff for Project 173 Next week: - Continue on getting conjure up and running (at least locally) - implement utls for conjure - start implementation of alternative registration methods As time allows: - Continue work on implementing issuer efficiency for check-blockage and trust-promotion protocols - Work on outstanding milestone issues: - key rotation automation Later: pending decision on abandoning lox wasm in favour of some kind of FFI? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43096) - add pref to handle timing for pubkey checks in Tor browser - add trusted invitation logic to tor browser integration: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42974 - improve metrics collection/think about how to show Lox is working/valuable - sketch out Lox blog post/usage notes for forum (long term things were discussed at the meeting!): - brainstorming grouping strategies for Lox buckets (of bridges) and gathering context on how types of bridges are distributed/use in practice Question: What makes a bridge usable for a given user, and how can we encode that to best ensure we're getting the most appropriate resources to people? 1. Are there some obvious grouping strategies that we can already consider? e.g., by PT, by bandwidth (lower bandwidth bridges sacrificed to open-invitation buckets?), by locale (to be matched with a requesting user's geoip or something?) 2. Does it make sense to group 3 bridges/bucket, so trusted users have access to 3 bridges (and untrusted users have access to 1)? More? Less? theodorsm: 2024-01-16 Last weeks: Next weeks: - Fix merge conflicts in MR (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) - Write instructions on how to configure covert-dtls with snowflake client - Condensing thesis into paper (on hold) Help with: - Test stability of covert-dtls in snowflake MR Facilitator Queue: meskio onyinyang shelikhoo 1. First available staff in the Facilitator Queue will be the facilitator for the meeting 2. After facilitating the meeting, the facilitator will be moved to the tail of the queue

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UX Team meeting moved to 1600 UTC on Tuesday 21st
by Duncan R. 15 Jan '25

15 Jan '25

Hi folks, On account of MLK Day, the UX Team meeting scheduled for 1600 UTC on Monday Jan 20th has been moved to the same time on Tuesday 21st instead. See you then, Duncan

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Applications Team Meeting Rescheduled for Tuesday, (2025-01-21)
by Morgan 15 Jan '25

15 Jan '25

Hi Everyone, Next Monday is MLK day, so we'll move our meeting to the following Tuesday. best, -morgan

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Notes from TPA 2025 roadmap review meeting
by Gabriel Filion 13 Jan '25

13 Jan '25

Hello all, The TPA team had a meeting today where we prioritized our goals mostly for Q1 of 2025 and had discussions about how to go around furthering the merger with tails, especially on the Puppet side (e.g. so that both Tor and Tails infrastructures can become managed by only one tool) Here are the notes from the meeting: --- title: 2025 Q1 Roadmap meeting --- # Roll call: who's there and emergencies - anarcat - groente - lavamind - lelutin - zen # Dashboard review Normal per-user check-in: - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&…> - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&…> - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&…> - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&…> - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&…> General dashboards: - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/boards/117> - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/web/-/boards> - <https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/tpa/-/boards> # 2025Q1 Roadmap review Review priorities for January and the first quarter of 2025. Pick from the [2025 roadmap](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/roadmap/2025). Possibilities for Q1: - [Puppet CI and improvements](https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/tpa/-/milestones/8): GitLab MR workflow, etc - Prometheus - MinIO - web stuff: download page coordination and deployment - email stuff: eugeni retirement, puppet cleanup, lists server (endless stream of work?), re-examining open issues to see if we fixed anything - discussions about SVN? - tails merge: - password stores - security policy - rotations - Puppet: start to standardize and merge codebases, update TPA modules, standardize code layout, maybe switch to nftables on both sides? Hoping *not* for Q1: - rdsys containerization (but we need to discuss and confirm the roadmap with meskio) - network team test network (discussions about design maybe?) - upgrading to trixie # Discuss and adopt the long term Tails merge roadmap <https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/policy/tpa-rfc-73-tails-…> In [the last discussion about the tails merge roadmap](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/meeting/2024-11…, we have: > postpone[d] the "what happens when" discussion. We also identified that most services above "low complexity" will require their own discussions (e.g. "how do we manage the Puppet control repo", "how do we merge weblate") that will happen later. So we try to schedule those items across the 5 years. And we can also discuss specific roadmap items to see if we can settle some ideas already. Or we postpone all of this to the 2026 roadmap. Results of the discussion: We won't have time to discuss all of these, so maybe we want to sort based on priority, and pick one or two to go more in depth. Output should be notes to add to tpa-rfc-73 and a reviewed 2025 roadmap, then we can call this done for the time being and come back closer to end of 2025. We will adopt TPA-RFC-73 as a general guide / rough plan and review as we go. Here are all the medium and high complexity items we might want to discuss: ## 2025 See also the milestone: %"TPA-RFC-73: Tails merge (2025)" - [Security Policy](#security-policy) (merge, discussion delegated to anarcat) - [Shifts](#shifts) (merge, brainstorm a plan) - Puppet merge (merge, brainstorm of a plan): - deploy dynamic environments (in progress) - we can't use environments to retire one of the two puppet servers, because of exported resources - Upgrade and converge Puppet modules - lots of default stuff get deployed by TPA when you hook up a server, we could try turning everything off by default, move the defaults to a profile - maybe prioritize things, prioritize A/B/C, example: - A: "noop TPA": Kill switch on both sides, merged ENC, g10k, review exported resources, have one codebase but 2 implementations, LDAP integration vs tails? - B: "priority merge start": one codebase, but different implementations. start merging services piecemeal, e.g. two backup systems, but single monitoring system? - C: lower priority services (e.g. backusp?) - D: etc - Implement commit signing - [EYAML](#eyaml) (2029, keep?) (migrate to trocla?) - A plan for [Authentication](#authentication) (postpone discussion to later in 2025) - [LimeSuvey](#limesurvey) (merge) (just migrate from tails to TPA?) - [Monitoring](#monitoring) (migrate, brainstorm a plan) We mostly talked about Puppet. groente and zen are going to start drafting up a plan for Puppet! ## 2026 - Basic system functionality: - [Backups](#backups) (migrate) (migrate to bacula or test borg on backup-storage-01?) - [Authentication](#authentication) (merge) (to be discussed in 2025) - [DNS](#dns) (migrate) (migrate to PowerDNS?) - [Firewall](#firewall) (migrate) (migrate to nftables) - [TLS](#tls) (migrate, brainstorm a plan) - [Web servers](#web-servers) (merge, no discussion required, part of the Puppet merge) - [Mailman](#mailman) (merge, just migrate to lists-01?) - [XMPP](#xmpp) / [XMPP bot](#xmpp-bot) (migrate, delegate to tails, postponed: does Tails have plans to ditch XMPP?) ## 2027 - [APT repository](#apt-repository) (keep, nothing to discuss?) - [APT snapshots](#apt-snapshots) (keep) - [MTA](#mta) (merge) (brainstorm a plan) - [Mirror pool](#mirror-pool) (migrate, brainstorm) - [GitLab](#gitlab) (merge) - close the tails/sysadmin gitlab project? - brainstorm of a plan for the rest? - [Gitolite](#gitolite) (migrate, retire Tails' Gitolite and puppetize TPA's?) ## 2028 - [Weblate](#weblate) (news from emmapeel?) ## 2029 - [Jenkins](#jenkins) (migrate, brainstorm a plan or date?) - [VPN](#vpn) # Metrics of the month - hosts in Puppet: 91, LDAP: 90, Prometheus exporters: 512 - number of Apache servers monitored: 33, hits per second: 618 - number of self-hosted nameservers: 6, mail servers: 11 - pending upgrades: 5, reboots: 90 - average load: 0.56, memory available: 3.11 TiB/4.99 TiB, running processes: 169 - disk free/total: 60.95 TiB/142.02 TiB - bytes sent: 434.13 MB/s, received: 282.53 MB/s - planned bookworm upgrades completion date: was completed in 2024-12! - [GitLab tickets][]: 257 tickets including... - open: 0 - icebox: 160 - roadmap::future: 48 - needs information: 2 - backlog: 21 - next: 6 - doing: 12 - needs review: 8 - (closed: 3867) [Gitlab tickets]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/boards Upgrade prediction graph lives at <https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/howto/upgrades/bookworm/> Now also available as the main Grafana dashboard. Head to <https://grafana.torproject.org/>, change the time period to 30 days, and wait a while for results to render.

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Anti-censorship team meeting notes, 2025-01-09
by onyinyang 09 Jan '25

09 Jan '25

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2025/tor-meeting.2025-01-09-16.00.html And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Anti-censorship -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday,January 16 16:00 UTC Facilitator: shelikhoo ^^^(See Facilitator Queue at tail) Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) This week's Facilitator: onyinyang == Goal of this meeting == Weekly check-in about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at the Tor Project and Tor community. == 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 projects, we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Project 158 <-- meskio working on it * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/issues/?label_na… == Announcements == * == Discussion == Last meeting 2024: * covert-dtls in snowflake client and standalone proxy -- is there a plan for volunteer testing before merging? * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * the recent partial blocking in Russia has ended, so asking for user testing there won't reveal whether the changed fingerprint makes a difference * but it still could be valuable to have users run with the patch as a kind of integration and interoperability test * need to test both standalone proxy and client * meskio can try running the patch on a standalone proxy * (but there's no way to get per-country statistics) * implemented per-country stadistics, will submit a MR * did test it and it looks good * covert-dtls should be tested in both modes: randomize and mimic * theodorsm will produce instructions on how to compile and test the client with the help of cohosh * cohosh is working on it * and nina will translate to post it in ntc.party (2025) * Supporting WebTunnel Early Data * we can speed up webtunnel bootstrap by sending data over the handshake * this will make the code a bit more complex * is already implemented in V2Ray and easy to port * lets keep it as an idea to see if this is really needed == Actions == == Interesting links == * https://forum.torproject.org/t/snowflake-daily-operations-december-2024-upd… * Technical Analysis of the IRGFW (IRanian Great FireWall) * https://irgfw.report/projects/project1/ * https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/441 == Reading group == * We will discuss "Discovering and Measuring CDNs Prone to Domain Fronting" on January 16th * https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3589334.3645656 * 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): 2025-01-09 Last week: - gitlab reviews and todos - wrote a fix to get snowflake working on firefox with strict privacy settings - snowflake-webext#107, snowflake-webext!86 - started writing a feature for geoip library that uses CAIDA asn data - snowflake#40421 This week: - finish catching up on reviews - asn mapping geoip feature dcf: 2024-12-19 Last week: - worked on making the Edgio CDN snowflake-broker.azureedge.net point to the new broker, but ran into problems with TLS certificate verification https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/anti-censorship-team@… - opened an issue for an error in the Snowflake Broker Survival Guide: the documented way to read the broker logs doesn't work https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - opened an issue to clean up the way multiple server names are handled on the snowflake broker https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - archived snowflake-webextension 0.9.0 and 0.9.2 https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/anti-censorship-team@… https://archive.org/details/snowflake-webextension-0.9.0 https://archive.org/details/snowflake-webextension-0.9.2 - answered questions from a student interested in experimenting with media streams in snowflake Next week: - open issue to have snowflake-client log whenever KCPInErrors is nonzero https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - parent: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - open issue to disable /debug endpoint on snowflake broker Help with: meskio: 2024-01-09 Last week: - lyrebird dual-stack (IPv4/6) support in non-linux (lyrebird#40023) - test covert-tls snowflake proxies (snowflake!448) - improve circumvention settings doc (rdsys!446) - catch up with messages, specially responding in the forum to questions Next week: - snowflake debian package Shelikhoo: 2024-01-09 Last Week: - [Pending] snowflake broker update/reinstall(cont.): https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - [Awaiting Review] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) improvements - Merge request reviews - Automate bridgeline update for snowflake(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/connectivity-me… ) - haproxy webtunnel fail claiming Tor browsers headers are malforned (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/154#note_31…) - Remove Snowflake broker configuration for "snowflake-broker-debianupgradestaging-j33r3zahe.torproject.net" (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) Next Week/TODO: - Merge request reviews - [Resume] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) improvements onyinyang: 2025-01-09 Last week(s): - Break - WIP on Automated key rotations - WIP Conjure stuff for Project 173 Next week: - Get conjure up and running (at least locally) - implement utls for conjure - start implementation of alternative registration methods As time allows: - Continue work on implementing issuer efficiency for check-blockage and trust-promotion protocols - Work on outstanding milestone issues: - key rotation automation Later: pending decision on abandoning lox wasm in favour of some kind of FFI? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43096) - add pref to handle timing for pubkey checks in Tor browser - add trusted invitation logic to tor browser integration: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42974 - improve metrics collection/think about how to show Lox is working/valuable - sketch out Lox blog post/usage notes for forum (long term things were discussed at the meeting!): - brainstorming grouping strategies for Lox buckets (of bridges) and gathering context on how types of bridges are distributed/use in practice Question: What makes a bridge usable for a given user, and how can we encode that to best ensure we're getting the most appropriate resources to people? 1. Are there some obvious grouping strategies that we can already consider? e.g., by PT, by bandwidth (lower bandwidth bridges sacrificed to open-invitation buckets?), by locale (to be matched with a requesting user's geoip or something?) 2. Does it make sense to group 3 bridges/bucket, so trusted users have access to 3 bridges (and untrusted users have access to 1)? More? Less? theodorsm: 2024-01-09 Last weeks: - Offline Next weeks: - Fix merge conflicts in MR (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) - Write instructions on how to configure covert-dtls with snowflake client - Condensing thesis into paper (on hold) Help with: - Test stability of covert-dtls in snowflake MR Facilitator Queue: meskio onyinyang shelikhoo 1. First available staff in the Facilitator Queue will be the facilitator for the meeting 2. After facilitating the meeting, the facilitator will be moved to the tail of the queue -- --- onyinyang GPG Fingerprint 3CC3 F8CC E9D0 A92F A108 38EF 156A 6435 430C 2036

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cohosh's monthly status report, December 2024
by Cecylia Bocovich 07 Jan '25

07 Jan '25

Hi! This is my status report for contract work done in December 2024. # Snowflake Last month I updated our builtin and suggested Snowflake bridge lines to remove old, nonfunctional STUN servers and add new ones that would ideally present significant trade-offs for censors that would try to block them. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys-admin/-/merge_reque… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/merge_re… To help us get into a habit of doing this more often, I wrote an update script that can be run as a part of the newly documented Snowflake Release Process. https://gitlab.torproject.org/cohosh/stun-torrc-check https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… My main focus of work on Snowflake at the moment is to improve the metrics we collect at the Snowflake broker for the purpose of detecting and learning about issues or circumvention events. To this end I did some planning and opened several issues for specific improvements that I will work on this month. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Then there were the usual reviews and project maintenance tasks. # meek In anticipation of the Azure edge shutdown this month, we've now migrated all of our domain fronted services off of Microsoft Azure. We updated our builtin bridge line to use CDN77 https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/155 https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/merge_re…

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intrigeri's report, December 2024
by intrigeri 06 Jan '25

06 Jan '25

Hi, I was on vacation during the last 1.5 week of the year, hence this slim report. User-visible ============ I reviewed and supported the work of my team-mates on a number of high priority user-visible improvements. User-invisible ============== Apart of the usual amount of KTLO work: - Migrated our Upgrader's signature verification from GnuPG to Sequoia SOP - Fixed a few security vulnerabilities identified by an ongoing security audit. Team lead ========= I've kicked off the second year of our ongoing grant (Project 165). I've kept working, together with a number of other Tor folks from my team and other teams, on a large grant proposal. This was the opportunity for me to discover the workflows and tooling used by Tor in this area, and gain some familiarity with it. We've booked time in January, with our team & sajolida, to work on our priorities for 2025. We also booked time to do a team retrospective. Accounting ========== We've kept making slow but steady progress on transitioning away from the former Tails fiscal sponsorship arrangements into Tails' new nest, the Tor project. Cheers, -- intrigeri

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Nina’s Monthly Status Report, December, 2024
by Nina 06 Jan '25

06 Jan '25

Hi! Below is my December’24 report! In December, I resolved 1679 (↑110) tickets: * On Telegram (@TorProjectSupportBot) - 1459 (↑108); * On RT (frontdesk@tpo) - 219 (↑4); * On WhatsApp (+447421000612) - 1 (↓2); * and on Signal (+17787431312) - 0 (0). My main focus in December (and always)wasto provide support for Russian-speaking users in bypassing censorship. I help users to resolve any issues they are facing with Tor Browser and collect their feedback on what worked for them and what didn't. I also took part in Tor Forum moderation, took part in Relay OperatorsMeetup, and worked reviewing Google Play Store users reviews. Last months were especially challenging with number of tickets drastically growing sinceAugust'24. In December,whenRoskomnadzorblocked Viber messaging app [1] and finalised the YouTube blocking [2],the number ofuser supporttickets continued its growth. * July2024: 587 tickets * August2024: 928 tickets * September2024: 994 tickets * October2024: 1104 tickets * November2024: 1569 tickets * December2024: 1679 tickets <- this report I created a template for to help mobile users in using WebTunnel bridges as in some mobile ISPs obfs4 protocol seems to be blocked[3]. *##**Google Play Reviews for Tor Browser**(TBA)**and Tor Browser Alpha**for Android* - Tor Browser for Android had a Google Play rating of 4.382 (↓) stars in December 2024, which is lower than in November. - Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 757 (↑85) reviews out of 59,828 for the lifetime. - Tor Browser for Android Alpha (TBA-Alpha) app had a rating of 4.228 (↓) which is lower than in November. - In December, Tor Browser for Android (TBA-Alpha) got 37 (↓1) reviews out of 8,424 for the lifetime. Most common issues on the Google Play store reviews remain the same: * "Tor Browser doesn’t work": - often from Russian users, who are struggling to find a way to connect to tor; * "Tor speed is too slow": This issue is currently under investigation. [1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/russian-watchdog-blocks-viber-messaging-… [2] https://www.rferl.org/a/youtube-practically-blocked-in-russia-expert-says/3… [3] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/iss…

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ebanam's monthly status report and user support report for December 2024
by ebanam 06 Jan '25

06 Jan '25

Hello everyone, Much of my work last month focussed on helping users in regions where Tor is censored, which includes helping users with instructions to download Tor Browser binaries from GetTor and/or official mirrors, verifying Tor Browser's GPG signature, help with using censorship circumvention methods that works best for them and overall troubleshooting. With the year-end campaign into it's final month, I worked on some related support tickets, answering questions about Tor Browser. Topics included downloading, installing, using the browser, it's various privacy enhancing features and other questions about the Tor network. I also worked on some documentation updating some of the articles and templates that we use on our various user support channels. Here's a more detailed breakdown of the tickets our user support team worked on last month: # Frontdesk (email user support channel) * 658(↓) RT tickets created * 513(↓) RT tickets resolved Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 219(↓) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 173(↓) RT tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 3. 13(↑) RT tickets: WebTunnel bridges campaign.[0] 4. 13(↑) RT tickets: help with installing Tor Browser for Desktop. 5. 9(↑) RT tickets: questions about how Tor works - is my IP visible when using Tor? what application level protections I get when using Tor Browser? etc. 6. 6(↑) RT tickets: reports of websites blocking Tor connections. 7. 5(↑) RT tickets: reports of a fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser. 8. 5(↓) RT tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 9. 4 RT tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them. 10. 3(-) RT tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems. 11. 2(↑) RT tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.[1] 12. 1 RT ticket: help with instructions to verify Tor Browser signature with GPG. 13. 1 RT ticket: help with setting up a Snowflake proxy. 14. 1 RT ticket: non-onionsite gives interstitial "Onionsite Has Disconnected" page.[2] # Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel * 1632(↑) tickets resolved Breakdown: * 1609(↑) tickets on Telegram * 22(↑) tickets on WhatsApp * 1(↑) ticket on Signal Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 1256(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 18(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 3. 15(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 4. 14(↓) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods. 5. 13(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows, macOS and Linux. 6. 6(↓) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails. 7. 4(↓) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 8. 2(-) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices. 9. 2(↓) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems. 10. 2 tickets: question about the differences in various security levels in the Tor Browser. 11. 1(-) ticket: help with setting up Snowflake proxy. 12. 1(↓) ticket: help with using bridges and snowflake with little-t-tor. # Highlights from the Tor Forum 1. How to use WebTunnel bridges with Tor Expert Bundle on Windows.[3] 2. Snowflake embed doesn't work on Firefox.[4] 3. Discussion on configuring all apps on Windows 10 to use Tor.[5] Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been the same from the previous month respectively. Thanks everyone! e. [0]: https://blog.torproject.org/call-for-webtunnel-bridges/ [1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42714 [2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40434 [3]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/where-can-you-download-webtunnel-exe-for-win… [4]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/snowflake-addon-in-firefox-has-stopped-worki… [5]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-for-all-the-apps-in-a-windows-10-desktop…

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