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Browser meeting is happening on Tuesday instead of Monday
by Gaba 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

Hi! For next week only we are moving the Browser meeting from Monday to Tuesday the 8th of September at 18:00 UTC on #tor-meeting on OFTC. Pad: http://kfahv6wfkbezjyg4r6mlhpmieydbebr5vkok5r34ya464gqz6c44bnyd.onion/p/tor… cheers, gaba -- she/her are my pronouns GPG Fingerprint EE3F DF5C AD91 643C 21BE 8370 180D B06C 59CA BD19

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Network Team Meeting on Monday is moved to Tuesday
by Alexander Færøy 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

Hello, Because of Labor Day in the US, we move the Network Team meeting from Monday to Tuesday the 8th of September at 17:00 UTC on #tor-meeting on OFTC. All the best, Alex. -- Alexander Færøy

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 03 Sep 2020
by Philipp Winter 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

Hi all, Here are our meeting minutes: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-09-03-15.59.html And here is our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday September 3rd 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&… * Anti-censorship related tickets that we want other teams to fix: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-tickets-keep <-- it will be moved into gitlab with TPO labels * Public bug-reporting pad: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep == Announcements == * Please add your August 2020 work highlights to our monthly report: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/uO519p_UMtZiRFQrAXUz == Discussion == * == Actions == * == Interesting links == * https://www.oilandfish.com/posts/tor-cloak.html * How to set up a Tor bridge behind Cloak == Reading group == * We will discuss "HTTPT: A Probe-Resistant Proxy" on Sep 10 * https://censorbib.nymity.ch/pdf/Frolov2020b.pdf * 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. phw: This week (2020-09-03): * More progress on our BridgeDB rewrite, now called rdsys. * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys * Removed default bridge frosty. * Some wiki maintenance. * Created new survival guide for Check and moved other survival guides from trac to GitLab. Next week: * Help with: * cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2020-08-27 Last week: - deployed snowflake#40008 - started snowflake measurements in china to track performance and censorship attempts (snowflake#32657) - continuous monitoring of NAT situation - prep for being away next month - meeting with tunnel bear This week: - Away Needs help with: - still need a review of fix for snowflake#21314 (snowflake!9) juggy : This week: - Got very basic "suggested readings" list up and running here : https://jugheadjones10.github.io/anti-censorship-reading/ Next week: - Keep studying BridgeDB to write architectural overview Help with: - Open issues here (https://github.com/jugheadjones10/anti-censorship-reading ) for papers/resources/readings that you think might be useful for newcomers arlolra: 2020-06-11 Last week: - Next week: - follow ups to #33365 - start on #31201 Help with: - dcf: 2020-09-03 Last week: - set up the new metrics timeline repo https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/metrics-team/2020-August/001162.html - more Azure bookkeeping - had a look at cohosh's snowflake multiplexing branch https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - filed ticket to update translations on snowflake.torproject.org https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: Help with: Antonela: 2020-08-27 This week: - Wrapping Babatunde's research on the use of circumvention tools during internet censorship in Africa. Wrapping Personas for s30 with it. For september: - We are planning interviews with users in China to run our bridges discovery issues script in real time. We discussed to include TBA + snowflake as a task for users to run over a week or two and report back. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/issues/4 - I still have bridges.tpo to lektor issue open - More work on UX/UI for TB 10.0/10.5 - Review Salmon related tickets (im late with it!) agix:2020-09-03 Last week: -Nothing to add for last week Next week: -Finish #34318 -Look into #31873 Help with: - hanneloresx: 2020-09-03 Last week: Next week: - Start on #33727 - Continue investigating and respond to comments on #32117 Help with: - thymbahutymba: 2020-04-02 Last week: - CI/CD pipeline for multiarch docker images, which has a problem with the apt tor version even though the apt repository have been changed into the Dockerfile. Next week: Help with: HashikD: 2020-08-27 This week: - GSoC blog Next week: - Away on exams Help with: -

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OONI Monthly Report: August 2020
by Maria Xynou 02 Sep '20

02 Sep '20

Hi, Throughout August 2020, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 19 - Bottleno se (3rd August 2020 - 16th August 2020) * Sprint 20 - Willy (17th August 2020 - 30th August 2020) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. ## OONI Probe mobile app On OONI Probe Mobile, we worked on: * Automating the process of taking screenshots and uploading them to the store (on Android): https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/903 * Creating an app modal for requesting notification permissions: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1210 * Releasing an apk and testflight with countly and the oonitest:// link * Adding a privacy icon in the apps * Testing the Go version of the Web Connectivity experiment on Android and iOS: https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/pull/353 & https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/pull/384 ## Making the OONI Probe apps rely entirely on the golang engine In August 2020, we completed the process of making the OONI Probe desktop app rely entirely on our Go-based engine! Previously, the OONI Probe apps were powered by the Measurement Kit engine, which is written in C++. To improve the sustainability of our software ecosystem and enable code-sharing across projects, we have been working on making the OONI Probe apps rely entirely on our new golang engine (https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine) over the last year. We now released a beta version of OONI Probe CLI that does not depend on Measurement Kit: https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/releases/tag/v3.0.7-beta.1 As part of this work, we: * Finished rewriting the OONI Web Connectivity experiment in Go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/810 & https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/852 * Documented what is needed for completing the process of making the OONI Probe mobile app rely entirely on the golang engine (and replacing Measurement Kit entirely): https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/893 The master branch of the OONI Probe Command Line Interface (CLI) is now free of the C++ Measurement Kit engine, and solely relies on our golang probe-engine. This means that OONI Probe is easier to compile for users (Go is fast to compile and much easier than C++ to cross-compile) and for us (Go code is easier to maintain, which means more time could be spent doing research). Community members have also informed us that it is now much easier to compile OONI Probe on Raspberry Pis. ## Expanding OONI Probe measurement methodologies As part of our ongoing efforts to improve upon and expand our measurement methodologies, we created a design document for measuring DoT/DoH resolvers: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/862 This design expands upon the methodology we previously used for measuring DoT blocking in Iran (https://ooni.org/post/2020-iran-dot). The objective is to add an implementation of this design (written in Go) to the OONI engine, in order to simplify the process of running DoT/DoH experiments for advanced users. This work is done in collaboration with researchers at India’s Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). ## Migrating OONI infrastructure to Amsterdam As a result of OTF funding being frozen, Greenhost is shutting down its eclips.is servers in Hong Kong by the end of September 2020. However, we still have critical OONI infrastructure that lives on those machines: the batch OONI data processing pipeline and our master postgreSQL database. We have therefore been working on migrating this infrastructure from Hong Kong to Greenhost’s servers in Amsterdam (https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/594). This involved: * Setting up an AMS-PG host and updating the ansible scripts (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/400) * Rerunning the fastpath to recreate the entire dataset * Creating a copy of autoclaved tables * Testing options to implement new canning ## Refactoring the OONI API codebase We are working towards ensuring that the OONI API only uses the tables generated by the fastpath pipeline (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/437). This is part of our broader work towards dropping the batch pipeline and only using the fastpath pipeline (which processes and publishes measurements from around the world in real-time). We have therefore been working on refactoring the OONI API codebase so that it can use the new tables of the OONI fast-path pipeline, instead of the old tables of the batch pipeline. This work involved: * Consolidating Probe Services: Moving a handful of HTTP services into the consolidate API to significantly reduce complexity and simplify deployment and testing. * Removing dependencies from the batch pipeline: Updating the API to move away from tables generated by the legacy pipeline (e.g. “measurement”, “ooexpl_*” tables). As part of this we are going to significantly decrease the number of database tables used and improve access speed. * Supporting CI deployment, relying on stable libraries from Debian Buster: Deploying the database, fastpath and API should become easy enough that it can be done automatically as part of the CI (testing) process. The consolidated API will allow the addition of authentication features to support user accounts. Our ongoing work on refactoring the OONI API codebase is documented through the following issue: https://github.com/ooni/api/pull/192 ## Machine learning experiment for the classification of measurements Attempts at manually handling fingerprints and investigating measurements are going to become less effective as the volume and diversity of measurements increase. We also want to improve how OONI measurements are classified, in order to improve our data analysis heuristics for automatically detecting cases of blocking. We have therefore been working on a simple machine learning experiment with CatBoost, which is documented here: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/435 This experiment included training the machine learning algorithm using the “anomaly/confirmed/failure” flags and then classify and review, and flag low-confidence measurements. At this early stage, the machine learning prototype was able to spot measurements that were affected by bugs already known to us. In the longer term, the machine learning algorithm could assist as in: * Identifying unseen correlations and patterns between input data and blocking patterns that will help us improve our data processing pipeline; * Flagging low-confidence measurements and reducing the ratio of false positives and negatives. ## Testing and quality assurance As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of OONI software and services, we: * Created a plan for tracking and documenting data quality issues: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/808 * Categorized bugs that potentially lead to data quality issues: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/892 * Carried out more testing and bug fixes: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/655 ## Replacing the MaxMind ASN database Since late 2019, when MaxMind announced that its databases were no longer available using an open source license, we have been working to implement a replacement. We could find a free country database provided by https://db-ip.com/ but we could not find a free database providing the mapping between IP addresses and autonomous system numbers (i.e. numbers uniquely identifying networks managed by ISPs). We therefore started implementing our own database as documented in the following issue: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/269 As part of this work, during August 2020 in particular, we generated an ASN measurement database from CI: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/438 & https://github.com/ooni/asn-db-generator/pull/1 In particular, we configured the CI to run at least every week. This means that we will be able to pull a fresh, automatically generated database every time we need to prepare a new release -- without human effort (and without the risk of human-introduced errors). ## Collaboration with Netalitica As part of our collaboration with Netalitica, we further reviewed their test list updates and opened pull requests for the following test lists: * Indonesia: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/663 * Iraq: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/664 * Thailand: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/665 ## Belarus test list update Thanks to URLs shared by community members, we updated the Belarusian test list to include recently blocked websites: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/666 As part of this update, we categorized each of the newly added URLs. ## Recorded OONI webinar OONI’s Maria recorded a 40-minute webinar which explains how human rights defenders can use OONI Probe and OONI data to investigate the blocking of websites and apps around the world. Several assignments were also prepared for this webinar. This webinar will eventually get published as part of a longer training program for human rights defenders. ## Google Summer of Code (GSoC) student Throughout the summer of 2020, we had the opportunity to host a great Google Summer of Code (GSoC) student from Pakistan, whose internship ended on 31st August 2020. Krona Emmanuel started his GSoC internship with OONI in May 2020 and it involved making improvements that are related to social media sharing on OONI Explorer. A general overview of this project is available here: https://community.torproject.org/gsoc/ooni-explorer-findings/ Further details on the project goals, what has been accomplished throughout the GSoC internship, and next steps are documented here: https://gist.github.com/kronaemmanuel/ae1ebafa039a3361fb422462109ae035 More specifically, Krona: * Improved the meta tags for country pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/430 * Improved the meta tags for measurement pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/478 * Created a meta tag og:image for measurement and country pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/480 * Created sharing buttons for both the measurement and country pages: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/476 * Implemented tests for the measurement page og:description tag: https://github.com/ooni/explorer/pull/478/commits/de3127ddcdd43d740b53bad15… We are very pleased with and grateful for the great work Krona accomplished throughout his GSoC internship with OONI! ## Community activities ### OONI Community Meeting On 25th August 2020, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/), during which we discussed the following topics: 1. Adding RiseupVPN to circumvention tool testing suite 2. Measuring an internet blackout: Proxy support for speaking to backend services ### Tor PrivChat panel On 28th August 2020, OONI’s Arturo was invited to participate in the Tor Project’s PrivChat panel on “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Censorship Circumvention”. Information about this panel is available here: https://www.torproject.org/privchat/ As part of his participation, Arturo discussed OONI for censorship measurement and the challenges around censorship circumvention. This PrivChat panel discussion can be viewed on the Tor Project’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOChyMCZH4 ## Userbase In August 2020, 7,344,940 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 5,573 networks in 205 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/ ~ The OONI team. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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User Experience Team monthly meeting notes, September 1st
by Antonela D 01 Sep '20

01 Sep '20

Hello! Today's meeting features Babatunde Okunoye, our 2020 OTF ICFP, who has been researching the use of circumvention tools during African countries' information controls. Thanks for joining us today, Tunde! Open IRC meetings happen monthly every first Tuesday of the month 1400 UTC in #tor-meeting on OFTC. Next meeting is on* Tuesday, October 6th 1400 UTC in #tor-meeting on OFTC.* Here are the minutes for the meeting of September 1st: Log: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-09-01-13.59.log… Here are the minutes for the meeting of August 4th: Log: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-08-04-13.58.log… Here are the minutes for the meeting of July 2nd: Log: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-07-07-13.59.log… Pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/1D8sK8Zy74b_0qclC97I-ux-team-monthly-2020-keep -------------------------- *Tuesday **September* *1s**t 14:00 UTC* -------------------------- == What projects are we working on? == S9 - Usability and Community Intervention on Support for Democracy and Human Rights - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%209&label_name[]=UX S30 - Empowering Communities in the Global South to Bypass Censorship - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%2030&label_name[]=UX S58 - Tor Browser Security, Performance, & Usability Improvements - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%2058&label_name[]=UX S84 - Onion Guides - https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… []=Sponsor%2084 == Announcements == * Tor Browser 9.5.4 Release - https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-954 - https://torproject.org/download/ * OONI Probe 2.5 Release - Desktop > https://ooni.org/install/desktop - Mobile > https://ooni.org/install/mobile == Agenda == - Tor Metrics user research - metrics.torproject.org - https://tools.simplysecure.org/survey/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=39865&la… - Tor Demos when September ends - https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-monthly-hall-demos-august-september-2020-keep - ICFP final report: "Understanding the use of tools during Internet censorship in Africa: Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe as case studies" with Tunde - Open floor == Open Calls == For Design & User Research == *Usage of Tor Bridges* We'll be interviewing users to collect feedback about Tor Bridges Usage. If you are interested in participating with your community as an interviewee or researcher, please ping me directly: antonela(a)torproject.org. My keys https://www.torproject.org/static/keys/antonela.txt Thanks, A -- Antonela Debiasi UX Team Lead torproject.org @antonela E2330A6D1EB5A0C8

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User experience team monthly meeting on September 1st
by Antonela Debiasi 28 Aug '20

28 Aug '20

Hi! We will be having the User Experience team meeting on September 1st in #tor-meeting on OFTC.[*] I'll share the key highlights around Babatunde's ICFP report: "Understanding the use of tools during Internet censorship in Africa: Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe as case studies." Also, we will have some space for an open floor so feel free to list yourself in the pad. https://pad.riseup.net/p/1D8sK8Zy74b_0qclC97I-ux-team-monthly-2020-keep Remember, the User Experience team meetings are willing to cultivate an open space for discussions around ethical user research, user interface design, and user experience, meanwhile building privacy-enhancing products. I hope to see you around! Peace and love, A [*] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/team/-/wikis/home -- Antonela Debiasi UX Team Lead torproject.org @antonela E2330A6D1EB5A0C8

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You're invited: Tor's PrivChat | Friday 8/28 @ 17:00 UTC
by Al Smith 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

Hello Tor, The Tor Project's second edition of PrivChat (https://torproject.org/privchat) is taking place next Friday, August 28, and you're invited. PrivChat is a fundraising event series held to raise donations for the Tor Project. Through PrivChat, we bring you important information related to what is happening in tech, human rights, and internet freedom by convening experts for a chat with our community. *What: *PrivChat | The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Censorship Circumvention *When: *August 28 @ 1:00pm Eastern, 10:00am Pacific, 17:00 UTC *Where:* The Tor Project's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOChyMCZH4)   *// The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Censorship Circumvention //* Every year, internet censorship increases globally. From network level blocking to nation-wide internet blackouts, governments and private companies have powerful tools to restrict information and stop connection between people. Many people, groups, and organizations are doing innovative work to study, measure, and fight back against internet censorship--and they are helping millions of people connect more regularly and safely to the internet. Despite these successes, we're faced with well-funded adversaries that have billions of dollars to spend on censorship mechanisms, and the arms race is ongoing. The second edition of PrivChat with Tor will be about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly that is happening in the front lines of censorship circumvention. In a world where censorship technology is increasingly sophisticated and bought and sold between nations, so is our creativity to measure it and build tools to bypass it, as well as the willingness of people to fight back. But is it enough? What are the barriers facing the people and organizations fighting for internet freedom? *// Host //* Cory Doctorow Electronic Frontier Foundation, MIT *// **Participants**//* Felicia Anthonio Campaigner, #KeepItOn Lead at Access Now Vrinda Bhandari Of Counsel - Litigation, Internet Freedom Foundation Cecylia Bocovich Developer, The Tor Project Arturo Filastò Project Lead & Engineer, OONI *PrivChat is free to attend.* If you get value out of these events and you like Tor, please consider becoming a monthly donor. Reliable, predictable support is the best way to ensure Tor remains strong and stable. Our goal with PrivChat is to build a two-way support system. You will get access to information from leading minds thinking about and working on privacy, technology, and human rights. And the Tor Project will be more agile in our development as a result of your support, allowing us to respond more rapidly to increasing surveillance and censorship threats (and host more PrivChats)! Cheers, Al -- Al Smith (they/them) Fundraising • Communications The Tor Project

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 27 Aug 2020
by Philipp Winter 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

Hi all, Here are our meeting minutes: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2020/tor-meeting.2020-08-27-16.00.html And here is our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday August 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&… * Anti-censorship related tickets that we want other teams to fix: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-tickets-keep <-- it will be moved into gitlab with TPO labels * Public bug-reporting pad: * https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep == Announcements == * Snowflake CDN cost was $0.01 in July, same as in June. Started a table of costs. * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/Snowflake-co… == Discussion == * The deadline for the next stable version of Tor Browser is early September * Babatunde's research - Peer Reviews? * There's a report in the anonymous bug report pad, a failure to bootstrap Snowflake on Android https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-anti-censorship-bugs-keep == Actions == * == Interesting links == * https://www.torproject.org/privchat/ 2020-08-28 17:00 UTC "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Censorship Circumvention" == Reading group == * We will discuss "Turbo Tunnel" on Aug 20 Aug 27 * PDF: https://www.bamsoftware.com/papers/turbotunnel/turbotunnel.pdf * Web version: https://www.bamsoftware.com/papers/turbotunnel/ * 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. phw: This week (2020-08-27): * Experimented with a streaming interface between our new BridgeDB and its distributors. * Attended a meeting with TunnelBear. * Onionperf & exitmap work. * Wrapped up blog post on challenges, priorities, and progress in our work. Next week: * Help with: * cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2020-08-27 Last week: - deployed snowflake#40008 - started snowflake measurements in china to track performance and censorship attempts (snowflake#32657) - continuous monitoring of NAT situation - prep for being away next month - meeting with tunnel bear This week: - Away Needs help with: - still need a review of fix for snowflake#21314 (snowflake!9) juggy : This week: - Got very basic "suggested readings" list up and running here : https://jugheadjones10.github.io/anti-censorship-reading/ Next week: - Keep studying BridgeDB to write architectural overview Help with: - Open issues here (https://github.com/jugheadjones10/anti-censorship-reading ) for papers/resources/readings that you think might be useful for newcomers arlolra: 2020-06-11 Last week: - Next week: - follow ups to #33365 - start on #31201 Help with: - dcf: 2020-08-27 Last week: - started a discussion on where to move the metrics timeline https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/metrics-team/2020-August/001155.html - did Azure CDN bookkeeping - tried again to figure out sharing access for #30510 - made a patch to add licenses of kcp-go and smux https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/issues/4… - archived snowflake-webextension-0.4.1 Next week: - review snowflake client inactivity https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - populate the new metrics timeline repo https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/metrics/timeline Help with: Antonela: 2020-08-27 This week: - Wrapping Babatunde's research on the use of circumvention tools during internet censorship in Africa. Wrapping Personas for s30 with it. For september: - We are planning interviews with users in China to run our bridges discovery issues script in real time. We discussed to include TBA + snowflake as a task for users to run over a week or two and report back. https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/issues/4 - I still have bridges.tpo to lektor issue open - More work on UX/UI for TB 10.0/10.5 - Review Salmon related tickets (im late with it!) agix:2020-08-27 Last week: -Nothing to add for last week Next week: - Help with: - hanneloresx: 2020-08-27 Last week: Reviewed and translated blog post on challenges, priorities, and progress in Tor anti-censorship Next week: - Start on #33727 - Continue investigating and respond to comments on #32117 Help with: - thymbahutymba: 2020-04-02 Last week: - CI/CD pipeline for multiarch docker images, which has a problem with the apt tor version even though the apt repository have been changed into the Dockerfile. Next week: Help with: HashikD: 2020-08-27 This week: - GSoC blog Next week: - Away on exams Help with: -

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OONI Monthly Report: July 2020
by Maria Xynou 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

Hello, Throughout July 2020, the OONI team worked on the following sprints: * Sprint 16 - Neon (1st July 2020 - 5th July 2020) * Sprint 17 - Θέτις (6th July 2020 - 19th July 2020) * Sprint 18 - Colomber (20th July 2020 - 31st July 2020) Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories: https://github.com/ooni Highlights are shared in this report below. ## OONI Probe mobile app In July 2020 we released: * OONI Probe Mobile 2.5.1 on Android (https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v2.5.1) and iOS (https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v2.5.1) * OONI Probe Mobile 2.5.2 on Android (https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v2.5.2) and iOS (https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v2.5.2) The OONI Probe Mobile 2.5.1 release automatically deletes uploaded measurements (creating more local storage space) and enables users to stop a test while it’s running. The OONI Probe Mobile 2.5.2 release ships the WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and middlebox tests rewritten in golang. ## Adding support for configuring push notifications As part of our ongoing efforts to add support for configuring push notifications, we: * Implemented countly on iOS: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1209 * Implemented countly on Android: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1208 ## OONI Probe desktop app Throughout July 2020, we continued to make progress on improving the OONI Probe desktop app, as documented through the following pull requests: https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/164 https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/163 https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/162 https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/161 https://github.com/ooni/probe-desktop/pull/159 We also created mockups for new settings to be included in the OONI Probe desktop app. See: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1225 ## Making the OONI Probe apps rely entirely on the golang engine We now have all OONI Probe tests written in golang! As part of our work on making the OONI Probe apps rely entirely on the golang engine, we: * Rewrote the OONI WhatsApp experiment in Go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/55 * Rewrote the OONI Facebook Messenger experiment in Go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/736 * Removed the “All endpoints” option in the WhatsApp test: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1226 * Discussed how to improve the web interface of WhatsApp measurements: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/740 * Rewrote the OONI HTTP Invalid Request Line experiment in Go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/761 * Rewrote the OONI HTTP Header Field Manipulation experiment in Go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/763 * Rewrote the OONI Web Connectivity experiment in Go: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/776 * Rewrote our SNI blocking experiment using urlgetter: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/684 * Updated to the latest version of probe-cli/probe-engine: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1178 As mentioned previously, we shipped WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and middlebox tests rewritten in golang as part of the OONI Probe Mobile 2.5.2 release. ## Expanding OONI Probe measurement methodologies As part of our ongoing efforts to improve and expand upon our measurement methodologies, we enabled the measurement of private Tor bridges and wrote an integration test, as documented through the following tickets: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/721 and https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/629. We also worked on investigating and remediating TLS false positives: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/769 ## URL prioritization We wrote an analysis script to add coverage metrics for URL prioritization (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/425). This is implemented in the following pull request: https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/319 This script will be used to monitor test list improvements (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/418). ## Data analysis and pipeline work necessary for extracting per site metrics We made progress on implementing API endpoints for returning top-level measurement metadata: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/341 ## Improving our server infrastructure Throughout July 2020, we made important progress on improving the monitoring of our infrastructure. We created an analysis tool (“analysis runbook”) that runs a number of threads to monitor the slow query summary and more. We also built a grafana dashboard to receive alerts based on the monitoring of our infrastructure. See: https://github.com/ooni/backend/wiki/Runbooks:Analysis We also worked on setting up a new database host in Amsterdam: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/400 ## Testing and quality assurance We implemented our own ASN database on the backend. This involved investigations around data quality, automated generation and testing, and deploying the ASN database in the pipeline and using it when processing measurements. This work is tracked here: https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/406 We also: * Worked on repairing a broken CI build in Measurement Kit: https://github.com/measurement-kit/measurement-kit/issues/1926 * Improved upon oonimkall: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/816 * Made sure we compiled a static miniooni for Linux so that it could be run from any recent Linux distribution without worrying about the libc ABI: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/815 * Set up automatic, periodic CI runs: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/819 * Improved upon the OONI HTTP Header Field Manipulation test: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/821 * Wrote quality assurance tests for the OONI instant messaging and middlebox experiments: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/829 * Fixed a bug related to certain tests not running: https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1233 * Fixed a bug in the OONI Telegram test: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/827 * Backported the Telegram test bugfix to a stable branch: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/828 Following a series of improvements, we released Measurement Kit v0.10.12: https://github.com/ooni/probe-engine/issues/809 ## Updated OONI Data Policy On 22nd July 2020, we released the 1.4.0 version of the OONI Data Policy. The updated OONI Data Policy is available here: https://ooni.org/about/data-policy The latest version (1.4.0) of the OONI Data Policy includes the following changes: * We now use our own ASN database (following the changes to MaxMind's license). * You can no longer opt out of submitting country code information (e.g. "IT" for Italy), as this significantly limits the value of measurements (i.e. we have no idea where a test was run). * We use a self-hosted analytics platform on our websites and OONI Probe apps to better understand how our apps are used, improve our understanding of user needs, improve OONI tools, and better serve the OONI community. You can opt out of our use of analytics by disabling the collection of app usage statistics in the OONI Probe app settings (and you can opt out of our use of analytics on ooni.org and explorer.ooni.org by unchecking the opt-out box at the end of our Data Policy). * In our Data Policy, we have added a section on the collection of app usage statistics. * In our Data Policy, we have added a section where we disclose what information we will collect if you opt in to push notifications. * OONI measurements are openly published by default, but we will not publish data related to app analytics and push notification support (which is securely stored separately from the public measurement metadb). ## Report on network performance in Northern Italy amid the COVID-19 pandemic We collaborated with M-Lab on the publication of a research report that shares measurement observations on network performance in Northern Italy during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2020-network-performance-covid19-italy/ In summary, we found: * Significant increase in the number of NDT tests run per day around the beginning of Italy’s nationwide lockdown (which started on 10th March 2020); * Reduced NDT download and upload speed results during the nationwide lockdown in Italy (between March 2020 to May 2020); * Improved NDT download and upload speed results from early May 2020 onwards, when the Italian government gradually started to lift the strict lockdown measures. As the available measurements suggest that there may be a correlation between increased internet use and reduced network performance, they highlight the need to invest in internet infrastructure that is more robust and sustainable in the long-term. They also highlight the need for more longitudinal measurements collected from more stable vantage points to improve our understanding of network performance issues. OONI’s Simone also collaborated with M-Lab on a blog post that introduces ndt7, which is available here: https://www.measurementlab.net/blog/ndt7-introduction/#ndt7-introduction ## Internet Measurement Village 2020 recap blog post Throughout June 2020, up until 3rd July 2020, we hosted the first Internet Measurement Village (IMV), an online community event aimed at sharing skills, knowledge, and resources on internet measurement. As all the IMV sessions were live-streamed and will continue to live on the OONI YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/OONIorg), we hope that these recordings will serve as a valuable resource on internet measurement for the internet freedom community. In July 2020, we published a blog post to provide a recap of the Internet Measurement Village 2020 and to share the slides and video recordings of each presentation. This blog post is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2020-imv-slides-recordings/ ## Statement in support of the OTF In July 2020, we published a second statement in support of the OTF amid recent developments (our first statement is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2020-06-19-save-internet-freedom-support-the-open-tec…). In our statement, titled “Support the OTF: Support a Free and Open Internet”, we share our experience working with the OTF, and discuss how they have played a crucial role in supporting the fight against internet censorship worldwide. This statement is available here: https://ooni.org/post/2020-support-otf/ ## Created a new OONI partnerships page We created a new page for the OONI website which features all of our partners, shares their work, and the projects and/or research reports that we have collaborated on. This work is available here: https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/528 We will publish this page once it has been reviewed and approved by all of our partners. ## Collaboration with Netalitica As part of our ongoing collaboration with Netalitica, we continued to review their test list updates. In July 2020, we reviewed the updates to the Ethiopian, South African, and Thai test lists and shared feedback. We also reviewed and shared feedback on the Netalitica updates to the Algerian, Iraqi, Indonesian, and Zimbabwean test lists. ## Data analysis As part of our partnership with Azerbaijan Internet Watch, we analyzed all OONI measurements collected from Azerbaijan between 1st January 2020 to 31st July 2020, based on which we produced relevant charts and wrote a report. We also performed data analysis for an OTF Information Controls Fellow (https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/552) examining internet censorship in Myanmar through the use of OONI Probe. Based on this analysis, we produced a CSV file and several charts for the research fellow. ## Community activities ### NetGain Partnership webinar On 8th July 2020, OONI’s Maria was invited to participate in the NetGain Partnership online event, specifically in the webinar titled “Surging Demand and the Global Internet Infrastructure”. Information about the webinar is available here: https://www.netgainpartnership.org/events/covid19/global-infrastructure As part of her participation in this webinar, Maria presented OONI’s work and discussed how increased internet use during the COVID-19 pandemic was correlated with decreased network performance (based on NDT measurement analysis). ### RightsCon Online 2020 The OONI team attended RightsCon 2020, which took place entirely online between 27th-31st July 2020. As part of our participation, we attended many sessions, as well as the meetup of the KeepItOn campaign. On 29th July 2020, OONI’s Maria co-facilitated the following session along with Rama and Alberto from CAIDA: “Investigating internet shutdowns with open data”. As part of this session, Maria introduced participants to OONI for measuring the blocking of websites and apps, while Rama and Alberto introduced participants to IODA for measuring internet outages. Maria was also on the RightsCon Online Program Committee, which involved reviewing session proposals and providing advice for the “Network Connectivity and Internet Shutdowns” track. ### Kill Switch Podcast On 30th July 2020, OONI’s Maria was invited to speak on Access Now’s Kill Switch podcast (https://www.volume.africa/kill-switch) that discussed internet shutdowns around the world. As part of her participation in the podcast, Maria discussed OONI and its role in the KeepItOn campaign. The podcast (Episode 4: “The Fight to Get Back Online”) is available here: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/61ad48c6-c67b-42ec-b8ca-9191915ec746 ## Userbase In July 2020, 7,567,361 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 5,765 networks in 209 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/ ~ The OONI team. -- Maria Xynou Research & Partnerships Director Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) https://ooni.org/ PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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August 2020 Tor DEMO Day - call for presenters
by Antonela Debiasi 25 Aug '20

25 Aug '20

............................................ ██████ .███████ ███ ...███ .██████ .███████ ██ ██ ██ ████ .████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ..██ █████ ..██ ████ ██ ██ ...██ ███████ ██ ..██ ██ ..██ ██ ██ ██ ...██ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ . .██ ██████ ███████ ............................................ Hello Tor, Last month we started running monthly Tor Demos during our All Hands. At this time, we want to extend the invitation to our broad community! The August Demo Day will be on Wednesday, August 26th, at 16UTC. The pad is here https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-monthly-hall-demos-august-2020-keep Please add your topic and name at the end of the pad to be part of the lineup. I hope to see you there! A Why? ---- - We want to spice up our remote working routine and also break the silos between teams. - The first edition was a success and we want to share this experience with the broad Tor community!. How? ---- - We will call for presenters. - The agenda will be set before the meeting and will be shared with tor-project. - We want 5 to 8 minutes length presentations. We will handle questions at the end of all presentations. - Slides are allowed but not mandatory. You may share your screen or a pre-recorded video if that makes you less anxious. - We like the adrenaline of the live presentations, but if they wish, presenters can share pre-recorded videos with us. They should be sent a few hours in advance and will be lined up and shared with assistants during the session. Who? ---- - Anyone who wants to share what they have been hacking on. It doesn't need to be a finished feature but a work in progress. It can be small like a Tor Browser feature or something you have been hacking around Tor not officially. - Presenters have 5 to 8 minutes. People can ask questions via text in the pad for 3 minutes. - Antonela will moderate at this time. We can rotate this role. Where? ------ During the All Hands Meeting. The room will be shared a few days before the meeting. When? ----- During the All Hands Meeting on Wednesday AUGUST 26TH at 16 UTC Agenda ------------------------------ d[-_-]b dj resident @mikeperry ------------------------------ - 5 min for the presentation - 3 min for questions Questions will be written in text in the pad in any time during the presentation. Presenter will answer them in audio. -- Antonela Debiasi UX Team Lead @antonela E2330A6D1EB5A0C8 https://torproject.org

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