Hi!
Below is my October’24 report!
In
October, I resolved 1104 (↑110)
tickets:
* On
Telegram (@TorProjectSupportBot) - 855 (↑127);
* On RT
(frontdesk@tpo) - 248 (↑59);
* On
WhatsApp (+447421000612) - 1 (↓26);
* and
on Signal (+17787431312) - 0 (0).
My
main focus - as usual - was to help Russian-speaking users bypass
censorship and connect to Tor, which often includes
troubleshooting. I also collected users’ feedback to monitor the
censor's activity and to help find working anti-censorship
solutions.
Apart
from user support I also took part in Tor Forum
moderation, worked with app store
reviews, and joined the Tor relay operators meetup.
Most of the
tickets were from users in Russia requesting bridges, as the
ones they received from rdsys distributors weren't working for
them. I also collected user feedback on other plugglable
transports (WebTunnel, obfs4, and Snowflake) and added it to the
main ticket about censorship in Russia[1].
## New Tor
Browser release
Tor
Browser 14 was released in October [2],
with the LegacyOS users-Windows
7-8 and macOS 10.12-10.14-staying
with 13.5.9. So, I took part in preparing the instructions for
the Legacy OS users to help them understand the transition
period and make sure that censored users can also get access to
the Tor Browser version that would work for them [3].
In
collaboration with @ebanam, I reported a bug affecting macOS
users who are trying to open certain .onion websites [4].
I
continued taking part in the investigation of the Samsung "proxy
server refused connection" bug [5].
## Google
Play Reviews for Tor Browser (TBA) and
Tor Browser Alpha for
Android
Tor
Browser App had a Google Play rating of 4.394-4.396 (↑) stars in
October 2024, which is higher than in September.
Tor
Browser app (TBA) got
691
(↑23)
reviews out of 58,498 for
the lifetime.
Most
common issues on the
reviews:
- Samsung
users point out the error "Proxy
server refused connection"
on their devices; [4]
- Tor
Browser doesn't
work: mostly
from Russian users,
who are struggling to find a
non-blocked
bridge;
Tor
Browser Alpha (TBA) app
had a rating of 4.254 (↓) which is lower that in September.
In October, Tor
Browser for Android
(TBA)
Alpha got 40 (↑5)
reviews out of 8359 for
the lifetime.