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-wind... [4]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/snowflake-addon-in-firefox-has-stopped-workin... [5]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-for-all-the-apps-in-a-windows-10-desktop/...