ebanam's monthly status report and user support report for November 2024

3 Dec 2024

      Hello everyone,

Last month, our user support team worked on an unprecedented number of tickets
mostly due to the evolving Tor censorship in Russia[0] (big shoutout to @nina
and read her report[1] for more details!)

With 4 Tor Browser releases in last month, I worked on a number of Tor Browser
related user support tickets - from general questions about downloading,
installing, updating and troubleshooting to bug reports.
With the year-end campaign into it's second month, I also worked on related support
tickets, answering questions about Tor Browser. Topics included downloading, installing,
using the browser it's various privacy enhancing features and questions about
the Tor network in general.

I wrote and updated user documentation on the Tor Browser User manual[2] and some of the
articles and templates that we use on our various support channels.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of the tickets our user support team worked
on last month:

# Frontdesk (email user support channel)

* 614(↓) RT tickets created
* 558(↓) RT tickets resolved

Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 226(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
2. 213(↓) RT tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users.
3. 14(↓) RT tickets: help with Troubleshooting Tor Browser desktop on Windows, macOS
and Linux.
4. 6(↑) RT tickets: Tor Browser 14 crashing on macOS when visiting some
onionsites. (The bug is resolved with Tor Browser 14.0.2)
5. 5 RT tickets: WebTunnel bridges campaign.[3]
6. 4(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
7. 4(↑) RT tickets: reports of a website blocking Tor traffic.
8. 3(-) RT tickets: Instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for
legacy operating systems.
9. 3 RT tickets: Instructions on how to download and install Tor Browser.
10. 3 RT tickets: help with Troubleshooting Tor Browser on Android.
11. 2(↓) RT tickets: configuring Orbot to use bridges.
12. 2(↑) RT tickets: reports of a fake apps on iOS masquerading as official Tor Browser.
13. 2 RT tickets: include uBlock Origin with Tor Browser.[4]
14. 2 RT tickets: fingerprintability of Smooth Scroll in Tor Browser.[5]
15. Letterboxing is visible even if disabled when using Tor Browser
on Tiled window managers.[6]
16. One report of Tor Browser getting flagged by anti-virus software.
17. Static captcha when fetching bridges from within Tor Browser.[7]
18. What does "onionize" toggle in the search bar on about:tor do?
19. Tor circuit display on Tor Browser for Android.[8]
20. User trying to reach a v2 onion service. v2 onion services have been deprecated.
21. Question about using WebTunnel bridges with Tails. (This is not yet supported) [9]
22. Warning prompt to disable NoScript on resource-heavy websites on Tor Browser Desktop.[10]

# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel
* 1548(↑) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 1532(↑) tickets on Telegram
* 16(↓) tickets on WhatsApp
* 0(-) ticket on Signal
Tickets by topics and numbers:

1. 1201(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking
countries.
2. 42(↑) tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese
speaking users.
3. 26(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
4. 18(↓) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or
Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods.
5. 13(↑) tickets: Tor Browser 14 crashing on macOS when visiting some onionsites.
6. 13(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
7. 9(↑) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails.
8. 7(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser on Android.
9. 4(-) tickets: help with using bridges with Orbot.
10. 4(↑) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy
operating systems.[11]
11. 3(↑) tickets: help with using bridges and snowflake with little-t-tor.
12. 3(↑) tickets: help with instructions to verify Tor Browser signature with GPG.
13. 2(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop
on Windows, macOS and Linux.
14. 2(↓) tickets: help with installing Tor Browser on linux.
15. 2(↓) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on
Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.[12]
16. 2(↑) tickets: reports of a fake apps on iOS masquerading as official Tor Browser.
17. 1 ticket: questions about accessing or setting up onion services.
18. 1 ticket: help with setting up Snowflake proxy.

# Discussions from the Tor Forum

1. Tor Expert Bundle on legacy Windows.[13]
2. Tor Browser Desktop and browser fingerprinting.[14]
3. Privacy benefits of running an Onion Service.[15]

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://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issu...
[1]: https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-project@lists.torp...
[2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/manual/-/commits/main?author=ebanam
[3]: https://blog.torproject.org/call-for-webtunnel-bridges/
[4]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/17569
[5]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40704
[6]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42670
[7]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42086
[8]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/41234
[9]: https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/20267
[10]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43286
[11]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/download-tor-browser-13-5-legacy-on-windows-7...
[12]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42714
[13]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/0-4-8-13-tor-expert-bundle-doesnt-work-on-win...
[14]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/what-information-about-the-computer-on-which-...
[15]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/is-onion-site-any-better-if-a-site-also-provi...

ebanam

Al Smith

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