[tor-project] February - May 2020 User Feedback Report

Thu Jun 18 16:40:40 UTC 2020

Hiya

Welcome to the User Feedback Report for the months of February to May 2020.
Hopefully, everyone is staying safe and socially distant/healthy :)

tl;dr:

Questions with minimal to no information (other than "Tor Browser won't
open," "Tor unexpectedly exited. This might be due to a bug in Tor itself,
another program on your system, or faulty hardware. Until you fix the
underlying problem and restart Tor, Tor Browser will not start," and "Gah!
Your tab just crashed!") (26 occurrences), video playback questions (14),
"Run as administrator" issue [1] (6), letterboxing feature (6), and CAPTCHA
loop issue on some websites (5) dominated RT.
Reddit is constantly questioning letterboxing and trying to identify the
true The Hidden Wiki (there is none).
Metrics from Frontdesk queue: in the last month we answered more than 325
requests on Frontdesk queues. We still have a lot of spam that we clean
every day.

## Frontdesk highlights

a) Tor Browser: Users are unaware of the purpose of Letterboxing. They are
under the impression that this is a Tor Browser layout bug.

b) Browsing: Users identified the CAPTCHA while browsing with Tor Browser.
Some users reported that infinite CAPTCHA loop included trac.torproject.org
and sites where users logged into email or bank accounts.

b) Browsing: Users remarked not being able to watch YouTube videos on
YouTube.com. Users are unaware that NoScript blocks larger media elements
by default. For users connecting on Tor Exit nodes blocked by
YouTube/Google, we recommended to use <https://invidio.us/> as a workaround.

c) Website: Users installed the Windows 64-bit version of the desktop
version of the Tor Browser because they presumed by clicking the "Download
for Windows" button, their platform would be auto-identified by the website.

d) VPN products, fake Tor Browsers and "Tor Browsers": Users are confused
which application, both desktop version and mobile, are created by the Tor
Project. Users cite issues with "The Tor Browser," confusing us for Tor
Browser + Private VPN combinations, the Tor Browser version offered on
Tails, or the Tor Browser on iPhones. We had some occurrences of iOS users
asking support for their money back because they installed an App that
wasn't Tor Browser / Onion Browser.

Now, on to the feedback! Scroll further down to see a summary of Reddit
posts, some points from Google Play Store reviews, a list of the most
common Stack Exchange tags from the month, and a collection of some notable
issues and bugs mentioned by users in the past few months.

## Common questions on Frontdesk

- Questions regarding Letterboxing:
   "Last update of my Tor-Browser has an issue, it does not go full screen,
well it goes full screen, the browser itself but not the web page, the web
pages i open don't fill up the browser and it is annoying."
   User titled tickets: "Graphical glitches - Tor 9.5" and "How to enable
normal screen resolution !?"
- Questions involving the CAPTCHA loop
- Questions regarding video playback.
- Questions regarding donations (can't donate on Tor Browser, follow-up on
gifts, etc.)
- Questions with the prompt: "Tor unexpectedly exited. This might be due to
a bug in Tor itself, another program on your system, or faulty hardware.
Until you fix the underlying problem and restart Tor, Tor Browser will not
start."
- Question with minimal to no information other than "Tor Browser won't
open" (or something similar)
- Questions "Where I can download Tor Browser in my language?" and "How can
I change the website language?"
- Users with "proxy errors" or requesting bridges on countries that are
censoring the internet or are blocking Tor.
- Questions involving dll files are missing:
"I have windows 7 I downloaded TOR with no trouble but when I try to run it
a message comes up saying, my computer does not have ms-win.crt 11-1-0.dll.
I dont know what that means. Can you help."
- Questions explicitly stating that "I cannot download the Tor Browser from
<https://www.torproject.org/>"
- Questions concerning installing the Windows 32-bit version
- Questions regarding using the Onion Browser for iOS Phones
- Questions concerning using fake Tor Browsers from App Store not developed
or endorsed by The Tor Project

## Most common questions of Reddit (/r/TOR)

- Tor exited unexpectedly
- Questions regarding using Tor and a VPN
- Can my ISP see that I am using Tor?
- What's the difference between using Tor Browser, Orbot: Tor for Android,
and Tor Browser (Alpha)
- Tor blocked everywhere

## TBA Reviews & Feedback on Google Play Store

The average review score is 4.3 stars with 38,215 total reviews. Below are
some common problems mentioned by users in Google Play reviews:

   - Can't Can't take screenshots [3]
   - Browsing speed a bit slow and sluggish
   - Save Image option doesn't work [7]
   - How does one ask for a "New Tor Circuit for This Site" on mobile [6]

## Most common stack exchange tags

tor-browser-bundle: 15 asked in June
configuration: 14 June
hidden-services: 9 June
anonymity: 7 asked since February
security: 7 asked since February
relays: 6 asked in June

## Notable bugs, fixes, & issues mentioned by users

   - #29470 [2] - error message torBrowser-8.0.5-osx6 No Mountable file
systems - OPEN

   - #27987 [3] - Add setting for enabling/disabling flag_secure in Android
browser (a.k.a. Mobile screenshot issue ) - OPEN

   - #25959 [4] - Add uBlock Origin to Tor Browser Bundle - CLOSED

   - #22089 [5] - Add Decentraleyes to slighten off a bit Exit traffic and
work around some CDNs blocking of Tor - OPEN

   - #25764 [6] - Improve how circuits are displayed to the user on Android
- OPEN

   - #33702 [8] - RSA_get0_d could not be located in the dynamic link
library tor.exe - OPEN

---

Other user suggestions:

- "Great browser, but it would be nice if an update brought a dark theme
and the torbutton from the PC version (the little onion button). If some
how a tor developer see's this please add those two things for the mobile
version and thank you for making a great browser."

- "I'd request uBlock Origin to be added to Tor, it's been recommended
several times and there's multiple forum posts and Reddit posts about it.
Not having it only decreases privacy and security. Also, could you add an
option to donate to Tor via bitcoin, seems incredibly inadequate that an
organization preaching for privacy and security does not have any means of
supporting them through any alt coins."

---

Whew! Those were a lot of months to cover!

Thanks for reading! Hopefully we go back to these per month :)!

## Annotations

1. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/33702
2. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/29470
3. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/27987
4. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25959
5. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/22089
6. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25764
7. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/31013
8. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/33702
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