[tor-talk] Successful experiment boosting the number of users using OpenPGP verification for file download

[Andrew F]

Quite impressive Adrelanos.  I used to run these types of studies when
developing interfaces years ago.
Well done and thank you for sharing.





On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 5:30 PM, adrelanos <adrelanos at riseup.net> wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I hope you are interested in the results of a little experiment.
>
> Q: How many users downloaded OpenPGP signatures with the old design of
> download page? (You can see the design here: [1] [2])
>
> A: 1 in ~30 users.
>
> Q: How many users downloaded OpenPGP signatures after adding a colored
> download table, which indicates, that http downloads without OpenPGP
> verification is the least secure method, to the download page? (You can
> see the design here: [3])
>
> A: 1 in ~11 users.
>
> Note: This is only an approximation. No experiment meeting scientific
> standards. However, while the number of downloads didn't decrease, the
> number of signature downloads significantly increased. Which is a good
> thing, isn't it? Downloading a signature doesn't imply, the user
> successfully managed to use OpenPGP verification or that the user
> couldn't be tricked or just ignored an invalid signature error message.
>
> You can get some more information and more detailed statistics here: [5]
> [6]
>
> This is also a follow up to: "[liberationtech] secure download tool -
> doesn't exist?!?" [4]
>
> Cheers,
> adrelanos
>
> Footnotes:
>
> [1] http://www.webcitation.org/6IWk5h4E9
> [2] Please ignore the "Moved to https://www.whonix.org" part. That
> snapshot has been forgotten and made later. Nevertheless it gives an
> impression how the old download page looked like.)
> [3] http://www.webcitation.org/6IWk5h4E9
> [4]
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/2013-July/009625.html
> [5] https://whonix.org/wiki/Dev/Download_Statistics
> [6] http://www.webcitation.org/6IWlyqokZ
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