Hello,
This email shares OONI's monthly report for March 2024.
*# OONI Monthly Report: March 2024*
Throughout March 2024, the OONI team worked on the following sprints:
* Sprint 112 (1st-10th March 2024)
* Sprint 113 (11th-24th March 2024)
Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories:
https://github.com/ooni
Highlights are shared in this report below.
*## OONI Run*
As part of our work on creating the next generation version of OONI Run
(“OONI Run v2”), there were several key activities we undertook this month.
We continued QA testing for the revamped OONI Probe Android application,
and we fixed several issues that were found as a result (
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/152,
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/149,
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/142,
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/143,
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/141,
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/140).
We also continued QA testing for the new OONI Run v2 dashboard, which will
allow users to create and maintain their OONI Run links. We fixed several
issues that were found as a result of testing (
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/150,
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/145,
https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1547,
https://github.com/ooni/run/issues/144,
https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1540). We also finished refactoring
the API (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/788).
*## OONI Probe CLI*
In March 2024, we released OONI Probe CLI 3.21.0:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/releases/tag/v3.21.0
Moreover, we:
* Added support for deploying the Web Connectivity Test Helper using a
Docker container on cloud platforms (
https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1520);
* Merged a community contribution to fix `tlsmiddleboxes` with IPv6 (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2689);
* Fixed a bug in our `./pkg/gobash` tool for automatically using the
correct version of Go where we were not correctly validating zip files (
https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1521);
* Reworked the `./pkg/oonimkall` package to facilitate using OONI Run v2
from mobile applications (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1526);
* Merged a community contribution fixing the Tor Snowflake experiment (
https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1531).
*## OONI Explorer*
To identify which censorship findings would be most useful (for the
internet freedom community) to present on OONI Explorer (
https://explorer.ooni.org/), we conducted extensive user research in March
2024.
Specifically, we created a survey (https://forms.gle/tYv3pecJiUFfUfEh9),
which we shared widely with members of our community and with the broader
internet freedom community. The goal of this survey was to improve our
understanding of how community members use OONI Explorer, the types of
information that they find most useful, the challenges they encounter in
finding information, and how the platform could be improved to enable
access to censorship findings. We analyzed the survey results to inform
design and information architecture decisions that will guide the
implementation of pages that present thematic censorship findings on OONI
Explorer.
In addition to the survey, we also carried out interviews with members of
our community who use OONI Explorer as part of research and advocacy. The
goal of these interviews was to supplement the qualitative data collected
through the surveys, and to better understand how they use OONI Explorer
and the challenges they encounter in discovering censorship findings
through the platform.
Based on the findings from the survey and interviews, we created a
manually-curated list of domains that could be featured in each of the
thematic areas, and we started evaluating various approaches for presenting
relevant censorship findings.
On the development side of things, we made a few improvements to OONI
Explorer. Specifically, we improved the performance of the calendar
component on the MAT and Search pages (
https://github.com/ooni/explorer/commit/a437373e15f08ba935ec9772b1382535a78…),
and we improved the handling of errors and validations on the OONI
Explorer country pages (
https://github.com/ooni/explorer/commit/edb33e2b4e89430d28ceee6530d602616e0…
).
Notably, the OONI dataset reached 2 billion measurements in March 2024 (
https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1764644397700841669)! We thank
our community for contributing measurements over the past decade, shedding
light on internet censorship worldwide.
*## Automating censorship detection and characterization based on OONI
measurements*
In March 2024, we made progress towards shipping the new OONI Data Pipeline
into production. Specifically, we integrated the pull request that
implements the new Experiment Result model into the main branch (
https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/43).
More importantly, we worked on researching orchestration systems for
running the periodic tasks necessary for analyzing and processing OONI
measurements (https://github.com/ooni/data/issues/46). We opened a pull
request that adds support for using Temporal as an orchestration system (
https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/58).
We also made a piece of very important refactoring, where we separate the
OONI Data Pipeline (that’s to be run on servers) from the command line
interface and library component that can be installed by end users (
https://github.com/ooni/data/pull/60).
*## Research collaborations with partners on upcoming reports*
We continued to coordinate with our partners on research efforts required
for upcoming research reports. Specifically, we coordinated with our
partners on extensive updates to the Citizen Lab test lists for Russia,
Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, and Iran.
In March 2024, the updates for the test lists of Russia and Kazakhstan were
finalized. Specifically:
* Roskomsvoboda updated the Russian test list:
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1691
* Internet Freedom Kazakhstan(IFKZ) updated the test list for Kazakhstan:
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1695 (the pull request was
opened on 1st April 2024, but the work was conducted throughout March 2024)
*## Research report on internet censorship in Tanzania*
Beyond the aforementioned (upcoming) research reports, we have been working
on a research report that documents internet censorship in Tanzania based
on the analysis of OONI data collected between January 2023 to January 2024.
In March 2024, we completed all of the data analysis, research, and writing
required for our research report documenting internet censorship in
Tanzania. We scheduled the publication of this report in April 2024 to
enable more thorough review (both by the OONI team and local partners)
prior to publication.
*## Planning the OONI Partner Gathering 2024*
In preparation for the upcoming OONI Partner Gathering in Malaysia in May
2024, we continued to coordinate on numerous logistics (flights, shuttle
service, hotel, catering, etc.). We also assisted participants with visa
requirements as needed (though very few participants require e-visas, while
most participants don’t need visas to travel to Malaysia), and we
coordinated with designers on event-related supplies and materials.
Notably, we created and shared a survey with all OONI Partner Gathering
participants to collect their feedback, which will help shape and inform
the final agenda of the event. As our goal is to ensure that we create an
agenda that is valuable to all participants, we requested their feedback on
the types of sessions that they would find most useful, the types of skills
and knowledge that they would like to learn, and the outcomes that would
make their participation feel well spent. As participants started to fill
out the survey, we started to analyze the results and create a draft agenda
based on participant feedback.
In addition to the pre-Partner Gathering survey (which was designed to
collect feedback for the agenda), we also prepared a post-Partner Gathering
survey to collect participant feedback after the event. These two surveys
include a few mutual questions, which will enable us to compare and
evaluate the effectiveness of the event in sharing OONI-related skills and
knowledge.
*## Community use of OONI data### Publication by Oxford on how digital
technologies are used to wield authoritarian power during Russia’s 2024
presidential election*
Ahead of Russia’s March 2024 presidential election, researchers from the
Oxford Internet Institute and the University of Bremen published an article
which shares their insights on how digital technologies can be used to
wield authoritarian power in the context of the Russian election.
Their article makes use of OONI data, and is available here:
https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/2024-russian-presidential-elections-ho…
*## Community activities### OONI demo at the OTF Internet Freedom Expos*
On 18th and 19th March 2024, OONI’s Arturo traveled to Washington D.C to
participate in the Open Technology Fund’s (OTF) Internet Freedom Expo at
the U.S Congress (
https://twitter.com/OpenTechFund/status/1773726871965802906).
As part of his participation, Arturo hosted an OONI demo and presented
OONI’s work.
*### OONI participation in Roskomsvoboda’s DEMHACK 8*
Between 29th-31st March 2024, Roskmosvoboda hosted the 8th hackathon in its
series of DEMHACK hackathons (https://8.demhack.org/). OONI participated in
this hackathon as a partner and as part of the jury board.
As part of DEMHACK 8, two teams used OONI tools and methodologies for their
hackathon projects. One team developed a prototype of the messengers'
accessibility tests for DPI Detector (
https://github.com/nomah4/ubiquitous-rotary-phone), using OONI Probe tests
as a reference. This team acquired third place in the hackathon.
Another team used OONI data and the OONI API to compare the Roskomnadzor
blocklist with the domains identified as blocked by OONI Probe, with the
goal of potentially creating an alternative blocklist based on OONI
measurements (https://github.com/1andrevich/ooni-zapret-list).
We hope to stay in touch with both teams to further collaborate on
investigating censorship in Russia.
*### OONI Community Meeting*
On 26th March 2024, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our
Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/).
The topic of this meeting was “Network measurements and censorship
circumvention”, and we invited the following speakers:
* Ain Ghazal, Information Controls OTF Fellow with OONI
* Cecylia Bocovich, Tor Project
* Keith McManamen, Psiphon
* Diwen Xue, PhD Student, University of Michigan, Censored Planet
As part of this meeting, our invited guests shared their experiences and
some of the questions discussed (
https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep) include:
* Why is it important for circumvention projects to measure networks? How
do existing network measurement projects contribute to circumvention
technologies?
* What could both network measurement projects and circumvention
development projects do better in terms of measurement or in terms of data
sharing? What are the challenges to fill the existing gaps?
* How can network measurement data help inform circumvention tool
development and deployment efforts? What type of data would be most useful,
and what questions would you want such data to answer?
* What are the challenges associated with measuring and evaluating whether
a circumvention tool works?
* What is needed to help ensure that circumvention technologies are more
resilient to censorship?
*## Measurement coverage*
In March 2024, 58,901,099 OONI Probe measurements were collected from 2,904
networks in 173 countries around the world.
This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI
Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”):
https://explorer.ooni.org/
~ OONI team.
Hello,
This email shares OONI's monthly report for February 2024.
*# OONI Monthly Report: February 2024*
Throughout February 2024, the OONI team worked on the following sprints:
* Sprint 110 (1st-11th February 2024)
* Sprint 111 (12th - 25th February 2024)
Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories:
https://github.com/ooni
Highlights are shared in this report below.
*## New partnership with Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan*
In February 2024, we had the opportunity to formally establish a
partnership with Digital Rights Foundation (
https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/), a leading digital rights organization
in Pakistan. As part of this partnership, we aim to collaborate on the
study of internet censorship.
*## Published report on blocks in Pakistan ahead of 2024 elections*
In February 2024, we published a report (based on OONI data) on the
blocking of an investigative news platform (Fact Focus), as well as on the
blocking of PTI political party websites in Pakistan leading up to the
country’s 2024 general election.
The report is available here:
https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/108298926901
*## Published FOCI paper on EU internet sanctions on Russian media*
In collaboration with researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago,
the University of Twente and the University of Amsterdam, we co-authored a
paper which analyzes how different ISPs in EU member states implement
sanctions on Russian media.
This paper (which made extensive use of OONI data) was published by FOCI in
February 2024: https://petsymposium.org/foci/2024/foci-2024-0001.pdf
SIDN Labs published a blog post, providing a summary of the paper:
https://www.sidnlabs.nl/en/news-and-blogs/internet-sanctions-on-russian-med…
This blog post was cross-posted on the OONI blog:
https://ooni.org/post/2024-eu-sanctions/
*## OONI Probe Mobile*
We released OONI Probe Mobile 3.8.6 on iOS:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-ios/releases/tag/v3.8.6
The latest version includes an important fix for the data quality of the
Signal Private Messenger App experiment results. The Signal experiment fix
is also available in the latest versions of OONI Probe Android (3.8.6),
OONI Probe Desktop (3.9.3), and OONI Probe CLI. As part of the OONI Probe
iOS 3.8.6 release, we also fixed an issue with RTL language support on the
iOS app (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2578), and we made several
other bug fixes and improvements.
To enable the localization of Deutsche Welle’s News Media Scan app (
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dw.ooniprobe), we added
support for Transifex in the app (
https://github.com/ooni/translations/pull/32).
*## OONI Run*
As part of our work on creating the next generation version of OONI Run
(“OONI Run v2”), there were several key activities we undertook this month.
The main highlight is that we officially started QA testing for the Android
version of the new OONI Probe app that has both an improved UI and support
for new OONI Run links. This is a big next step in the progress for this
project! Thus far, we completed a major initial testing pass to test the
new user-interface. We also started QA testing for the new OONI Run v2
dashboard, which will allow users to create and maintain their OONI Run
links.
Some other highlights worth noting:
* We ensured alignment between the spec and backend (
https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/787) and we refactored the API as a
result (https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/788);
* We started implementing support for OONI Run v2 in the iOS app (
https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1518).
*## OONI Probe CLI*
Most of the OONI Probe CLI development work in February 2024 was focused on
continuing to bring Web Connectivity v0.5 to production (as documented
further in the next section).
We also:
* Added Wikimedia DNS as a DNS-over-HTTPS session resolver (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2532);
* Reworked the code to generate summaries and made it more robust and safe (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2667);
* Improved building tor as a library to make it work under ArchLinux (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2651);
* Reworked test case generation for our QA suite to reduce churn and
simplify the process of spotting bugs (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2677);
* Fixed a bug in the test lists Gardener script to avoid trusting a URL
database that has become stale (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2684).
*## Creating a methodology for measuring throttling*
To measure throttling more effectively, we need to ship Web Connectivity
v0.5, which is based on an underlying measurement library specifically
designed to collect additional throttling-related information and, more
generally, easier-to-process measurements. To this end, we continued our
efforts to ensure a high standard of data quality for Web Connectivity v0.5
and made progress on our plans for rolling it out to production.
Specifically, we:
* Fixed a regression introduced in a previous release where Web
Connectivity v0.5 was missing network events (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2674).
* Refined the functionality to read partial response bodies when
interrupted by a timeout (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2654), which
is relevant for throttling.
* Ensured Web Connectivity v0.5 counted the bytes sent and received (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2655).
* Made some updates to the Web Connectivity v0.5 specification (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2666).
* Added the `tcptls_experiment` tag that was missing in Web Connectivity
v0.5 to be backward compatible with v0.4 (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2673).
* Addressed an issue that left the `client_resolver` field empty to ensure
backward compatibility with v0.4 (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2676
).
* Addressed a list of to-do items to clean up, refactor and add tests to
the codebase (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2669) which included:
* Implementing DNS cache expiration for the DNS whoami code used by Web
Connectivity v0.5 so that we can periodically update our understanding of
the DNS we’re using (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1499).
* Using a random DNS-over-UDP resolver drawn from a list of well known
resolvers (rather than using 8.8.4.4) in response to community feedback (
https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1500).
*## OONI Design System*
As part of our work on the OONI design system (
https://github.com/ooni/design-system/), we upgraded dependencies and
configured storybook to use Vite instead of Webpack (
https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/172), which makes Storybook
faster and requires less configuration. We also replaced Eslint and
Prettier with Biome for code linting and formatting (
https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/173), which is all part of
maintenance work to simplify the repository.
We explored different frameworks for building and maintaining frontend
components. To this end, we created two different examples of Button
component implementation, using two of the most popular approaches in 2024:
* TailwindCSS as an example of utility-first CSS library, using Class
Variance Authority (https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/170);
* Vanilla-Extract as an example of zero-runtime CSS-in-TS (
https://github.com/ooni/design-system/pull/171).
*## OONI Explorer*
To identify which censorship findings would be most useful (for the
internet freedom community) to present on OONI Explorer (
https://explorer.ooni.org/), we organized a user research study (
https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1543) so that we can better
understand the habits and needs of our community (and determine how best to
present this information on OONI Explorer).
In February 2024, we drafted and finalized the user research survey, and we
prepared for the user research interviews. We disseminated the survey and
conducted user research interviews in March 2024.
*## Test list updates*
Ahead of Pakistan’s 2024 general elections, we updated the Citizen Lab test
list for Pakistan: https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1651
*## Research collaborations with partners on upcoming reports*
In February 2024, we continued to coordinate with our partners on research
efforts required for upcoming research reports. Specifically, we
coordinated with our partners on extensive updates to the Citizen Lab test
lists for Russia, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, and Iran. Each of these test list
updates has a thematic focus based on the specific research questions of
each (upcoming) research report.
*## Planning the OONI Partner Gathering 2024*
In preparation for the upcoming OONI Partner Gathering in Malaysia in May
2024, we continued to coordinate with the travel agency on booking flights
for participants and other travel logistics. We also continued to
coordinate with participants and the hotel on numerous other logistics.
*## Updated the OONI Data Policy*
On 23rd February 2024, we updated the OONI Data Policy:
https://ooni.org/about/data-policy
As part of this update, we replaced the use of Matomo analytics with Umami
analytics. The Data Policy changes are visible here:
https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/pull/1550/files
*## Rapid response efforts### Blocking of TikTok in Senegal*
Starting from (at least) 25th January 2024, OONI data suggests that Senegal
had been blocking access to TikTok. OONI data shows that the block was
primarily visible on Sonatel (AS8346), and appears to have been implemented
by means of TLS interference.
In response, we posted about the block on Twitter/X (
https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1754944166130327716) and we
shared relevant OONI data with local partners and advocacy groups.
*### Unblocking of social media in Guinea*
On 23rd February 2024, we reported the unblocking of social media platforms
in Guinea on Twitter/X (
https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory/status/1761049064752177282) and shared
relevant OONI data and information with advocacy groups.
We had previously published a report on the blocking of social media
platforms in Guinea, sharing OONI data on the blocking of WhatsApp,
Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube (
https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/296303006301). OONI data shows that the
blocks lasted between 24th November 2023 to 22nd February 2024.
*## OONI citations### Tor Project blog post about defending internet
freedom during elections in 2024*
In February 2024, the Tor Project published a blog post about defending
internet freedom with Tor during elections in 2024. As part of this blog
post, they cite OONI research reports documenting censorship events that
emerged during previous elections in countries around the world, and
encourage the use of OONI tools and data.
Their blog post is available here:
https://blog.torproject.org/2024-defend-internet-freedom-during-elections/
*### CPJ statement on West African lawsuit against Senegal internet
shutdowns*
In February 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a
statement on the lawsuit filed against Senegal at the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice challenging Senegal’s
internet shutdowns in 2023. This statement cites OONI’s research report,
which documented social media blocks and network outages in Senegal during
political unrest in 2023 (
https://ooni.org/post/2023-senegal-social-media-blocks/).
CPJ’s statement is available here:
https://cpj.org/2024/02/cpj-welcomes-west-african-lawsuit-against-senegal-i…
*## OONI Community Meeting*
On 27th February 2024, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our
Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/).
The topic of this meeting was “Litigation against internet censorship and
shutdowns”, and we invited the following speakers:
* Natalia Krapiva, Tech-Legal Counsel, Access Now
* Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy
* Yelzhan Kabyshev, Director, Internet Freedom Kazakhstan (IFKZ)
* Unggul Sagena, Head of Internet Access Division, Southeast Asia Freedom
of Expression Network (SAFEnet)
As part of this meeting, our invited guests shared their experiences from
litigating against cases of internet censorship and internet shutdowns,
while other community members who participated in the meeting shared
questions (https://pad.riseup.net/p/ooni-community-meeting-keep).
*## Measurement coverage*
In February 2024, 57,616,784 OONI Probe measurements were collected from
2,981 networks in 173 countries around the world.
This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI
Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”):
https://explorer.ooni.org/
~ OONI team.
Hello,
This email shares OONI's monthly report for January 2024.
*# OONI Monthly Report: January 2024*
Throughout January 2024, the OONI team worked on the following sprints:
* Sprint 108 (1st - 14th January 2024)
* Sprint 109 (15th - 28th January 2024)
Our work can be tracked through the various OONI GitHub repositories:
https://github.com/ooni
Highlights are shared in this report below.
*## Published report on news media censorship in Bangladesh during 2024
elections*
In January 2024, we published a short report documenting the blocking of
news media websites in Bangladesh (based on OONI data) amid the country’s
2024 general elections.
The report is available here: https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/11686385001
*## OONI Probe Mobile*
We released OONI Probe Mobile 3.8.6 on Android:
https://github.com/ooni/probe-android/releases/tag/v3.8.6
This release includes an important fix for the data quality of the Signal
Private Messenger App experiment (https://ooni.org/nettest/signal) results.
It also ensures that the measurement engine is synced with OONI Probe CLI
v3.20.0, and it includes several bug fixes and improvements.
*## OONI Run*
As part of our work on creating the next generation version of OONI Run
(“OONI Run v2”), there were several key activities we undertook this month.
Specifically, we continued to work towards achieving a ‘feature complete’
status for the Android application so that we can begin end-to-end testing.
This included focusing on finishing the initial implementation of the add
link flow, including addressing some feedback from early testing (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2595). We worked on implementing the
dashboard link loading and we reviewed the updates (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2594), and we continued to work on the
dashboard (https://github.com/ooni/run/pull/131), which is now ready for
testing. Additionally, we enumerated the remaining backend work we need to
complete as part of this project (
https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/1519).
*## OONI Probe CLI*
Most of the development work in January 2024 was focused on bringing Web
Connectivity v0.5 to production (as documented in the next section below).
In addition to this work, we reworked the output of the DNS Ping experiment
to make it more actionable (https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1444) by
taking into account specific feedback provided by community members.
We also increased the robustness of the internal libtor package to prevent
concurrent tor instances, which would lead to a crash because libtor uses
several shared, unlocked, global data structures (
https://github.com/ooni/probe-cli/pull/1445). This issue emerged while
debugging Tor Snowflake experiment crashes (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2406). While addressing this issue is
not enough to prevent crashes (given that we were not running libtor
concurrently anyway), we tried to structurally prevent this from happening
directly inside the libtor codebase.
*## Creating a methodology for measuring throttling*
To measure throttling more effectively, we need to ship Web Connectivity
v0.5, which is based on an underlying measurement library specifically
designed to collect additional throttling-related information and, more
generally, easier-to-process measurements. To this end, in the previous
month we ensured that Web Connectivity v0.5 produced the same results as
version v0.4 (the one currently running in production) for all test cases
in our QA suite.
In January 2024, we continued this work by fixing additional data quality
issues affecting Web Connectivity v0.4 and v0.5 so that when we release Web
Connectivity v0.5, we are sure there are hopefully no regressions and only
improvements.
Specifically, we:
* Ensured that the data analysis engine used by Web Connectivity v0.5
behaves correctly and detects multiple cases of blocking (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2640). While the overall result of the
experiment uses a logic that is still compatible with v0.4, the result also
contains flags indicating all the anomalies observed. For example, as part
of the same measurement, OONI could detect both DNS and TLS interference.
* Enumerated and fixed a number of edge cases where otherwise the
measurement result would have been inaccurate, including cases where (a) a
domain does not exist anymore but there’s still DNS censorship returning
the IP address where a blockpage is hosted and (b) domains for which there
are no A or AAAA records, which are now correctly recognized as not
accessible and not blocked (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2652).
* Handled more cases where a website is not TCP or TLS reachable, which are
now marked as not accessible, not blocked (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2299).
* Ensured that IDNA (Internationalized Domain Names) are handled correctly
by adding test cases and fixes (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1925).
* Added test cases to avoid flagging TCP blocking when IPv6 is available
but there are no IPv6 routes (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/2456).
* Ensured that cases where a website address is a loopback address (due to
censorship or misconfiguration) are handled correctly (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1517).
* Ensured that v0.5 does not include cached DNS responses to avoid
confusing pipelines processing OONI data (
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1530).
* Fixed a bug where v0.5 was not able to correctly process URLs containing
IPv4 or IPv6 addresses (https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues/1511).
In addition to the code and test case changes described above, we also
verified ~40 data quality issues and we started sketching out fixes for
other outstanding issues. All the data quality issues that we vetted and
closed in January 2024 can be found here:
https://github.com/ooni/probe/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A2024-01-data-qual…
*## OONI Explorer*
In January 2024, we worked on updating dependencies for OONI Explorer (
https://github.com/ooni/explorer/issues/901), and we started working
towards building design system components (
https://github.com/ooni/design-system/issues/168).
We also started working towards presenting thematic censorship findings on
OONI Explorer through brainstorming sessions to discuss the potential scope
of work and agree on next steps.
*## OONI Backend*
We made significant progress on coming up with a plan about the future of
OONI infrastructure. Specifically, we started exploring several solutions
for having a better pattern for deploying frontend and server-side
components. As part of this work, we carried out an internal survey with
our development team.
After experimenting with several different solutions, we concluded that
it’s probably ideal to go for an approach which can be adopted iteratively
and that connects well with the existing patterns. We will therefore have a
system for defining our infrastructure as code and start using (where it
makes sense) more cloud infrastructure (
https://github.com/ooni/backend/issues/785).
We also started making a big refactor of backend components to make it
easier to deploy our OONI data analysis tool (https://github.com/ooni/data)
as part of the OONI backend (https://github.com/ooni/backend/pull/791).
*## Test list updates*
Throughout January 2024, we coordinated with community members on updating
the Citizen Lab test lists and we reviewed many pull requests.
These include:
* Updates to the Bangladesh test list ahead of the country’s January 2024
general elections (https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1544,
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1543,
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1531);
* Updates to the Indonesian test list (
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1527);
* Updates to the Japanese and Global test lists (
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1504,
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1511);
* Updates to the Philippines test list (
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1461,
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1559);
* Updates to the Senegalese test list (
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1600,
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1602);
* Updates to the Thai test list (
https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists/pull/1521).
*## Research collaborations with partners on upcoming reports*
In January 2024, we coordinated with the Tor Project on signing Fixed Award
Agreements (FAAs) with 4 of our local partners to financially support their
contributions to upcoming research reports (as part of a DRL grant). This
officially initiated the research collaborations, and we started
collaborating with our partners on several research reports.
Specifically, we started this research process by finalizing the research
scope for each of the upcoming reports, and collaborating with our partners
on updating the Citizen Lab test lists for Russia, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh,
and Iran. Each of these test list updates has a thematic focus based on the
specific research questions of each (upcoming) research report.
*## Planning the OONI Partner Gathering 2024*
We are excited to share that on 8th and 9th May 2024, we will host an
in-person OONI Partner Gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As part of this
2-day event, we will bring our partners (primarily from Asia and the Middle
East) together to share skills and knowledge on internet censorship
research. The goal of the event is to strengthen regional and global
collaboration on censorship measurement research and advocacy.
To host this event, we had previously (in 2023) carried out all the
necessary fundraising and logistical planning work. As we were not able to
reach the target overall budget that would have allowed us to bring all our
partners from around the world, we decided to limit the scope of the event
primarily to our partners from Asia and the Middle East (while also
inviting some of our international partners, whose work is
relevant/important to our regional partners). We decided this because
countries in Asia and the Middle East experience the most pervasive forms
of internet censorship (and we therefore prioritized these regions over
other regions which experience less internet censorship).
In an effort to ensure that the OONI Partner Gathering is hosted in a
location that is as visa-friendly as possible for our participants, we
developed a script which identifies such locations based on various
parameters, such as visa requirements, safety index, and flight travel time
(https://github.com/hellais/global-gather). Based on this data-driven
approach, Malaysia was identified as one of the top visa-free countries in
the world for our specific list of participants. This was another reason
why we decided to limit the event primarily to our partners from Asia. That
said, we hope to host additional OONI Partner Gathering events for our
partners in Africa and Latin America over the next few years.
In January 2024, we sent official invitations (along with a Concept Note)
to our partners from Asia (Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Central
Asia), the Middle East, and to some of our international partners. We also
started coordinating with a travel agency on the booking of flights, with
the hotel on the booking of rooms and meeting spaces, and on a number of
other logistics. We expect to welcome 46 participants at the OONI Partner
Gathering in May 2024.
*## OONI workshops and presentations### OONI training for Digital Rights
Foundation Pakistan*
On 12th January 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta hosted an online OONI workshop for
Pakistan’s Digital Rights Foundation (https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/),
training their team members on how to use OONI tools in preparation for
Pakistan’s upcoming 2024 elections. The goal of this training was to enable
Digital Rights Foundation to train local journalists on how to use OONI
tools to measure and monitor censorship events.
*### OONI Q&A for BebasID Indonesia*
On 12th January 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta and Simone hosted an online OONI Q&A
session with the BebasID community in Indonesia (https://bebasid.com/). As
part of this session, we answered questions regarding the use of OONI
tools, we collected community feedback, and we discussed the current state
of internet censorship in Indonesia with the BebasID community.
*### OONI training for human rights advocates in Senegal*
Between 16th-18th January 2024, OONI’s Elizaveta co-hosted a 3-day hybrid
training for human rights advocates in Dakar, Senegal. We organized this
training in collaboration with our local partners, Computech (
https://computechinstitute.com/) and Jonction (
https://jonction.e-monsite.com/), and the event was possible thanks to
support from Access Now.
The goal of the training was to share OONI skills and knowledge that would
enable Senegalese human rights advocates and trainers to run OONI workshops
for their communities in 5 different regions of Senegal.
As part of this training, Elizaveta facilitated the following sessions:
* Introduction to Internet Censorship
* Using OONI Probe and OONI Run: Hands-on workshop
* Updating the Senegalese test list: Hands-on workshop
* Using OONI Explorer: Hands-on workshop
As part of this training, the participants created the programmes for their
own training and scheduled them for January and February 2024. Overall, the
goal was to enable local Senegalese trainers and human rights defenders to
lead and facilitate OONI censorship measurement workshops in their
communities in preparation for the country’s 2024 elections.
*### OONI presentation at IAB Workshop on Barriers to Internet Access of
Services (BIAS)*
On 17th January 2024, OONI’s Simone presented our research report on how
internet censorship in Russia changed during the first year of military
conflict in Ukraine (
https://ooni.org/post/2023-russia-a-year-after-the-conflict/) as part of
the IAB Workshop on Barriers to Internet Access of Services (BIAS), 2024 (
https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/biasws/about/).
The presentation is available on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/rz2qkRfaNVE?si=i33_45UTX96Vs21z&t=3404
*## Activities by the OONI community### OONI workshop by Digital Rights
Foundation for journalists in Pakistan*
In January 2024, our partner, Digital Rights Foundation (
https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/), facilitated two workshops for 60
journalists in Pakistan in preparation for the country’s 2024 elections. As
part of this workshop, Digital Rights Foundation introduced participants to
OONI tools and encouraged them to run OONI Probe tests leading up to the
election.
As part of their 2024 election monitoring efforts, Pakistan’s Digital
Rights Foundation encouraged the use of OONI Probe as part of their
ElectionDesk resource:
https://election2024.digitalrightsfoundation.pk/internet-shutdowns/
*### OONI training by Digital Rights Lab for journalists in Sudan*
On 13th January 2024, our partner, Digital Rights Lab Sudan (
https://ooni.org/partners/drlab/), facilitated online OONI training
sessions in Arabic for journalists in Sudan. As part of the training
sessions, they introduced participants to OONI tools and internet
measurement.
*### OONI training by Computech and Jonction in Senegal*
On 27th January 2024, our partners, Computech (
https://computechinstitute.com/) and Jonction (
https://jonction.e-monsite.com/), hosted an OONI training session in Saint
Louis, Senegal. This training (run by local trainers) included hands-on
workshops on using OONI Probe and OONI Run.
*### OONI training by Advocacy Assembly fellow for human rights defenders
in Sierra Leone*
On 29th January 2024, the Center for Advocacy and Sustainable Empowerment
hosted an in-person workshop in Bo, Sierra Leone, as part of the Advocacy
Assembly Internet Shutdown Mentored Training Program (
https://advocacyassembly.org/en/news/236). As part of this workshop, they
introduced participants to OONI tools. OONI’s Elizaveta joined this
workshop for the online Q&A session to address participants’ questions in
relation to OONI’s work and tools.
*## OONI Community Meeting*
On 30th January 2024, we hosted the monthly OONI Community Meeting on our
Slack channel (https://slack.ooni.org/), during which we discussed the
following topics:
Preparing for elections in 2024: How to monitor and respond to censorship
events
Improving OONI Explorer: Request for community feedback on needs and
challenges
*## Measurement coverage*
In January 2024, 64,404,108 OONI Probe measurements were collected from
3,028 networks in 167 countries around the world.
This information can also be found through our measurement stats on OONI
Explorer (see chart on “monthly coverage worldwide”):
https://explorer.ooni.org/
~ OONI team.
Hello all,
Last month we saw a massive uptick in support requests from Chinese
speaking users due the outreach work[0]. Helped users with
troubleshooting and using pluggable transport that works best for them.
With three Tor Browser stable releases, much of my work went into
post-release user support work. We got a number of reports about the
Snowflake domain fronting issue with Fastly[1], which was fixed with Tor
Browser 13.0.11. We got a few questions about the removal of automatic
onionsite prioritization[2] with Tor Browser 13.0.12.
In terms of documentation, I added a unified section about installing
little-t-tor (tor the network daemon) to our support portal[3].
Following is a thorough breakdown of tickets our user support team
handled in March:
# Frontdesk (email support channel)
* 645(↑) RT tickets created
* 617(↑) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by numbers:
1. 292(↑) RT tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking
users.
2. 154(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian
speaking countries.
3. 23 RT tickets: Snowflake domain fronting issue
with Fastly.
4. 10(↓) RT tickets: private bridge and help with
circumventing censorship requests from regions where Tor is not blocked.
The issues were mostly resolved by troubleshooting and analysing Tor
logs and the issues ranged from - firewall, VPN & antivirus interrupting
the connection to having an incorrect system clock.
5. 5 RT tickets: Reports of websites blocking Tor.
6. 3 RT tickets: Questions about removal of automatic .onion site prioritization
in Tor Browser.
7. 3 RT tickets: Help with installing Tor Browser on Linux.
8. 2(↓) RT tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
Highlighting some other topics we received questions and feedback:
9. Help with verifying Tor Browser's signature.
10. Question if Tor Browser can be installed on Chromebooks[4]
11. Report of an app on iOS App Store masquerading as Tor Browser.
12. Troubleshooting Tor Browser post-update on Windows. Issue with anti-virus software
flagging Tor Browser.
13. Troubleshooting Tor Browser install on macOS. User was on a
very old and unsupported version of macOS.
14. Questions about how to get started with Tor Browser after installation[5].
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel
* 628(↑) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 592(↑) tickets on Telegram
* 35(↑) tickets on WhatsApp
* 1(↓) ticket on Signal
Tickets by numbers:
1. 351(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking
countries.
2. 57(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
3. 49(↑) tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users.
4. 14 tickets: Which Tor apps to install on iOS and questions about
Onion Browser and Orbot for iOS.
5. 3 tickets: Snowflake domain fronting issue with Fastly.
Highlighting some other topics we received questions about:
6. 2 tickets: Reports of onion services (not maintained by us) being
offline. We asked the users to contact the concerned onion service
maintainers.
7. 2 tickets: Help with GPG signature verification while
installing Tor Browser.
8. 2 tickets: Instructions on how to fetch latest Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
9. Help with troubleshooting Tor Browser for Android.
10. Help with using bridges with Tor Browser on TailsOS.
11. Help with installing Tor Browser on Linux (ArchLinux).
12. Question whether Tor Browser is supported on AndroidTV.
# Highlights from the Tor Forum
1. Snowflake add-on no longer listed on addons.mozilla.org[6].
2. iPad: Need Help With Download & Installation (Onion Browser and Orbot)[7].
3. Removal of automatic .onion site prioritization in Tor Browser[8].
4. (Fix) Problems with Snowflake since 2024-03-01: "broker failure
Unexpected error, no answer."[9]
Thanks!
e.
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.
[0]: https://github.com/torproject/tor4zh/
[1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/135
[2]: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-13012/
[3]: https://support.torproject.org/little-t-tor/install-little-t-tor/
[4]: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/tbb-15/
[5]: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/running-tor-browser/
[6]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/snowflake-add-on-no-longer-listed-on-addons-…
[7]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/ipad-need-help-with-download-installation/11…
[8]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/connect-to-onion-when-available/12134
[9]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/fix-problems-with-snowflake-since-2024-03-01…
Hi! Below is my March’24 report!
In March, I resolved 571 tickets:
On Telegram (@TorProjectSupportBot) - 405
On RT (frontdesk@tpo) - 154
On WhatsApp (+447421000612) - 11
and on Signal (+17787431312) - 1.
My main focus remains the same - I help Russian-speaking users use Tor
Browser and circumvent internet censorship; I also test and report bugs
that users find and share with me.
There were presidential elections in March in Russia, so to prepare for
the event, I reviewed and improved existing user support templates we
use on Frondesk, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, and the guide in Russian in
the Torforum.
Also, at the beginning of March, I helped to find an issuewith
Snowflakefront domains[1] and prepared a workaroundtemplatein Russianto
help users fix the problem manually before the problem was solved in
aTor Browseremergency release [2].
I reportedthe issue of Tor Browser for macOS not working after being
downloaded from our telegram bot (https://t.me/
<https://t.me/gettor_bot>gettor_bot <https://t.me/gettor_bot>) by
gathering users' feedback and testing myself [3].
[1] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/135
[2] https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-13011/
[3]
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/issues/4…
Hi all :)
This is my monthly status report for March 2024 with the main relevant
activities I have done during the period.
## 0. Research
* Tor Browser Quality Assurance for Onion Services (TB .onion QA) - 2024.Q1:
* In the 2024.Q1 period, the TB .onion QA had the following output:
* 9 Tor Browser versions were formally tested.
* No serious issues were found affecting onionsites.
* A few minor issues were identified and need further investigation or be
reported to the browser team.
* Versions tested ranged from 13.09 to 13.0.13 and from 13.5a3 to 13.5a6.
* Did some internal Onion Planning.
## 1. Development
* The Onion Services Ecosystem documentation is now available at
the Community Portal: https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/ecosystem
An alternative URL is still available at
https://tpo.pages.torproject.net/onion-services/ecosystem
Details at https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/onion-services/ecosystem/-/issues/1
* Onionspray.
* Released the 1.6.1 version:
* https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-announce/2024-March/000313.html
* https://forum.torproject.org/t/onionspray-release-1-6-1/12083
* Onionspray Log Parser:
* Renamed eotk-log-parser to onionspray-log-parser:
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/onion-services/onionspray-log-parser/-/is…
* Added support for aggregating page hits with the same circuit ID.
* Launched version 1.0.0 (nothing special with this number, it just means that
there was a backward-incompatible change from previous versions).
## 2. Support
* Ongoing sponsored work with deployment, maintenance and monitoring of Onion
Services.
* Did some other support related to setting up Onion Services.
## 3. Organization
Time spent (from the total available for Tor-related work):
| Category | Percentage
|---------------|------------
| Research | 21
| Development | 2
| Support | 54
| Organization | 23
|---------------|------------
| Total | 100
--
Silvio Rhatto
pronouns he/him
Hi everyone, here is my status report for March 2024.
This month, I continued the rebase on the Firefox Rapid Release channel.
I've arrived on par with mozilla-beta, i.e., I have a branch based on
Firefox 125b, and I'm following that channel. I'm trying to rebase my
branch onto each beta tag.
I've also fixed the various build and runtime errors, and the branch can
be built and used (even though this is seriously discouraged as it
hasn't been reviewed and we haven't done our audit work yet).
However, this is quite reassuring because it reduces the uncertainty of
our ESR transition work.
I've opened an issue [0] to document this process and all the conflicts
I had to merge manually, both trivial and non-trivial.
At a certain point, while working on this task, I implemented a script
that act as a helper for our usual rebase review procedures [1].
I'm sure it has a lot of margin for improvement, but it should handle
our most common cases.
My idea is to use it also for the script to perform continuous automatic
rebases of our branches. I wrote a proof of concept in 30 minutes, but
nothing was ready for production and/or publication. Still, I'm very
excited by the possibilities of automation we could implement.
Apart from that, I worked on refactoring our TorConnect module [2]. I
started it to fix an issue detected by the linter we've had for one year
and a half [3]. It was not trivial to fix, and eventually, I ended up
reorganizing the whole file, even though the contents haven't changed much.
At the end of the month, I also opened another merge request
specifically for error handling [4].
Together, they should hopefully help the further Android developments
other apps team members are working on.
Finally, I worked on some issues about fingerprinting vectors and helped
with our March releases.
Best,
Pier
[0]
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42441
[1]
https://gitlab.torproject.org/pierov/lazy-scripts/-/blob/main/diff-of-diffs…
[2]
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/merge_requests…
[3]
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/41114
[4]
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/merge_requests…
Hey everyone!
Here are our meeting logs:
https://paste.debian.net/1312310/
And our meeting pad:
Anti-censorship work meeting pad
--------------------------------
Anti-censorship
--------------------------------
Next meeting: Thursday, Apr 04 16:00 UTC
Facilitator: onyingyang
Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC
(channel is logged while meetings are in progress)
This week's Facilitator: shelikhoo
== Goal of this meeting ==
Weekly check-in about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor.
Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at the
Tor Project and Tor community.
== Links to Useful documents ==
* Our anti-censorship roadmap:
*
Roadmap:https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards
* The anti-censorship team's wiki page:
*
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home
* Past meeting notes can be found at:
* https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/
* Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors, we are working on:
* All needs review tickets:
*
https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s…
* Sponsor 96 <-- meskio, shell, onyinyang, cohosh
* https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/24
* Sponsor 150 <-- meskio working on it
*
https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/issues/?label_na…
== Announcements ==
== Discussion ==
* Latest snowflake addon reviewer feedback requires a consent
prompt for the collection of personal data
*
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…
== Actions ==
== Interesting links ==
*
== Reading group ==
* We will discuss "" on
*
* Questions to ask and goals to have:
* What aspects of the paper are questionable?
* Are there immediate actions we can take based on this work?
* Are there long-term actions we can take based on this work?
* Is there future work that we want to call out in hopes
that others will pick it up?
== Updates ==
Name:
This week:
- What you worked on this week.
Next week:
- What you are planning to work on next week.
Help with:
- Something you need help with.
cecylia (cohosh): 2024-03-28
Last week:
- debugged some issues with conjure and added a new station to
the allowed-ips at the server
- set up new domain fronting accounts for meek and conjure
- updated torrc files
- worked on some shadow network model updates
- resumed work on adding a consent prompt for the snowflake addon
-
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…
This week:
- address latest review comments for snowflake addon
- work on reproducing some reported SQS errors and open a
public issue for it
- update wasm-bindgen fork to fix some bugs and hopefully
upstream changes
- tor-browser-build updates for lox wasm + bindings generation
Needs help with:
dcf: 2024-03-21
Last week:
- reviewed a snowflake-webext README fix
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…
- merged some missing commits from meek gitolite into gitlab
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/meek…
Next week:
- review draft MR for unreliable data channels
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…
- open issue to have snowflake-client log whenever KCPInErrors
is nonzero
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…
- parent:
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…
- open issue to disable /debug endpoint on snowflake broker
- move snowflake-02 to new VM
Help with:
meskio: 2023-03-21
Last week:
- captcha moat in rdsys (rdsys#182)
- prometheus metrics for moat in rdsys (rdsys#124)
- deploy rdsys and bridgestrap testing bridges every hour
(bridgestrap#39)
- fix and publish obfs4-bridge docker image for armv7
(docker-obfs4-proxy#18)
- fix bugs introduced by me in bridgestrap (bridgestrap#41)
Next week:
- persistency for resources in rdsys (rdsys#56)
Shelikhoo: 2024-03-28
Last Week:
- [Merge Request Done] Add WebTunnel Client Support Integration
to lyrebird
(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/lyre…)
- [Merge Request WIP] Add Container Image Mirroring from Tor
Gitlab to Docker
Hub(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/…
- [Merge Request] Update lyrebird version to v0.2.0
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/lyre…
- [Merge Request] Rename Stable Container Tags to Latest
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…
- Prepare for 3-min presentation
- Prepare for the discussion session
- Merge request reviews
Next Week/TODO:
onyinyang: 2023-03-14
Last week(s):
- continued prep for HACS/DRL meeting
- Sync-test rebase
This week:
- continue prep for HACS/DRL meeting
- Attend HACS, then RWC, then DRL meeting
(later things)
- improve metrics collection/think about how to show Lox is
working/valuable
- sketch out Lox blog post/usage notes for forum
- attempt hyper upgrade again
(long term things were discussed at the meeting!):
https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-ac-community-azaleas-room-keep
- brainstorming grouping strategies for Lox buckets (of
bridges) and gathering context on how types of bridges are
distributed/use in practice
Question: What makes a bridge usable for a given user, and
how can we encode that to best ensure we're getting the most appropriate
resources to people?
1. Are there some obvious grouping strategies that we
can already consider?
e.g., by PT, by bandwidth (lower bandwidth bridges
sacrificed to open-invitation buckets?), by locale (to be matched with a
requesting user's geoip or something?)
2. Does it make sense to group 3 bridges/bucket, so
trusted users have access to 3 bridges (and untrusted users have access
to 1)? More? Less?
theodorsm: 2023-03-14
Last weeks:
- Created a setup for extracting fingerprints from DLTS
handshakes and analyzed the previous webrtc/dtls data sets from
https://github.com/kyle-macmillan/snowflake_fingerprintability. Found
more fingerprints than presented in the original paper, but the
fingerprints are not present in newer snowflake versions.
- Contacted Sean DuBois at Pion, he is very supporting of
the project and happy to merge features related to anti-censorsip
- Started on a setup for collecting DTLS handshakes to be
used for mimicking
- Exploring and planning features for anti-fingerprinting
techniques to implement in the Pion lib.
Next weeks:
- Creating a setup for generating DTLS handshakes of
web-browsers with selenium/playwright. This will hopefully generate
common handshakes/fingerprints
Help with: