Hello everyone,

This is a summary of the work I did in the month of October followed by a more detailed report of the work done by our user support team. With a number of Tor Browser releases including the last major stable release of the year - Tor Browser 14 - much of my work included alpha testing, updating the Tor Browser user manual[0] before the release. And reviewing and updating the documentation[1] on Support Portal and the various user support channels and keeping track of user feedback after the release. I worked on a number of Tor Browser related user support tickets - from general questions about installing, updating and troubleshooting to bug reports. With the onset of the year-end campaign[2], I also worked on related support tickets, answering questions about Tor Browser. Topics include downloading, installing, using the browser it's various privacy enhancing features and questions about the Tor network in general.

Finally a huge part of my work was dedicated to help users in regions where Tor is censored which includes but is not limited to 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.

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

# Frontdesk (email user support channel)

* 668(↑) RT tickets created * 683(↓) RT tickets resolved

Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 267(↓) RT tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users. 2. 207(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 3. 12 RT tickets: help with Troubleshooting Tor Browser desktop on Windows, macOS and Linux. 4. 6 RT tickets: help with updating Tor Browser and questions about Tor Browser dropping support for legacy operating systems.[3] 5. 5 RT tickets: Tor Browser 14 crashing on macOS when visiting some onionsites.[4] 6. 5 RT tickets: Questions about the various Security Levels[5] in Tor Browser and issues with disabling JavaScript on higher security levels. 7. 5 RT tickets: configuring Orbot to use bridges. 8. 3(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 9. 3 RT tickets: Letterboxing is visible even if disabled when using Tor Browser on Tiled window managers.[6] 10. 3 RT tickets: Instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems.[7] 11. 2 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. 12. Help with verifying Tor Browser signature with GPG. 13. One report of Tor Browser 14 getting flagged by anti-virus software on Windows. 14. One report of a fake app on iOS masquerading as official Tor Browser. 15. Question about using Tor bridges with Tails. 16. Instructions to use GetTor to fetch Tor Browser binaries. 17. One report of a website blocking Tor traffic. 18. Question about the various keys used by Tor[8]. 19. Tor Browser fails to work on Linux is dbus-glib is not installed[9]. This issue should be fixed with Tor Browser 14.

# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel

* 1023(↑) tickets resolved

Breakdown: * 1003(↑) tickets on Telegram * 20(↓) tickets on WhatsApp * 0(-) ticket on Signal

Tickets by topics and numbers:

1. 667(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 32(↑) tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users. 3. 24(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 4. 23 tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods. 5. 16 tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows, macOS and Linux. 6. 8 tickets: help with installing Tor Browser on linux. 7. 8 tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser on Android. 8. 7 tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails. 9. 7 tickets: questions about various features in Tor Browser (Letterboxing, Security Levels, New Circuit, New Identity, etc.) 10. 6 tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 11. 5 tickets: Tor Browser 14 crashing on macOS when visiting some onionsites.[4] 12. 5 tickets: Users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.[10] 13. 4 tickets: help with using bridges with Orbot. 14. 4 tickets: questions about accessing or setting up onion services. 15. 3 tickets: help with setting up Snowflake proxy. 16. 2 tickets: help with using bridges and snowflake with little-t-tor. 17. 1 ticket: Tor Browser 14 displaying a security notification on latest versions of Ubuntu.[11] 18. 1 ticket: User seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using a Xiaomi device.[12] 19. 1 ticket: Instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems.

# Highlights from the Tor Forum

1. Configuring little-t-tor to use pluggable transports (obfs4, WebTunnel, etc.). [13] 2. Security warning on Tor Browser 14+ on latest versions of Ubuntu.[14] 3. Running Tor Browser with Wayland windowing system on Linux.[15] 4. Download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14 [7] 5. Unable to render images when uploading/downloading them via Tor Browser.[16] 6. Installing Tor Browser on (Kali) Linux - troubleshooting issue with permissions.[17]

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/web/manual/-/issues/174 [1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40160 [2]: https://blog.torproject.org/2024-fundraiser-donations-matched/ [3]: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/tor-browser-and-legacy-os/ [4]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43245 [5]: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/security-settings/ [6]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42670 [7]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/download-tor-browser-13-5-legacy-on-windows-7... [8]: https://support.torproject.org/about/key-management/ [9]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/41914 [10]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42714 [11]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43101 [12]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/41289 [13]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/error-with-the-tor-cli-client/15502 [14]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/after-updating-to-tor-browser-14-0-tor-browse... [15]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/linux-is-it-alright-to-run-the-tor-browser-on... [16]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/problem-in-the-images-that-i-download-or-try-... [17]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/i-cant-open-tor-browser-on-kali-linux/15082