Hello everyone,
Similar to the past few months most of my work last month focussed on
helping users in regions where Tor is censored, which includes 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. We saw a massive uptick in support requests
from Chinese speaking users most of which can be attributed to the
backlog of tickets I had to answer coming from the holiday break.
I also made some minor documentation updates, 1) updated articles for
Tor Browser 13.5 legacy updates with Tor Browser 13.5.11[0], 2) Onion
service documentation on the Community Portal[1].
Following is a more detailed report about the tickets our user support team
worked on last month.
# Frontdesk (email user support channel)
* 627(↓) RT tickets created
* 780(↑) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 425(↑) RT tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese
speaking users.
2. 191(↓) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
3. 11(↓) RT tickets: WebTunnel bridges campaign.
4. 5(↓) RT tickets: help with installing Tor Browser for Desktop.
5. 5(↓) RT tickets: questions about how Tor works - is my IP visible when using Tor?
what application level protections I get when using Tor Browser? what are
'Security Levels' in the Tor Browser etc.
6. 5(↓) RT tickets: reports of websites blocking Tor connections.
7. 5(↑) RT tickets: questions about how one can contribute to Tor - code,
documentation, localization, etc.
8. 5(↑) RT tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them.
9. 4(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
10. 4(↓) RT tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on
Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux).
11. 4(↑) RT tickets: reports of anti-virus software blocking Tor Browser
(these were false alarms, see My antivirus or malware protection is blocking me from accessing Tor Browser. | Tor Project | Support)
12. 3(↑) RT tickets: help with setting up a Snowflake proxy.
13. 3(↑) RT tickets: questions about setting up a bridge relay.
14. 3(↑) RT tickets: help with using bridges and snowflake with little-t-tor.
15. 2(↓) RT tickets: reports of a fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as
official Tor Browser.
16. 2(↑) RT tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Android.
17. 1(↓) RT ticket: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy
operating systems.
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel
* 856(↓) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 839(↓) tickets on Telegram
* 17(↓) tickets on WhatsApp
* 0(↓) tickets on Signal
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 579(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
2. 30(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users.
3. 12(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
4. 14(-) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship
circumvention methods.
5. 5(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows, macOS and Linux.
6. 4(↓) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails.
7. 4(↑) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them.
8. 2(-) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser
for Android using Samsung devices.[2]
9. 1(↓) ticket: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
10. 1(↓) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacyoperating systems.
11. 1(↑) ticket: question about the differences in various security levels in the Tor
Browser.
12. 1(-) ticket: help with using bridges and snowflake with little-t-tor.
13. 1(↑) ticket: report of a fake app on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser.
# Highlights from the Tor Forum
1. Configuring little-t-tor to use pluggable transports.[3]
2. JavaScript and extensions / add-ons with Tor Browser.[4]
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.
best,
e.
[0]: Update articles for Tor Browser 13.5 legacy updates with links to TB 13.5.11 (#40178) · Issues · The Tor Project / Community / Tor User Support Team · GitLab
[1]: Update link to onionmine (!412) · Merge requests · The Tor Project / Web / community · GitLab
[2]: Some Samsung users receiving "proxy refused" error when visiting websites (#42714) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[3]: WebTunnel bridges: Work with Tor Browser, but doesn't work with core Tor
[4]: Struggling with JavaScript and Add-Ons in Tor Browser