Hello everyone,
Much 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.
With the year-end campaign into it's final month, I worked on some
related support tickets, answering questions about Tor Browser. Topics
included downloading, installing, using the browser, it's various
privacy enhancing features and other questions about the Tor network.
I also worked on some documentation updating some of the articles and
templates that we use on our various user support channels.
Here's a more detailed breakdown of the tickets our user support team
worked on last month:
# Frontdesk (email user support channel)
* 658(↓) RT tickets created
* 513(↓) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 219(↓) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
2. 173(↓) RT tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese
speaking users.
3. 13(↑) RT tickets: WebTunnel bridges campaign.[0]
4. 13(↑) RT tickets: help with installing Tor Browser for Desktop.
5. 9(↑) 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.
6. 6(↑) RT tickets: reports of websites blocking Tor connections.
7. 5(↑) RT tickets: reports of a fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading
as official Tor Browser.
8. 5(↓) RT tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install
on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux).
9. 4 RT tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them.
10. 3(-) RT tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy
for legacy operating systems.
11. 2(↑) RT tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting
websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.[1]
12. 1 RT ticket: help with instructions to verify Tor Browser signature with GPG.
13. 1 RT ticket: help with setting up a Snowflake proxy.
14. 1 RT ticket: non-onionsite gives interstitial "Onionsite Has Disconnected" page.[2]
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel
* 1632(↑) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 1609(↑) tickets on Telegram
* 22(↑) tickets on WhatsApp
* 1(↑) ticket on Signal
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 1256(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
2. 18(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users.
3. 15(↓) 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. 13(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows, macOS
and Linux.
6. 6(↓) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Tails.
7. 4(↓) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
8. 2(-) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites
on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.
9. 2(↓) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating
systems.
10. 2 tickets: question about the differences in various security levels in the Tor Browser.
11. 1(-) ticket: help with setting up Snowflake proxy.
12. 1(↓) ticket: help with using bridges and snowflake with little-t-tor.
# Highlights from the Tor Forum
1. How to use WebTunnel bridges with Tor Expert Bundle on Windows.[3]
2. Snowflake embed doesn't work on Firefox.[4]
3. Discussion on configuring all apps on Windows 10 to use Tor.[5]
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]: Tor in Russia: A call for more WebTunnel bridges | The Tor Project
[1]: Some Samsung users receiving "proxy refused" error when visiting websites (#42714) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[2]: non-onionsite gives interstitial "Onionsite Has Disconnected" page (#40434) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[3]: Where can you download webtunnel.exe for Windows?
[4]: Snowflake addon in Firefox has stopped working
[5]: Tor for all the apps in a Windows 10 desktop?