Hi! Below is my October’24 report!
In October, I resolved 1104 (↑110) tickets:
- On Telegram (@TorProjectSupportBot) - 855 (↑127);
- On RT (frontdesk@tpo) - 248 (↑59);
- On WhatsApp (+447421000612) - 1 (↓26);
- and on Signal (+17787431312) - 0 (0).
My main focus - as usual - was to help Russian-speaking users bypass censorship and connect to Tor, which often includes troubleshooting. I also collected users’ feedback to monitor the censor’s activity and to help find working anti-censorship solutions.
Apart from user support I also took part in Tor Forum moderation, worked with app store reviews, and joined the Tor relay operators meetup.
Most of the tickets were from users in Russia requesting bridges, as the ones they received from rdsys distributors weren’t working for them. I also collected user feedback on other plugglable transports (WebTunnel, obfs4, and Snowflake) and added it to the main ticket about censorship in Russia[1].
## New Tor Browser release
Tor Browser 14 was released in October [2], with the LegacyOS users-Windows 7-8 and macOS 10.12-10.14-staying with 13.5.9. So, I took part in preparing the instructions for the Legacy OS users to help them understand the transition period and make sure that censored users can also get access to the Tor Browser version that would work for them [3].
In collaboration with @ebanam, I reported a bug affecting macOS users who are trying to open certain .onion websites [4].
I continued taking part in the investigation of the Samsung “proxy server refused connection” bug [5].
## Google Play Reviews for Tor Browser (TBA) and Tor Browser Alpha for Android
Tor Browser App had a Google Play rating of 4.394-4.396 (↑) stars in October 2024, which is higher than in September.
Tor Browser app (TBA) got 691 (↑23) reviews out of 58,498 for the lifetime.
Most common issues on the reviews:
-
Samsung users point out the error “Proxy server refused connection” on their devices; [4]
-
Tor Browser doesn’t work: mostly from Russian users, who are struggling to find a non-blocked bridge;
-
Tor speed is too slow.
Tor Browser Alpha (TBA) app had a rating of 4.254 (↓) which is lower that in September.
In October, Tor Browser for Android (TBA) Alpha got 40 (↑5) reviews out of 8359 for the lifetime.
[1] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issues/40046#note_3125365
[2] https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-140/
[3] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40163
[4] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43245
[5] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42714