February 2024 Tor News

Published on 2024-02-28

Latest blog posts

Defending access to information during the Year of Democracy

2024 has been dubbed the "Year of Democracy" with over 65 elections taking place globally and roughly 2 billion people casting their votes this year. We have seen spikes of censorship events around elections. In this context, Tor and Tor-powered apps can protect and defend our right to freely access information.

We put together a guide on how at-risk users can prepare themselves for upcoming elections by downloading Tor-powered applications like Tor Browser, Orbot, Tails, and OnionShare before election censorship happens.

For these tools to work effectively, we all need to work together. Please consider volunteering by running a Snowflake proxy or Tor bridge. But there are many more ways to get involved and expand global access to Tor: from organizing Tor trainings to providing translations, documenting online censorship or advocating against internet shutdowns. Find out more here:  https://blog.torproject.org/2024-defend-internet-freedom-during-elections.

2023 year-end fundraising results 🎉

Another great way to support the Tor Project's efforts is by donating--and that's what so many of you have done. From October through December 2023, you answered the call for support by contributing $427,558 to power the Tor network, Tor Browser, onion services, Snowflake, and the ecosystem of tools and services built and maintained by the Tor Project.

Everyone in our community deserves a big THANK YOU for supporting the Tor Project during the campaign. Whether you made a donation, shared the campaign on social media, or spread the world about the importance of using Tor, your contributions are vital to achieving our mission. Your impact was then amplified by the Friends of Tor who provided the generous match during the campaign.

Learn more about what your contributions will make possible in 2024: https://blog.torproject.org/2023-fundraising-results-thank-you

Empowering young minds

Earlier this month, we sat down with Matthias Kirschner, President of the FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe) to talk about a children's book he has authored exploring the themes of the internet, free and open source technology, and its vital role for democracy.\ In Ada & Zangemann, the young hardware enthusiast, Ada, takes on Zangeman, an inventor who begins controlling all of the world's computerized devices to do exactly what he wants. As part of our conversation, we gained some valuable insights for parents, caretakers, and educators seeking ways to talk about technology in accessible and child-friendly ways. You can read the full interview here: https://blog.torproject.org/i-love-free-software-day-interview-fsfe/


Job Openings

We're always looking for great people to join our team. Be sure to check out our latest open positions. Work remotely from wherever you are to help us achieve our mission of making free, open-source, and privacy-preserving technology available to everyone.

🦀 Rust Developer (Network Team)

💻 Browser Software Engineer (Applications Team)


Keeping up with the latest releases

February 27, 2024 New Release: Tails 6.0

February 20, 2024 New Release: Tor Browser 13.0.10

February 5, 2024 Arti 1.1.13 is released: onion services development

February 1, 2024 New Alpha Release: Tor Browser 13.5a4


Upcoming events

March 2nd, 2024 Tor Relay Operator Meetup Connect with other Tor relay operators, share, exchange, and discuss ideas on how we can make the Tor network stronger.

April 15, 2024 - April 19, 2024 SINFO Biggest free tech conference in Portugal: It's an annual conference that takes place at the Alameda Campus of Técnico Lisboa, in the capital city of Portugal, Lisbon. Roger Dingledine, Tor Project Co-founder and Research Director will be in attendance.

March 25, 2024 -- March 27, 2024 AISA CANBERRA CyberCon The Australian Cyber Conference - Canberra will provide business leaders with insights and best practices taught by the industry's top experts through keynotes, panel sessions and live demonstrations -- in person. Roger Dingledine, Co-founder & Research Director of The Tor Project, will deliver a keynote address on March 27th.

April 8, 2024 - April 10, 2024 FOSSASIA Summit 2024 Taking place in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, the FOSSASIA Summit has become a platform for developers, enthusiasts, and industry leaders to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. Roger Dingledine, Co-founder & Research Director of The Tor Project, will speak at the event.


ICYMI: Replay of recent events

Tor censorship attempts in Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan Watch Tor President & Co-founder Roger Dingledine's presentation from #37C3

Launch of Tor's Postbox, a testimony hub featuring stories from Tor users worldwide Hear from digital rights advocates, journalists and other online privacy experts who shared insights about the challenges to encryption, online privacy, and digital freedom in 2024.


Ways to contribute

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://torproject.org/donate/donate-tn3-2023

December 2023 Tor News

Published on 2023-12-07

December 2023 Tor News

Dear Tor Community,

From welcoming Amnesty International as our latest member in the onion services community to shoring up the Tor network and hosting our annual State of the Onion, the Tor Project's teams remain focused on making an impact in people's lives. We want to give special thanks to everyone who has shared their story and participated in our recent survey about the importance of encryption – the response rate has been incredible – and on top of being insightful, your contributions will go a long way to improving our advocacy and outreach efforts.

Remember, from now on through December 31st, your donation will be matched by our Friends of Tor–which means that a $25 donation will automatically become $50 until the end of this year.

– Thank you for being an essential part of the Tor Project's community.

Tor news

Amnesty International now available as .onion

You may have noticed that we recently removed a large number of relays from the Tor network. We did this to protect network health and the safety and security of our community and users. This process has sparked larger discussions within our teams and community members about the state of Tor relay policies and the potential for incentivization models that can better support our relay operators and the growth of the Tor network. It has also encouraged us to reflect more deeply on our mission and the role of free, open-source technology.

For these reasons, we published a blog post to highlight past research exploring incentivization models for relay operators, and to provide insight into the rationale behind our recent actions to protect the network from bad actors: https://blog.torproject.org/tor-network-community-health-update/

Safeguarding the Tor network: our commitment to network health and supporting relay operators

As part of a recently completed project, we've made Tor Browser, Tor circumvention tools, Tor documentation and training materials, and OnionShare available in Arabic, Chinese, and Swahili. We've used the occasion to develop short, localized explainer videos to demystify Tor's usage, from bypassing censorship to secure file sharing. These resources are designed to help everyone easily utilize Tor tools in their daily lives: https://blog.torproject.org/tor-tutorials/

Transparency, openness, and our 2021-2022 financials

Did you know that almost a third of our annual revenue comes from individual donors? These gifts come in all different forms (including ten different cryptocurrencies, which are then converted to USD): Some people donate $5 to the Tor Project one time, some donate $100 every month, and some make large gifts annually. The common thread is that individual donations are unrestricted funds, and a very important kind of support. Unrestricted funds allow us to respond to censorship events, develop our tools in a more agile way, and ensure we have reserves to keep Tor strong in case of emergencies.

If you didn't know, make sure to check out our 2021-2022 fiscal report: https://blog.torproject.org/transparency-openness-and-our-2021-and-2022-financials/

And, if you want to maximize your donation this year, now is the time! From now on through December 31st, your donation will be matched by our Friends of Tor–which means that a $25 donation will automatically become $50 until the end of this year.

Keeping up with the latest releases

New Release: Tor Browser 13.0.6 (Desktop)

https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1306/

Arti 1.1.11 is released: More onion progress

https://blog.torproject.org/arti_1_1_11_released/

New Alpha Release: Tor Browser 13.5a2

https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-135a2/

New Release: Tor Browser 13.0.3 (Android)

https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1303/

Recent events

State of the Onion 2023

The end of the year is traditionally a great moment for reflection–which is exactly what we've done during our annual State of the Onion: a virtual, two-day event highlighting the work of our teams and community to showcase the impact Tor technology has made across the globe during the year. If you've missed the livestream, you can watch the recast here:

Ways to contribute

- Can you make a recurring donation? Set up a monthly donation. This is the best, most impactful way to help the Tor Project budget during uncertain times.

- Can you make a one-time gift? Make a donation through our website by credit card or PayPal; through the mail by cash, check, or money order; through a stock donation or bank transfer; and many more options listed in our FAQ.

- Do you have a company or organization that uses Tor or believes in Tor? Become a member.

- Does your company match donations made by employees? Make a donation and file the paperwork with your organization so they match your gift. Let us know if you need help!

- Do you have cryptocurrency to give? We can accept donations in ten different coins.

- Do you have 7 minutes to participate in our survey? This is a priceless contribution to supporting our critical advocacy and outreach efforts. The survey is anonymous and also available as a .onion for an added layer of security.

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org

Right now, Tor is protecting the privacy of millions of people like you!

Published on 2023-10-30

Right now, Tor is protecting the privacy of millions of people like you!

Dear Tor Community,

Your support has been instrumental in enabling us to protect the digital rights and privacy of millions around the world. As we launch our annual fundraising campaign, we want to acknowledge the unprecedented challenges, including continued geo-political unrest, the far-reaching effects of tech-sector layoffs, and a significant decrease in charitable giving across the board.

Despite these hurdles, we remain steadfast in our dedication to making Tor's technology accessible to everyone: from accessibility and UI improvements in the latest Tor Browser release, important security fixes to outreach and education efforts as well as our advocacy work.

Like so many of you have demonstrated throughout the years, there are many ways to contribute. Whether it is in the form of monetary donations or by donating bandwidth, by running a relay or bridge to help censored users access Tor, if you are in a position to help, please do. Even if it is just by spreading the word.

– Thank you for being an essential part of the Tor Project's community.

Tor News

Introducing proof-of-work defense for onion services

Over the past year, we have put a lot of work into mitigating attacks on the Tor network and enhancing its defenses for onion services which culminated in the introduction of a proof-of-work (PoW) defense in the release of Tor 0.4.8. This dynamic PoW mechanism prioritizes real users while deterring attackers, making large-scale DoS attacks impractical. Find out how it works and why it matters: https://blog.torproject.org/introducing-proof-of-work-defense-for-onion-services/

A closer look at online privacy with new Tor tutorials

As part of a recently completed project, we've made Tor Browser, Tor circumvention tools, Tor documentation and training materials, and OnionShare available in Arabic, Chinese, and Swahili. We've used the occasion to develop short, localized explainer videos to demystify Tor's usage, from bypassing censorship to secure file sharing. These resources are designed to help everyone easily utilize Tor tools in their daily lives: https://blog.torproject.org/tor-tutorials/

Encryption's critical role in safeguarding human Rights

The Tor Project's mission is to advance human rights. For us that means not only by building and deploying technology, but also by advocating for the protection and unrestricted availability of privacy-preserving technologies like encryption. Over this past year, we have initiated or contributed to a variety of  advocacy efforts to ensure access to encryption and push back against government efforts that seek to undermine it -- from signing letters and supporting ally organizations on a number of advocacy and awareness campaigns to expanding our outreach and training efforts.

Most recently, we co-organized and co-hosted a workshop at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) -- an annual meeting established by the United Nations in 2005 as a forum for multi-stakeholder dialogue concerning public policy issues relating to the internet. The panel entitled Encryption's Critical Role in Safeguarding Human Rights brought together professionals from the technology, non-profit, policy, human rights and advocacy spaces to discuss balancing the demands of national security with the protection of individual privacy, adherence to international human rights laws and seeking a global approach. The panelists discussed a number of measures that could help shape a human-rights-centric regulatory framework for encryption, all of which are outlined in our session report.

Tor Browser 13.0 has arrived -- and the Torbutton has retired

Over time, Tor Browser has come a long way and undergone several transformations to simplify its user interface and improve functionality. The recent Tor Browser 13.0 release features notable accessibility improvements, refreshed application icons, homepage features, and bigger new windows. This release also marks the removal of legacy code associated with the Torbutton -- a step toward better integration and a seamless transition to the new Arti implementation written in Rust.

User experience remains a top priority, and feedback is encouraged. Further refinements, like migrating to Fluent for translation files, are in the pipeline. Share your thoughts and report any issues in the Tor forum or bug tracker. Thanks to all of the teams across Tor, and the wider community, who contributed their expertise, labor, and time to this release.

Read all about the recent update here and bid farewell to the Torbutton here.

Keeping up with the latest releases

New Release: Tor Browser 13.0.2 (Android) - October 27, 2023

https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1302

Arti 1.1.9 is released: Assembling the onions -  October 3, 2023

Arti 1.1.9 continues work on support for onion services in arti. We now have the code needed to publish onion service descriptors; keep them up-to-date with changes and our introduction points; receive, decrypt, process, and answer introduction requests; and respond to them by delivering traffic to local ports. The pieces are now (mostly) connected; the next month of development will see extensive testing, bugfixing, and refinement.

https://blog.torproject.org/arti_119_released/

Upcoming Events

State of the Onion 2023 -- November 29, 2023

SAVE THE DATE for this year's State of the Onion. This is our annual virtual event where we share updates from Tor Project's teams and community, highlighting their work and the impact it has made across the globe during the year.

Ways to contribute

- Can you make a recurring donation? Set up a monthly donation. This is the best, most impactful way to help the Tor Project budget during uncertain times.

- Can you make a one-time gift? Make a donation through our website by credit card or PayPal; through the mail by cash, check, or money order; through a stock donation or bank transfer; and many more options listed in our FAQ.

- Do you have a company or organization that uses Tor or believes in Tor? Become a member.

- Does your company match donations made by employees? Make a donation and file the paperwork with your organization so they match your gift. Let us know if you need help!

- Do you have cryptocurrency to give? We can accept donations in ten different coins.

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org

Update Tor Browser with our latest major release

Published on 2023-07-25

Update Tor Browser with our latest major release

Many of the features in this 12.5 release were made possible thanks to two projects, our work with journalists and human rights defenders in the Global South and the launch of the Mullvad Browser. Both those projects have allowed us to address legacy issues, implement efficiencies to the build release, and increase accessibility.

The result is a standalone, cohesive, and mature user experience that is pushing Tor Browser even more towards the mainstream in terms of quality and UI. This version features an updated circuit display, new icons for .onion sites, improvements to the connection experience and accessibility, Finnish language support and more. For a complete overview, you can learn more in our blog post.

Self-hosting the Tor Project users forum

We launched the Tor Project users forum to continue to grow the Tor community and experiment with new ways to gather feedback and provide support. After a year and a half of utilizing free cloud hosting graciously provided by the team behind Discourse, in early June we moved our forum to the Tor Project's own server infrastructure.

Apart from giving us more control over the forum's configuration, we can now provide an experimental onion service for our users accessing the platform via the Tor network. Be sure to bookmark the new address: forum.torproject.org. (For the time being, the old address will automatically redirect visitors to the new one.)

If you ran into any issues following the migration or want to learn more about 2FA, check out our blog post.

Call for Testers - WebTunnel, a new pluggable transport for bridges, now available for deployment

We're excited to announce WebTunnel, a new bridge pluggable transport (PT) for the Tor ecosystem. It is a censor resistant proxy that try to imitate HTTPS traffic, based on HTTPT 23 research. We are currently operating a trial soft launch for WebTunnel, and encourage bridge operators to set up WebTunnel bridges to discover issues within the implementation of this new pluggable transport.

Check out our forum post with more info on how it works, the technical requirements and how to report issues.

Empowering human rights defenders in Brazil, Ecuador & Mexico

When we established our Global South Strategy in 2017, we created a user feedback program to improve the user experience of our products involving ethical usability research with at-risk communities alongside digital security training. In 2021 we expanded this program to Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico based on the increasing threats and violence against marginalized groups, activists, journalists, and human rights defenders. We also partnered with the Guardian Project and Tails - two other organizations who are equally committed to defending human rights and internet freedom with privacy preserving technology.

During the past two years we have collaborated closely to combat internet censorship and surveillance to provide digital security training workshops in the three countries, reaching 47 human rights organizations and training 674 journalists and defenders. The program focused on applications such as Onion Browser, Orbot, Tails, and Tor Browser, with improvements made based on user feedback and pain points identified during the sessions. The workshops highlighted challenges faced by participants, such as expensive and unreliable internet access, browsing data monetization, and difficulty distinguishing between censorship and connectivity issues. The training aimed to provide participants with self-defense measures, knowledge of tools, and the ability to identify censorship and use circumvention techniques.

In June we shared our findings which were used to develop improvements for the applications, including a new circuit display and refined connection settings for Tor Browser, simplified usage steps and improved user experience for Orbot, and restructuring of documentation and validation of features for Tails.

Tor Relay Operators - Proposal for New Policies and Proposals

In the past, our approach to organizing the Tor relay operator community was highly informal and relied heavily on discussions and interactions in meetups and similar events between operators, Directory Authorities, and The Tor Project staff. However, as the Tor Community expands and its members become less interconnected, there is now a necessity to establish a well-defined process for presenting and evaluating proposals and policies to the relay operator community.

Find out more about how we have revised the process for submitting policies to the Tor relay operator community, how proposals are approved, and the relationship between Tor Community proposals and the Tor Project.

Keeping up with the latest releases

Tails 5.14 - June 13, 2023

It's a major version with a new backup feature in Tails Installer, automatic upgrade of the Persistent Storage to LUKS2, and captive portal detection.

https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-514/

New Alpha Release: Tor Browser 12.5a7 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux) - June 9, 2023

https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-125a7/

Arti 1.1.5 is released: Onion Services, RPC, and a security patch -    June 1, 2023

For onion services this month, we have continued work on our protocol infrastructure to support the cryptographic handshakes and protocols used for onion services, and begun design work on a key management system for onion services.

https://blog.torproject.org/arti_115_released/

Upcoming Events

Usenix Security, California, August 9, 2023 - August 11, 2023

The USENIX Security Symposium brings together researchers, practitioners, system administrators, system programmers, and others interested in the latest advances in the security and privacy of computer systems and networks.

https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity23/

Defcon, Las Vegas, August 10, 2023 - August 13, 2023

DEF CON is one of the oldest continuously running hacker conventions around, and also one of the largest. Members of the Tor Project will be speaking on Saturday, August 12th at 12.00pm, and you can come visit us at our booth. For more information on our talk, you can visit: https://defcon.org/html/defcon-31/dc-31-schedule.html#saturday

Chaos Communication Camp, August 15, 2023 - August 19, 2023

The Chaos Communication Camp is an international, five-day open-air event for hackers and associated life-forms. It provides a relaxed atmosphere for free exchange of technical, social, and political ideas.

Check out the program: https://events.ccc.de/camp/

The Global Gathering by Team Community, September 15, 2023 - September 17, 2023

This year's gathering will have a much more decentralized format and approach to previous instances. If you are not able to participate this year, do not worry, this is just the beginning. Keep up to date with the latest event info and how to participate here: https://www.digitalrights.community/blog/announcing-team-communitys-global-gathering

Join Our Community

Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://community.torproject.org/relay

Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet

Learn about more opportunities to start collaborating: https://community.torproject.org

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org

Tor Browser without Tor: We've teamed up with Mullvad VPN to launch Mullvad Browser

Published on 2023-05-29

Tor Browser without Tor: We've teamed up with Mullvad VPN to launch Mullvad Browser

When the Mullvad VPN team approached us to develop a privacy-focused web browser built on the principles of the Tor Browser-- we knew we had to take the opportunity to spread good browser privacy to more users! The result of this partnership is the Mullvad Browser which we launched last month to critical acclaim and support from the community.

The Mullvad Browser offers similar privacy features to Tor Browser but works independently of the Tor network. Tor Browser will continue to exist as a powerful option for anonymity online, while the Mullvad Browser provides an alternative privacy browser. This partnership has allowed us to make necessary improvements to Tor Browser and address vulnerabilities, benefiting both browsers--and the larger privacy tech ecosystem.

"We hope to inspire other tech builders and organizations to take a page out of our playbook --and think of privacy as a 'feature' that can enhance user experience-- and not as an afterthought. This collaboration with Mullvad illustrates that it is possible to build privacy-preserving technology that protects users like ours does together, rather than in competition with each other," says Isabela Fernandes, Tor Project's Executive Director.

For more thoughts from Isabela, take a look at her blog post announcing the Browser release.

Tor's Global Impact

As we continue to think of how we can better reach people in the Global South where access to the unrestricted internet is facing increasingly more challenges, we are looking into how we can expand our outreach to strengthen ties with at-risk and underserved communities to address barriers to the adoption of our services and grow our community.

An instrumental part in that process is our Global South Strategy, a project that was launched in 2017 and recently assessed by Firetail, a strategy consultancy working to achieve social progress. To learn more about some of their key findings on our achievements, you can find a quick overview on our blog or access the full report.

A border-less country-agnostic space

The Tor Project advocates for Onion Services as a censorship-resistant technology that ensures end-to-end encryption and contributes to a decentralized web. We see onion services as a border-less, country-agnostic space that offers more protections for vulnerable users than regular websites. We realized onion services were not used to their fullest extent, so we launched support initiatives and resources to provide education, information and increase adoption. The Onion Support group was created by the Tor Project to promote the adoption of onion services among civil society groups, human rights organizations, and news media outlets. With the support of the Open Technology Fund, we have assisted organizations in setting up their own onion services and provided high-level support and training. We have also developed open-source tools like Onionprobe, Onion Launchpad, and Onionmine to facilitate onion service development.

Read more about how we think about "Planting and Growing Onions".

If you or your organization is interested in learning more about our technology, onions and onion support, please contact us through this form. You can also ask questions and start a discussion on the Tor Project Forum.

New: Tax-Deductible Donations to the Tor Project in Euros

Want to make a tax-deductible donation to the Tor Project in Euros (€)? Now it's simple to make a one-time or monthly donation in EUR through our Open Collective hosted by Open Collective Europe. If you previously made donations to Tor via Renewable Freedom Foundation in order to do it in Euros and receive tax benefits in your country, please transition your donations to Open Collective! Switching your donation will ensure you receive immediate receipts for your gifts and enable you to receive swag from the Tor Project.

Keeping up with the latest releases

Tor Browser

May 12: Tor Browser 12.0.6

It updates Firefox to 102.11esr, including bug fixes, stability improvements and important security updates.

Build-Signing Infrastructure Updates: We are in the process of updating our build signing infrastructure, and unfortunately are unable to ship code-signed 12.0.6 installers for Windows systems currently. Therefore we will not be providing full Window installers for this release. However, automatic build-to-build upgrades from 12.0.4 and 12.0.5 should continue to work as expected.

To view the full changelog, take a look here: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1206/

April 21: Tor Browser 12.5a5 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux)

This release updates Firefox 102.9.0esr, including bug fixes, stability improvements and important security updates. We also backported the Android-specific security updates from Firefox 112. We use this opportunity to update various other components of Tor Browser as well: NoScript 11.4.21

March 22: Tor Browser 12.5a4 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux)

Tor Browser 12.5a4 also adds support for the Finnish language on all platforms. We would like to thank volunteer olavinto for making this possible! View the full changelog here: https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-125a4/

March 18: New Release: Tor Browser 12.0.4

This release updates Firefox to 102.9.0esr, including bug fixes, stability improvements and important security updates. We also backported the Android-specific security updates from Firefox 111. We also used this opportunity to update various components of Tor Browser as well such as NoScript 11.4.18.

The full changelog can be found here: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1204/

Arti

May 3: Arti 1.1.4 is released: Development on Onion Services and RPC

For this month and the next, our efforts are divided between onion services and work on a new RPC API (a successor to C Tor's "control port") that will give applications a safe and powerful way to work with Arti without having to write their code in Rust or link Arti as a library (unless they want to).

Our RPC code is still in an "infrastructure-only" state: the backend is mostly built, but as of yet it supports no useful functionality. For information on the general shape of our design, see the work-in-progress specification document. This release also solves a bug that prevented directories from updating under some circumstances.

The many smaller changes can be viewed in the changelog.

April 3: Arti 1.1.3 is released: More onion service development

Our primary focus remains: preparation for onion service support in Arti. We can now parse all of the relevant message types, build circuits as needed to target relays, build and sign onion service descriptors, and deliver onion service requests to our hsclient code.We've also solved a few annoying bugs, made our CI more bulletproof against certain programming mistakes, and exposed a few missing APIs in our code.\ For the many smaller changes, take a look at the changelog.

Building With Purpose: Puppet in Debian

As we continue to iterate on our Browser and network improvements, we're always on the lookout for opportunities to contribute back to the communities around the platforms and tools we depend on to keep the lights on. Puppet and Debian are two such projects that have allowed us to improve security and reliability while ensuring adherence to user-centric policies and allowing for greater system integration. The decision to use Debian packages was made due to their secure build process and user-focused policies, such as disabling analytics and update checks by default. We collaborated with the Debian Puppet Team to fix bugs and implement tests, aiming to bring their Puppet infrastructure up to date. This effort will benefit privacy-minded individuals and organizations relying on Puppet in Debian. Be sure to check out our blog post to get the full picture.

Upcoming Events

SIF, Stockholm Internet Forum, May 30, 2023 -- May 31, 2023

The theme for the Stockholm Internet Forum 2023 (SIF23) is the Role of the Internet and ICT during Crises, Conflicts and Disasters.

https://stockholminternetforum.se/

RightsCon, Costa Rica, June 5, 2023 -- June 8, 2023

RightsCon is the world's leading summit on human rights in the digital age. The Tor Project will host a Community Village booth on Thursday, June 8 from 9:00am to 12:00pm.

https://www.rightscon.org/

BTC Prague, June 8, 2023 -- June 10, 2023

The Tor Project's Director of Engineering, Micah Anderson, will be speaking at the biggest, most influential bitcoin event in Europe. In his talk Privacy & Anonymity: Securing the Digital Economy's Most Valuable Assets, Micah will explore popular use cases of Tor technologies and the value alignment with Bitcoin: how chain-anonymity and zero-knowledge solutions rely on the Tor network, how we mitigate risks, and what's next for free, open-source, decentralized anonymizing tech.

https://www.btcprague.com/

Join Our Community

Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://community.torproject.org/relay

Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet

Learn about more opportunities to start collaborating: https://community.torproject.org

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org

Tor is slow right now. Here is what is happening.

Published on 2023-03-16

Tor is slow right now. Here is what is happening.

For at least 7 months, several different types of ongoing denial of service (DoS) attacks have affected the Tor network. At some points, the attacks impacted the network severely enough that users could not load pages or access onion services.

We have been working hard to mitigate the impacts and defend the network from these attacks and we will continue to increase and tweak defenses to combat this problem. We've also added two new members to our Network team who will be solely focused on .onion services development.

You can help too! We are 70% towards our goal of fully funding two years worth of onion service development to mitigate the impacts of these attacks and we need your help to get there. Here's how: https://blog.torproject.org/tor-network-ddos-attack/.

New: WhatsApp user support for Tor users

Providing support and necessary tools for those who find themselves in places where Tor access is restricted has become one of our top priorities. As our community continues to grow, we need to make it easier and safer to connect with us. Which is why we have been adding additional support channels for the last two years: from IRC bridges to messaging apps like Telegram, Signal and—most recently—WhatsApp.

To ensure that you receive the best and safest support from us, we encourage you to verify that you're connecting with us through our official Tor Project channels. You can find the full list of legitimate links, email-addresses and numbers on our official support page. And to learn more about the best ways to connect with us across channels check out our recent blog post

What others are saying: Tor in the media

On March 6, the Twitter onion service certificate expired, effectively taking the onion site offline. We took to the media to voice our concerns about this development. Seeing the onion service, which was dubbed "Twitter’s Most Important Anti-Censorship Tool", go offline on the eve of Twitter's new leadership speaking publicly about building a "strong foundation of free speech" at a Morgan Stanley conference, is particularly ironic.

Let’s be clear, the need for onion services, the use of privacy-focused browsers that protect people's anonymity, and other forms of encryption still persists. We will continue to spread this message and advocate for widespread acceptance and adoption of our services.

Welcoming new board members to the Tor Project

We are excited to announce the result of our open call for board members - three new members are joining the Tor Project’s Board of Directors: Esra'a Al Shafei, Sarah Gran and Christian Kaufman! Each new member comes to Tor with a different set of expertise that will help the organization and our community. At the end of this post, you can read each of their bios.

Please join us in welcoming Esra’a, Sarah, and Christian to the board, and learn more about the valuable expeirence they bring to the board on our blog. (link to https://blog.torproject.org/announcing-new-board-members/)

Latest Releases

Arti 1.1.2 https://blog.torproject.org/arti_112_released/ (Feb. 28) While preparing for the next stages of onion service work, we've refactored that code significantly to make it more efficient and correct.

Tor Browser 12.5a3 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-125a3/ (Feb. 20) Updates Firefox on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux to 102.8.0esr. It includes important security updates to Firefox and GeckoView. There were no Android-specific security updates to backport from the Firefox 110 release.

Tails 5.10 https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-510/ (Feb. 16) Updates Tor Browser to 12.0.3. Asks for confirmation when starting without unlocking the Persistent Storage. Updates our documentation on the Persistent Storage.

Tor Browser 12.0.3 https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1203/ (Feb. 15) This release updates Firefox to 102.8, including bug fixes, stability improvements and important security updates. There were no Android-specific security updates to backport from the Firefox 110 release.

Arti 1.1.1 https://blog.torproject.org/arti_111_released/ (Feb. 1) Since our last release, our primary focus has been preparation for onion service support in Arti. To that end, we've broken the work down into a bunch of tickets, designed our major internal APIs, and started to work on the lower-level features.

Job Opportunities

We're hiring a Product Designer. (link to https://www.torproject.org/about/jobs/) This position will be an integral part of a small, "full stack" design team, encompassing the disciplines of UX design, ethical use This is a one-year, remote, full-time (40 hour/week) position with the possibility of extension. This position could be performed from most places in the world.

Upcoming Events

Join the Tor Project at the following in-person and online events:

European Digital Rights' 20th anniversary, March 21, 2023, Brussels https://blog.torproject.org/event/edri-20th-anniversary/

Stockholm Internet Forum, May 30 - May 31, 2023, Sweden https://blog.torproject.org/event/stockholm-internet-forum-2023/

RightsCon, June 5, 2023 – June 8, 2023, Costa Rica https://blog.torproject.org/event/rightscon-2023/

Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium, July 10 - July 15, 2023, Switzerland https://blog.torproject.org/event/privacy-enhancing-technologies-symposium-2023/

USENIX Security Symposium, August 9 - August 11, 2023, USA https://blog.torproject.org/event/usenix-2023/

DEFCON31, August 10 - August 13, 2023, USA https://blog.torproject.org/event/usenix-2023/

Join Our Community

Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://community.torproject.org/relay

Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet

Learn about more opportunities to start collaborating: https://community.torproject.org

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org

🚀 Tor Browser 12.0, Reflecting on 2022, Becoming a Monthly Donor

Published on 2022-12-22

🚀 Tor Browser 12.0 has landed!

https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-120/

We're happy to bring Tor Browser 12.0, the first in the latest series, with many exciting improvements:

🦊 Tor Browser has been upgraded to Firefox Extended Support Release 102. We've carefully reviewed ESR 102's release notes to ensure each change adheres to Tor Browser's strict privacy and security principles.

💬 Tor Browser for desktop is now truly multi-locale, meaning all supported languages are included in a single bundle. You can switch display language without any additional downloads via the Language menu in General settings.

🍎 Tor Browser now provides native support for Apple Silicon. We've opted for a Universal Binary too – meaning both x86-64 (for Intel) and ARM64 (for Apple Silicon) builds are bundled together and the correct version chosen automatically.

🔒 HTTPS-Only Mode is now enabled by default in Tor Browser for Android. This change will help provide the same level of protection against SSL stripping attacks by malicious exit relays that we introduced to desktop in Tor Browser 11.5.

🧅 12.0 for Android also includes the option to "prioritize .onion sites". When enabled, you will be redirected automatically to the matching .onion site for any web site that has Onion-Location configured.

Check out the many changes in the 12.0 series (https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-120/), and if you find a bug or have a suggestion for how we could improve this release, please let us know. Thanks to all of the teams across Tor, and the many volunteers, who contributed to this release.

Resistance, Change, & Freedom: Reflecting on 2022

https://blog.torproject.org/reflecting-on-2022

Every end of year calls for reflection. This year at the Tor Project we’ve seen setbacks in the world’s fight for human rights coming from all directions and how privacy and freedom online have been critical lifelines for many.

In the midst of these setbacks, 2022 has also been a year of resistance. This year we’ve fought censorship with the incredible help of our community. You've helped build a chain of resistance, from sharing information about Snowflake on social media, to helping others learn how to bypass government censorship, to running a proxy and donating your bandwidth for censored users, to offering legal support against censorship in the courts.

Read more reflections on Tor in 2020 from Isabela Fernandes, the Tor Project's Executive Director: https://blog.torproject.org/reflecting-on-2022.

Ensure Tor is strong for years to come: become a monthly donor

https://blog.torproject.org/become-a-monthly-donor/

Tor is powered by community. Just as the privacy the Tor network provides is made possible by a decentralized network of volunteers running relays—the Tor Project is made possible by a wide variety of supporters.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Tor Project relies on external support to fight for your privacy online. We will always build and offer free software. It’s part of our mission and our vision of a better internet. We don’t harvest or sell your data. We don’t charge you to use what we build. That means that everyone in the world can use Tor. It also means that if you have the ability, making a monthly donation to Tor ensures its availability for others.

By becoming a Defender of Privacy with a monthly donation, you make it possible for Tor to plan for the years ahead with confidence. Consistent support ensures that the Tor Project is sustainable and stable—and every donation, no matter the amount, helps: https://blog.torproject.org/become-a-monthly-donor/.

New Releases

Tails 5.8 https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-58/ (Dec. 20) Tails 5.8 is the most important release of Tails in years. It includes both major redesign of existing features, important usability improvements, and hardened security.

Tor Browser 12.0.1 https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1201/ (Dec. 15) Tor Browser 12.0.1 updates Firefox to 102.6, including bug fixes, stability improvements and important security updates. It fixes a regression in drag and drop protection, which disrupted some interface interactions.

Tor Browser 12.0 https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-120/ (Dec. 7) Tor Browser 12.0 brings many significant improvements and updates Tor Browser to Firefox Extended Support Release 102.

Arti 1.1.0 https://blog.torproject.org/arti_110_released/ (Nov. 30) Arti is our ongoing project to create a next-generation Tor client in Rust. Arti 1.1.0 introduces support for Tor's anti-censorship features: bridges and pluggable transports.

Tor Browser 11.5.10 (Android) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-11510/ (Nov. 29) This is an Android-only release which fixes crashes on Android 12+ devices caused by the targetSdkVersion update in 11.5.9.

Tor Browser 11.5.9 (Android) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1159/ (Nov. 23) This is an Android-only release which updates the Android Target API level to 31 to meet Google Play requirements.

Tor Browser 11.5.8 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1158/ (Nov. 22) Tor Browser 11.5.8 backports security updates from Firefox ESR 102.5 to Firefox ESR 91.13 on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Tor Browser 11.5.7 (Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1157/ (Nov. 3) This is a minor release for desktop platforms intended to facilitate the single-locale to multi-locale bundle upgrade coming with the 12.0 series later this month.

Join Our Community

Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://community.torproject.org/relay

Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet

Learn about more opportunities to start collaborating: https://community.torproject.org

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org


The Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open-source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and furthering their scientific and popular understanding.

Tor News | State of the Onion '22, donations matched, & alpha testers needed

Published on 2022-10-01

You're Invited: State of the Onion 2022

We're happy to announce that the State of the Onion, a livestream event highlighting updates from onion-world over the last year, is returning this month! This year, we'll State of the Onion will be a two-part event:

Everyone is invited to hear news, accomplishments, challenges, and next steps of all the Tor Project's teams + Tor community projects during these live events. Remember to click on the YouTube links above and set a reminder for each event. We look forward to sharing the event programs on the blog and forum soon.

Donations to the Tor Project matched 1:1 now through December

https://blog.torproject.org/powered-by-privacy/

Every year, the Tor Project (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) holds a fundraiser where we ask for your support. As part of this fundraiser, now through December, your donation to the Tor Project today will be matched, 1:1.

That means that every donation, up to $100,000, will be doubled. Now is an excellent time to give because your donation counts twice. Be sure to check out https://donate.torproject.org for this year’s new t-shirt, and a brand-new offering: a sturdy canvas tote bag.

Global Encryption Day: Demand End-to-End Encryption in DMs

https://blog.torproject.org/global-encryption-day-2022/

October 21, 2022 was the second Global Encryption Day, organized by the Global Encryption Coalition (https://www.globalencryption.org/2022/06/global-encryption-day-2022/), of which the Tor Project is a member. Global Encryption Day to highlight why encryption matters and to advocate for its advancement and protection.

Global Encryption Day was also a day for all of us to highlight services that should be encrypted—but are not yet. That's why we've called on platforms to do what’s right: make DMs safe. We’re demanding that Big Tech finally bring the protection of end-to-end encryption to DMs in their products—not as a hidden “added feature”—but as the default setting.

Join us to demand that Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple protect our private messages and implement default end-to-end encryption immediately: https://www.makedmssafe.com.

Alpha testers needed for Tor Browser 12.0a4

https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-120a4/

Your help is needed to test a number of new changes in Tor Browser 12.0a4, including the following features:

  • Multi-locale bundles (Desktop)

  • tor-launcher migration (Desktop)

  • Onion Auth fixes (Desktop)

  • Always prioritize .onion sites (Android)

  • Unified Español locale (Desktop and Android)

What to test, how to report any discoveries, and more details about all of these features is on our blog now. Please consider volunteering as an alpha tester and making sure important features work before they come to the stable release!

New Releases

Tor Browser 12.0a4 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-120a4/ (Oct. 31) Tor Browser 12.0a4 updates Firefox on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux to 102.4.0esr. This version includes important security updates to Firefox and GeckoView. There were no Android-specific security updates to backport from the Firefox 106 release.

Tor Browser 11.5.6 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1156/ (Oct. 27) This is an emergency release resolving an issue with Tor Browser 11.5.5's integration of the Snowflake pluggable transport. Users of 11.5.5 will be unable to connect to the Tor Network via the built-in Snowflake bridge until they update to 11.5.6.

Tor Browser 11.5.5 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1155/ (Oct. 25) Tor Browser 11.5.5 backports the security updates from Firefox ESR 102.4 to to Firefox ESR 91.13 on Windows, macOS and Linux and updates GeckoView on Android to 102.4.0esr and includes important security updates. There were no Android-specific security updates to backport from the Firefox 106 release.

Tor Browser 11.5.4 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1154/ (Oct. 14) Tor Browser 11.5.4 backports the security updates from Firefox ESR 102.3 to to Firefox ESR 91.13 on Windows, macOS and Linux and backports the Android-specific security updates from Firefox 104 and 105. It also updates GeckoView on Android to 102.3.0esr.

Arti 1.0.1 https://blog.torproject.org/arti_101_released/ (Oct. 4) This release fixes bugs (including one that would cause a busy-loop), tightens log security, exposes an API for building circuits manually, and contains some preparatory work for anticensorship support.

Upcoming Events

State of the Onion: the Tor Project, November 9 @ 17:00 UTC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSyBZ7GIzJY

Tor at Bread&Net 2022, November 15 https://blog.torproject.org/event/2022-bread-and-net/

Roger Dingledine at DARPA Forward, November 15-16 https://blog.torproject.org/event/roger-darpa-forward/

State of the Onion: the Tor community, November 16 @ 17:00 UTC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-7k0PjnBbk

Tor Localization Hangout, November 18 @ 12:00 UTC https://blog.torproject.org/event/2022-11-18-l10n-hangout/

Join Our Community

Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://community.torproject.org/relay

Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet

Learn about more opportunities to start collaborating: https://community.torproject.org

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org

--

The Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open-source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and furthering their scientific and popular understanding.

Tor on Telegram, become a Board member, Arti 1.0.0

Published on 2022-09-07

Supporting Tor users via Telegram

When the Russian government blocked Tor in December 2021, the Tor Project Anti-censorship Team launched a new Telegram bot to share bridges and help users to circumvent censorship.

Because we've see our initial Telegram bot help thousands of users, and because Telegram is a very popular messaging platform in the Russian-speaking community, we're launching more services on Telegram:

  • TorProject: Our official news channel on Telegram. We will deliver essential updates from the Tor Project.

  • GetTor_bot (https://t.me/GetTor_bot): If you can't download Tor Browser through our website, you can get a copy of Tor Browser delivered to you via GetTor. GetTor is a service that automatically responds to messages with links to the latest version of Tor Browser.

  • GetBridgesBot (https://t.me/GetBridgesbot): If you can't access Tor because the network is censored in your region, you can request a Tor bridge using this Telegram bot and use this bridge to circumvent censorship.

  • TorProjectSupportBot (https://t.me/TorProjectSupportBot): If you can't connect to Tor or you need help setting up Tor Browser, a live Tor user support specialist will help you. The help desk is available in English and Russian, and it's open for all users living in censored regions.

Join us on Telegram and help spread the word that these resources are available!

Open call for Tor Board members

https://www.torproject.org/about/jobs/board-of-directors

We are happy to announce that for the first time the Tor Project Board has published an open call for candidates to become new members of the Board: https://www.torproject.org/about/jobs/board-of-directors/. The goal of this open call is to provide a way for the whole community to participate in this process.

We believe that this new process will not only help us find great new members for our Board but will also generate new relationships and get us closer to the communities that Tor serves.

If you are interested in giving back to Tor in a governance role, we encourage you to submit an application before Sept. 30.

Arti 1.0.0 is released and ready for production use 🎉

https://blog.torproject.org/arti_100_released

Back in 2020, we started work on a new implementation of the Tor protocols in the Rust programming language. With Arti 1.0.0, we believe it's ready for wider use.

This means that you should be able to use Arti in the real world to get a similar degree of privacy, usability, and stability to what you would with a C client Tor. The APIs should be (more or less) stable for embedders. You can now use arti proxy to connect to the Tor network to anonymize your network connections.

To achieve this, we we've made many improvements to Arti. For a complete list of changes, and to learn more about Arti 1.0.0, visit our blog: https://blog.torproject.org/arti_100_released.

New Releases

  • Arti 1.0.0 (Sept. 2) Arti is now ready for production use. You should be able to use it in the real world, to get a similar degree of privacy, usability, and stability to what you would with a C client Tor.

  • Tor Browser 11.5.3 (Android) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1153 (August 30) Tor Browser 11.5.3 (Android) fixes bugs with bundled extensions and user add-ons.

  • Tor Browser 11.5.2 (Android,Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1152 (August 29) Tor Browser 11.5.2 updates Firefox on Windows, macOS, and Linux to 91.13.0esr. Updates Tor to 0.4.7.10 and NoScript to 11.4.9.

  • Urgent: Stable Release 0.4.5.14, 0.4.6.12 and 0.4.7.10 https://forum.torproject.net/t/urgent-stable-release-0-4-5-14-0-4-6-12-and-0-4-7-10/4270 (August 12) Relays should these latest stables as soon as possible. On August 12, we were contacted by IPFire that the database starting from August 10 is missing ARIN networks. This release reverts to a database from August 9. Not upgrading can badly affect circuit path selection if country code are used in your torrc file.

  • Stable Release 0.4.5.13, 0.4.6.11 and 0.4.7.9 https://forum.torproject.net/t/stable-release-0-4-5-13-0-4-6-11-and-0-4-7-9/4259 (August 11) These releases have multiple minor fixes that were backported for 0.4.5.x and 0.4.6.x. The rest of the fixes aim to help with the ongoing DDoS on the network mainly to reduce memory pressure on the relays and improve our DoS mitigation measures.

  • Tor Browser 12.0a1 (Windows, macOS, Linux) https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-120a1 (August 9) Tor Browser 12.0a1 updates Firefox on Windows, macOS, and Linux to 91.12.0esr. Updates Tor Launcher to 0.2.38, OpenSSL to 1.1.1q, and Go to 1.17.13.

  • Arti 0.6.0 https://blog.torproject.org/arti_060_released (August 3) Arti 0.6.0 reworks a large number of internal APIs, provides better error messages, and provides more of Tor's cryptographic handshakes. Fixes major compatibility issues on Windows and iOS.

What We're Reading

Serving Websites Privately Over Tor Onion Services (From Your Laptop!), Guardian Project. https://guardianproject.info/2022/08/29/serving-websites-privately-over-tor-onion-services-from-your-laptop

Google’s Manifest V3 Still Hurts Privacy, Security, and Innovation, EFF. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/googles-manifest-v3-still-hurts-privacy-security-innovation

The Pitfalls of Closed-Source Whistleblowing Software, Whistleblowing Network International. https://whistleblowingnetwork.org/Our-Work/Spotlight/Stories/The-Pitfalls-of-Closed-Source-Whistleblowing-Softw

How Tor Is Fighting—and Beating—Russian Censorship, WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/tor-browser-russia-blocks

How Russia Took Over Ukraine’s Internet in Occupied Territories, The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/09/technology/ukraine-internet-russia-censorship.html

Join Our Community

Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://community.torproject.org/relay

Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet

Learn about more opportunities to start collaborating: https://community.torproject.org

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://donate.torproject.org

2021 Annual Report, Volunteer as an alpha tester, Tor Browser 11.5

Published on 2022-07-12

What you made possible in internet freedom: 2021 Annual Report

https://blog.torproject.org/2020-2021-annual-report/

We're thrilled to share the Tor Project's latest Annual Report with you.

In the last year, the Tor community has mobilized against increasing global censorship, more than doubled the number of bridges on the Tor network, and responded to tens of thousands of user support requests. We've also worked hard to make Tor faster, improve the health of our network, and connect with our community through training and events.

Take a moment to read more about mobilizing against internet censorship in this year's annual report (page 4), alongside other achievements this year. Thank you for making Tor and the freedom it provides online possible.

Help Tor users everywhere—volunteer as an alpha tester

https://blog.torproject.org/vounteer-as-an-alpha-tester/

Tor Browser receives hundreds of changes a year: from updates to Firefox – the underlying browser on which Tor Browser is based – to entirely new features designed to help protect at-risk and censored users. However, each change made to Tor Browser has the potential to introduce new and sometimes elusive bugs.

In order to find and fix these bugs before they reach the majority of our users, we apply updates to an early version of Tor Browser known as Tor Browser Alpha before releasing them more widely. Then, as a small nonprofit, we rely on a community of volunteer testers to try out our alphas before their general release in order to keep Tor Browser available on so many platforms.

Volunteering to become an alpha tester is one of the most accessible and effective ways you can help at-risk users stay connected to Tor.

By spending a few minutes testing each new alpha release and reporting bugs back to our developers, you'll help provide a more stable Tor Browser for millions of users around the world. Join our community as an alpha tester and help users everywhere safely access Tor.

Update on slow speed and overload on the Tor network

Over the past several weeks, a DDoS attack has targeted the Tor network. You may have noticed an impact on Tor performance. We've deployed improvements to help mitigate this attack, which have helped user experience, along with waning overload. As the ongoing DDoS attack strategy changes, we continue to investigate and implement mitigations. For more details, see our thread on the Tor Forum and feel free to join the discussion.

Coming soon: Tor Browser 11.5 👀

Big changes to routing around censorship against Tor are coming to Tor Browser 11.5, slated for release at the end of July. Keep your eyes open for the reveal of Connection Assist, a brand-new feature that makes discovering censorship against Tor Browser, and understanding what to do about it, much easier.

Arti 0.5.0 is released: Robustness and API improvements

https://blog.torproject.org/arti_050_released/

Arti is our ongoing project to create a working embeddable Tor client in Rust. Arti 0.5.0 adds cryptographic acceleration, a useful set of toplevel build features, reachable-address filtering, detection for failed directory downloads, and numerous cleanups.

What's next? In the short term, we're working for feature-parity with Tor in netflow resistance and congestion control. We already have some backend code, but a complete implementation will take a while. Beyond that, between now and our 1.0.0 milestone in September, we're aiming to make Arti a production-quality Tor client for direct internet access.

We need your help to test Arti, find bugs, and suggest improvements! Visit our blog for more details about Arti 0.5.0 and how to get involved.

New Releases

Upcoming Events

What We're Reading

México es el país con el mayor ancho de banda en la red Tor en América Latina, El Economista. https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/tecnologia/Mexico-es-el-pais-con-el-mayor-ancho-de-banda-en-la-red-Tor-en-America-Latina-20220705-0082.html

Fear, Uncertainty, and Period Trackers, by Kendra Albert, Maggie Delano, and Emma Weil. https://medium.com/@Kendra_Serra/fear-uncertainty-and-period-trackers-340ab8fdff74

Мескио из команды Tor: «Наша задача — помочь активистским сообществам безопасно работать в онлайне», Teplitsa ST. https://te-st.ru/2022/06/17/meskio-tor-interview/

Keep Your Abortion Private & Secure, Digital Defense Fund. https://digitaldefensefund.org/ddf-guides/abortion-privacy/#history

Britain must end its silence on Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd El Fattah, family demand, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/05/britain-must-end-its-silence-on-egyptian-hunger-striker-alaa-abd-el-fattah-family-demand

The genesis of 'privacy by design', Politico. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2022/06/08/the-genesis-of-privacy-by-design-00038186

Join Our Community

Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://community.torproject.org/relay/

Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet

Learn about more opportunities to start collaborating: https://community.torproject.org/

Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. https://torproject.org/donate/donate-phr-tn1

-- The Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open-source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and furthering their scientific and popular understanding.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@torproject Tor Forum: https://forum.torproject.net/