Published on 2019-08-30
Run a Tor Bridge to Defend the Open Internet
https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet
We believe everyone should have private access to the open internet, but not everyone is able to enjoy the luxury Tor provides. Freedom to publish, share, and access information online is critical for a healthy society, yet governments and entities around the world deny people this universal human right. All of the relays that make up the Tor network are publicly listed, so that means one way to try to prevent people from using Tor is to blacklist the public IP addresses of all of the thousands of Tor relays.
For example, the governments of China, Iran, and Kazakhstan exercise information control by trying to block Tor.
However, thanks to bridges, Tor users are still able to connect to the network when the public Tor relays are blocked. Bridges are private Tor relays that serve as stepping stones into the network. Not only are bridges private, they can also modify their network packets in a way that it's difficult for an observer to conclude that somebody is using Tor. Censored users are able to select bridges from BridgeDB or directly in Tor Browserâs Network Settings.
We currently have approximately 1,000 bridges, 600 of which support the obfs4 obfuscation protocol. Unfortunately, these numbers have been stagnant for a while. It's not enough to have many bridges: eventually, all of them could find themselves in block lists. We therefore need a constant trickle of new bridges that aren't blocked anywhere yet. This is where we need your help.
By setting up an obfs4 bridge, you can help censored users connect to the open internet through Tor. We will randomly select 10 new bridge operators to receive a metallic roots Tor t-shirt as a token of our gratitude for your help defending the open internet. Set up your bridge and email us by September 30 to qualify. Learn how: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet
Join Our DocsHackathon Starting September 2nd
https://blog.torproject.org/join-tors-docshackathon-next-week
Documentation is extremely valuable to the health of open source software projects, but it is often overlooked. Due to the amount of interest we received during our search for a Google Season of Docs candidate, we're kicking off a week-long documentation hackathon Monday 2nd September 00:00UTC to Friday 6th September 23:59UTC. This is your opportunity to help us keep our documentation up to date and relevant for millions of Tor users around the world. Weâll also be rewarding the top 3 contributors with prizes at the end of the week.
We are looking for copywriters, front-end devs, testers, and content reviewers to help us improve our documentation and its relevancy. Don't feel like any of these apply to you but still want to help out? Chat with us on IRC (#tor-www - irc.oftc.net) or the community team mailing list to join us and get involved.
Learn how to register and get started: https://blog.torproject.org/join-tors-docshackathon-next-week
We are a small nonprofit with a big mission, and we sincerely appreciate your help getting our documentation up to speed. We're looking forward to working with you next week.
New Releases
Tor 0.4.1.5
After months of work, we have a new stable release series. This is the first stable release in the 0.4.1.x series. This series adds experimental circuit-level padding, authenticated SENDME cells to defend against certain attacks, and several performance improvements to save on CPU consumption. It fixes bugs in bootstrapping and v3 onion services. It also includes numerous smaller features and bugfixes on earlier versions. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-0415
Tor Browser 9.0a5
This version is for Android only, the latest alpha version for Linux, macOS and Windows is still 9.0a4. Note: this is an alpha release, an experimental version for users who want to help us test new features. For everyone else, we recommend downloading the latest stable release instead. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-90a5
Upcoming Events with Tor
APIdays.io. Barcelona, Spain. 12-13 September 2019. https://www.apidays.co/barcelona
What We're Reading
Resurgence of Internet Censorship in Ethiopia: Blocking of WhatsApp, Facebook, and African Arguments. OONI. "On 22nd June 2019, following an alleged coup attempt in the Amhara region, access to the internet was shut down again. Once internet access was restored, access to WhatsApp was blocked again. This time though, we observe the blocking of Facebook (facebook.com and Facebook Messenger), instead of Telegram (which was/is accessible). A few weeks later, we noticed the blocking of the African Arguments website as well, a pan-African platform covering investigative stories. In this report, we share OONI network measurement data on these ongoing censorship events."
https://ooni.io/post/resurgence-internet-censorship-ethiopia-2019/
West Papua: thousands take to streets after week of violence. The Guardian. "Fake news" is being used as an excuse to shut down the internet in West Papua amid protests. This is dangerous: It's hard to get or share critical information without it. The Indonesian government needs to #KeepItOn. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/26/west-papua-thousands-expected-at-fresh-protests-after-week-of-violence
https://twitter.com/hashtag/KeepItOn?src=hashtag_click
Fresh wave of phishing attacks targeting journalists and human rights activists in MENA. Amnesty International. "Attackers who use phishing scams to target human rights defenders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are developing increasingly sophisticated techniques to infiltrate their accounts and evade digital security tools." https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/08/fresh-wave-of-phishing-attacks-targeting-journalists-and-human-rights-activists-in-mena/
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Run a bridge to help censored users access Tor: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject
Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@torproject
Published on 2019-07-29
Our New Anti-Censorship Team is Defending The Open Internet
https://blog.torproject.org/tors-new-anti-censorship-team-defending-open-internet
At the non-profit organization level, the Tor Project consists of several teams. The network team works on part of the back-end: the program called tor, network simulators, onion services, etc.; the metrics team collects and publishes Tor network metrics; the applications team maintains Tor Browser and other user-facing applications; the UX team improves user experience across all projects; the community team fosters a healthy community around Tor; OONI maintains a global observation network for detecting censorship, surveillance, and traffic manipulation on the internet; the communications team gets our message out to the world; and the fundraising team rallies people to financially support our vision so we can keep Tor strong for millions around the world.
All of our teams share a common vision: for people around the world to enjoy privacy and freedom online. As censorship has increased around the world and internet freedom has declined, we realized we needed to step up our game to outpace the censors preventing people from enjoying the human right to freedom of expression and access to information on the internet.
In February, we created a brand new anti-censorship team. This team consists of two software engineers with research backgrounds and a project manager, but there are many other people who contribute to the teamâs workâby adding valuable code, insight into past work, infrastructure, and resources. The goal of the anti-censorship team is to understand network censorship and build technology to circumvent it so the Tor network can be accessible to everyone.
To kick things off, we've released a technical report called "Addressing Denial of Service Attacks on Free and Open Communication on the Internet." This report, part of the first project the team engaged in, provides a comprehensive overview of the state of our anti-censorship roadmap. The report outlines recent improvements and open challenges around BridgeDB, GetTor, snowflake, pluggable transports, censorship analysis, and censorship-related user experience.
Are you interested in following the anti-censorship team's work or joining the team? Then check out our wiki page. It has all details regarding our weekly IRC meeting, our public mailing list, and the software projects we maintain: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/AntiCensorshipTeam
We are determined to make privacy and freedom online accessible to all, and we hope youâll join us. If youâre unable to volunteer, your donation can help us tackle this critical challenge: https://donate.torproject.org
Reflections from Our Stockholm All Hands
https://blog.torproject.org/reflections-our-stockholm-all-hands
This month, the Tor Project held our biannual all hands meeting, this time in Stockholm, Sweden. During our all hands meetings, we bring together staff, key volunteers, and collaborators from partner organizations like Freedom of the Press Foundation, Tails, the Guardian Project, and Mozilla. Our goal at our all hands meetings is to reflect on the last six months, address challenges and successes, plan our work for the next six months, and have important in-person conversations that are only possible when all teams are in the same location.
For this meetingâs location and venue, we relied on one of Torâs biggest strengths--our people.
On the first night in Stockholm, one of our local volunteers organized a âdo it yourselfâ welcome dinner for all attendees at Kafe 44, a long-standing nonprofit co-op cafe operating as a cultural social center in the heart of Stockholm.
We were also blessed with an amazing donation from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, which let us use their facilities for our three day meeting where we spread out across classrooms and engaged in back-to-back sessions organized and led by peers.
During these three days we had a local collective, Kafé Ingenstans, responsible for our lunch. They only cook vegan food with local ingredients and we had the most amazing food. We were even able to give them a big tip that we heard they will use to buy bicycles for their delivery. They also got connected with Kafe 44 after our welcome dinner and now will be serving food there.
Through partnership with our community and our communityâs broader connections, we turned limited resources into a safe space to cultivate connections, collaboration, and progress toward the vision and values that we are all working towards at Tor. Find out how it went: https://blog.torproject.org/reflections-our-stockholm-all-hands
New Releases
Tor Browser 8.5.4
Tor Browser 8.5.4 contains updates to a number of its components. Above all, we include Firefox 60.8.0esr which contains important security fixes. Moreover, after some testing in the alpha series, we start shipping Tor 0.4.0.5 and update OpenSSL to 1.0.2s for the desktop platforms. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-854
Tor Browser 9.0a4
Tor Browser 9.0a4 contains updates to a number of bundle parts, most importantly Firefox (60.8.0esr) and Tor (0.4.1.3-alpha). We also implemented fixes for accessibility support on Windows systems (big thanks to Richard Pospesel for the hard work here), which now deserve a wider testing. Full changelog:
https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-90a4
Upcoming Events with Tor
Def Con. Las Vegas, US. 8-11 August, 2019. Roger Dingledine is giving a mainline talk: The Tor Censorship Arms Race: The Next Chapter. Plus, we'll have a booth in the vendor area. https://blog.torproject.org/events/def-con-las-vegas-0
BornHack. Funen, Denmark. 8-15 August, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/bornhack-funen-denmark
USENIX. Santa Clara, US. 14-16 August, 2019. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity19
What We're Reading
It's time you ditched Chrome for a privacy-first web browser. Wired UK. "...the Tor network, with its layers of encryption and routing through various locations, is the best way to protect your identity online. Plus, in recent years it's become simpler to use." https://www.wired.co.uk/article/best-privacy-browsers-and-chrome-alternatives
Oakland becomes third U.S. city to ban police use of facial recognition. Salon. "Oakland now joins San Francisco and Somerville, Mass., which banned the technology in May and June respectively in a bid to protect the privacy of their citizens."
https://www.salon.com/2019/07/21/oakland-becomes-third-us-city-to-ban-police-use-of-facial-recognition_partner/
EFF Hits AT&T With Class Action Lawsuit for Selling Customersâ Location to Bounty Hunters. Motherboard. "The lawsuit, which comes after multiple Motherboard investigations into phone location data selling, is seeking an injunction against AT&T which would try to enforce the deletion of any sold data." https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43j99g/eff-hits-atandt-with-class-action-lawsuit-for-selling-customers-location-to-bounty-hunters
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject
Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@torproject
Published on 2019-06-27
Pride and Privacy
Fifty years ago, in New York Cityâs Greenwich Village, the NYPD raided a gay bar. This wasnât a new occurrence. Patrons at the Stonewall Inn were familiar with being targeted by the police, arrested for âcross dressing,â hassled for being gender nonconforming or queer or transgender or otherwise outside of the rigid expectations around morality.
Something different happened, though, on June 28, 1969. The patrons at the Stonewall Inn resisted the police raid and fought back. Their resistance sparked a week of protests and decades of collaborative activism in the name of LGBTQ+ recognition and safety.
In the fifty years since the resistance at Stonewall, the global LGBTQ+ community has fought for, and in some cases won, important visibility and protections.
Pride and the month of June can serve as a reminder of this progress. Pride can be an opportunity to celebrate without shame. Pride can be a reminder that all people deserve to safely gather, build community, swap resources, tell their stories, and be unapologetically who they are.
Pride can also be an opportunity to reflect on how many LGBTQ+ people still face prejudice, injustice, and violence. In the same way safety was not a given in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, safety is still not a given for LGBTQ+ people in 2019, particularly in places where there are negative social stigmas around being queer or transgender.
Today, despite our progress, not all LGBTQ+ people can be public about their identities. Many people still face extreme consequences for being who they are, and risk being abandoned by family and friends, harassed, fired, deported, jailed, or killed for being outâor outed. The internet is not safe from these consequences. In fact, the proliferation of dating sites and social media has been used to track down and entrap LGBTQ+ people.
To put it simply, privacy can be critical to safety.
The fact that many LGBTQ+ people need a private, anonymous internet to communicate with their peers or find important resources without being tracked and outed is one of the many reasons why we do what we do at the Tor Project.
Tor stories, transgender user quote
That is why we monitor the availability of LGBTQ+ sites in OONI tests, so we can better understand which countries are censoring these sites and who needs circumvention technology. Thatâs why we travel to countries where governments outlaw or punish being LGBTQ+ and lead workshops for community organizations about how to protect their privacy online. Thatâs why we partner with LGBTQ+, feminist, sex worker, and human rights groups to ensure that weâre learning about how they use privacy tech, and what they need from Tor in order to stay safe when using the internet.
We are proud that our tools can serve the LGBTQ+ community. We hope that by offering a way to privately access the internet, allowing people to get online without fear, that we can communicate with one another to change the world. We all deserve to live in a world where we can express who we are without shame.
This June and year round, the Tor Project stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. Happy Pride!
https://blog.torproject.org/pride-and-privacy
Bridges to Circumvent Censorship Online
Our users rely on bridges if their ISPs or governments block access to the Tor network. In essence, bridges are private Tor relays we hand out to users who need them. The difficulty lies in handing out bridges to censored users but not to censors. We tackle this problem with the tool BridgeDB, which makes it easy to get some bridges, but hard to get many. BridgeDB allows users to request bridges over a web page, over email, and directly in Tor Browser.
We just released BridgeDB version 0.7.1, which features many improvements. Find out what they are: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-bridgedb-071
New Releases
Tor 0.4.1.3-alpha
Tor 0.4.1.3-alpha resolves numerous bugs left over from the previous alpha, most of them from earlier release series. Full changelog. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-0413-alpha
Tor Browser 9.0a3
Similar to Tor Browser 8.5.2 and Tor Browser 8.5.3 on the stable series, this release is fixing critical security updates in Firefox (mfsa2019-18 and mfsa2019-19). Full changelog
https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-90a3
Tor Browser 8.5.3
This release includes an important security update in Firefox, a sandbox escape bug. Full changelog:
https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-853
Upcoming Events with Tor
RightsCon. Tunis, Tunisia. 11-14 June, 2019. https://rightscon.org
Congresso Abraji. SĂŁo Paulo, Brasil. 27-29 June, 2019. https://congresso.abraji.org.br/
PETS. Stockholm, Sweden. 16-20 July, 2019. https://petsymposium.org/2019/index.php
Def Con. Las Vegas, US. 8-11 August, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/def-con-las-vegas-0
BornHack. Funen, Denmark. 8-15 August, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/bornhack-funen-denmark
USENIX. Santa Clara, US. 14-16 August, 2019. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity19
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject
Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@torproject
Published on 2019-05-22
Tor Browser is Stable on Android
Since we released the first alpha version of Tor Browser for Android in September, we've been hard at work making sure we can provide the protections users already enjoying on desktop to the Android platform. Mobile browsing is increasing around the world, and in some parts, it is commonly the only way people access the internet. In these same areas, there is often heavy surveillance and censorship online, so we made it a priority to reach these users with a mobile Tor Browser release. The stable version of Tor Browser for Android is now available for download from Google Play, F-Droid, and our website:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.torbrowser
https://www.f-droid.org/
https://torproject.org
We made sure there are no proxy bypasses, that first-party isolation is enabled to protect you from cross-site tracking, and that most of the fingerprinting defenses are working. While there are still feature gaps between the desktop and Android Tor Browser, we are confident that Tor Browser for Android provides essentially the same protections that can be found on desktop platforms. These protections are unmatched by any other browser.
The latest version of Tor Browser across all platforms also features UX and branding improvements in line with developments begun last year with the release of Tor Browser 8: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-85
As always, we rely on feedback to improve our software. So if you have any suggestions or find a bug, please let us know: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/community/HowToReportBugFeedback
Mozilla Research Call: Tune up Tor for Integration and Scale
What alternative protocol architectures and route selection protocols would offer acceptable gains in Tor performance? Would they preserve Tor properties? Is it possible to improve Tor performance without changing protocols? Is it truly possible to deploy Tor at scale? And what would the full integration of Tor and Firefox look like? Those are some of the questions that Mozilla is calling researchers to answer in the privacy & security part of their Mozilla Research Grants program.
Integrating Tor into Firefox would bring real private browsing and a safer internet experience to an unprecedented number of people around the world. But Tor has never been deployed at this scale, and there are a lot of considerations to research before Mozilla gives this a try.
Find out more about the areas needing research and how you can apply. The deadline for applications is May 31: https://blog.torproject.org/mozilla-research-call-tune-tor-integration-and-scale
Google Season of Docs 2019: Help Tor Improve Our Documentation
There are a few elements that are critical for the sustainability of an open source project. One of them is good documentation.
Although often neglected, documentation can be crucial for open source projects to provide meaningful guides on how to start contributing and guides on the architecture of the technology being developed.
These resources help not only newcomers and contributors to understand the technological aspects of a project but can also expose both decision making and work processes, outlining the best way to contribute.
This year Google has launched Season of Docs, and we've been accepted as a mentoring organization. The program runs for approximately 3 months from September to November 2019 and there is additionally the option of a "long-running project" which goes on for approximately 5 months, from September 2019 to February 2020.
We're a small nonprofit organization that develops free and open source software used by millions around the world, and our community of contributors and users would greatly benefit from improved documentation. If you can help us out, learn more about how to apply: https://blog.torproject.org/google-season-docs-2019-help-tor-improve-our-documentation
New Releases
Tor Browser 8.5
After months of work and including feedback from our users, Tor Browser 8.5 includes our first stable release for Android plus many new features across platforms. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-85
Tor Browser 8.5a12
This is an alpha release, an experimental version for users who want to help us test new features. This release fixes the issue which caused NoScript and all other Firefox extensions signed by Mozilla to be disabled. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-85a12
Tor 0.4.0.5
This is the first stable release in the 0.4.0.x series. It contains improvements for power management and bootstrap reporting, as well as preliminary backend support for circuit padding to prevent some kinds of traffic analysis. It also continues our work in refactoring Tor for long-term maintainability. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-0405
Upcoming Events with Tor
RightsCon. Tunis, Tunisia. 11-14 June, 2019. https://rightscon.org
Congresso Abraji. Sao Paulo, Brasil. 27-29 June, 2019. https://congresso.abraji.org.br/
PETS. Stockholm, Sweden. 16-20 July, 2019. https://petsymposium.org/2019/index.php
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject
Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@torproject
Published on 2019-04-30
Advocating for Anonymity in Mozilla's 2019 Internet Health Report
Mozilla released its third annual examination of the internet, its impact on society and how it influences our everyday lives. The report includes a feature on Tor, In defense of anonymity, calling out the benefits of Tor software for upholding civil liberties:
"Our ability to communicate, work, and learn on the internet free from the glare of others enables very good things to happen."
Check out the feature: https://internethealthreport.org/2019/in-defense-of-anonymity/
You can help us continue to defend anonymity by making a donation to help us keep Tor robust and secure: https://donate.torproject.org
How Bandwidth Scanners Monitor The Tor Network
The Tor network is comprised of thousands of volunteer-run relays around the world, and millions of people rely on it for privacy and freedom online everyday. To monitor the Tor network's performance, detect attacks on it, and better distribute load across the network, we employ what we call Tor bandwidth scanners.
Tor relays report their own bandwidth based on the traffic they have sent and received. But this reported bandwidth is not verified by other relays. Bandwidth scanners help verify relay bandwidths. They also provide some initial traffic to new relays, so those relays can report a useful amount of bandwidth.
Learn more about our bandwidth scanners, recent updates to them, and how we'd like them to improve.
https://blog.torproject.org/how-bandwidth-scanners-monitor-tor-network
Collecting, Aggregating, and Presenting Data from The Tor Network
As the makers of software dedicated to privacy and freedom online, Tor must take special precautions when collecting data to ensure the privacy of its users while ensuring the integrity of its services.
Tor Metrics is the central mechanism that the Tor Project uses to evaluate the functionality and ongoing relevance of its technologies. Tor Metrics consists of several services that work together to collect, aggregate, and present data from the Tor network and related services. We're always looking for ways to improve, and we recently completed a project to document our pipeline and identify areas that could benefit from modernization. Read more about the project: https://blog.torproject.org/collecting-aggregating-and-presenting-data-tor-network
New Releases
Tor 0.4.0.4-rc
This is the first release candidate in its series; it fixes several bugs from earlier versions, including some that had affected stability, and one that prevented relays from working with NSS. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-0404-rc
Upcoming Events with Tor
CryptoRave. Sao Paulo, Brazil. 3-4 May, 2019. https://cryptorave.org/
RightsCon. Tunis, Tunisia. 11-14 June, 2019. https://rightscon.org
PETS. Stockholm, Sweden. 16-20 July, 2019. https://petsymposium.org/2019/index.php
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@torproject
Published on 2019-03-29
Meet The New TorProject.org
Two years ago, we launched our styleguide[1] as our first step in creating a consistent visual look and feel across the entire Tor Project ecosystem. We are very happy to announce the launch of our brand new website[2].
Besides bringing more consistency to our visual look, which reinforces community identity and helps us to build user trust by identification, our new website is one part of our goal to ensure that everyone on the planet can use Tor. Last year, we worked hard on making important usability improvements to our browser[3], including bringing a version of it to Android[4].
But, it is through our homepage that most people first learn about Tor and decide to download our browser. And our previous site was doing a poor job at helping potential users understand what Tor was all about. We had way too much information for a person to consume, and none of it was localized. With that in mind, we decided to redesign our website to focus on new users and make it mobile-friendly. Most importantly with our new website, we want Tor Browser to be easy to download and its benefits easy to understand. Most importantly with our new website, we want Tor Browser to be easy to download and its benefits easy to understand.
We want to make sure that people around the world, using Tor in an array of contexts, can use Tor without barriers. Tor Browser itself is available in 24 different languages, but our website isn't. With this refresh, torproject.org is now available in 7 different languages: English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and Russian, and there are more on the way. If you would like to help us with translations, here's how[5].
In addition to this update, we are also better organizing all the other content into different portals. For instance, last year we launched our support portal[6] to host all the content related to user support. Coming next will be our community.torproject.org portal that will feature content related to the different ways you can join our community and spread the word about Tor. The portal for all of our free software projects will soon be dev.torproject.org. If you are looking for any content that existed in the old site and is not on the new one, you can access it here[7].
These efforts are taking the collaboration of many people across Tor teams and the help of dedicated volunteers. We're very proud to start rolling these changes out.
We are a group of people united by the belief that everyone should have private access to the open web, and we hope our new site makes that easier to achieve.
[1]https://styleguide.torproject.org
[2]https://torproject.org
[3]https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-80
[4]https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-android
[5]https://wiki.localizationlab.org/index.php/Tor
[6]https://support.torproject.org
[7]https://2019.www.torproject.org/
We Now Accept Donations in Multiple Cryptocurrencies
You can now donate several different types of cryptocurrencies to the Tor Project: Augur (REP), Bitcoin (XBT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dash (DASH), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), Stellar Lumen (XLM), Dogecoin (XDG), and Zcash (ZEC). https://donate.torproject.org/cryptocurrency
Donations from individuals like you, whether they be in cryptocurrency or not, make it possible for us to allocate funds to pressing projects not covered by grants, such as the launch of our new website.
Donate today to help keep Tor robust and secure and to ensure we can continue to make Tor more accessible to people around the world: https://donate.torproject.org
New Releases
Tor Browser 8.0.8
The main change in this new release is the update of Firefox to 60.6.1esr, fixing bugs found during the Pwn2Own contest. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-808
Tor Browser 8.5a10
This release features important security updates to Firefox. The main change in this new release is the update of Firefox to 60.6.1esr. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-85a10
Tor 0.4.0.3-alpha
This release is the third in its series; it fixes several small bugs from earlier versions. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-0403-alpha
Upcoming Events with Tor
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject\
Published on 2019-02-27
What is Your Tor Story?
Last September, we asked to hear stories about how Tor has helped protect people online.
We heard from a father protecting his kids and their friends with Tor.
"I am a father of two teenagers. As teenagers, they, or their friends , are bumping into issues regarding sex, drugs and social media issues and bullying. They are pretty open about many issues and so I try to be up to date with research, information and details if anything arises. I use Tor to do the research to basically avoid telling Google (and others) that my children have these issues. It would be unethical of any parent NOT to do so and expose their children's issues to these corporations. I also encourage my children to use Tor for their research for the same reasons..."
We heard how Tor grants access to blocked resources online in Iran.
"I live in Iran and I have been using Tor for censorship circumvention. During political unrest while the government tightens grip on other censorship circumvention alternatives, Tor with obfuscation plugins remain the only solution. Tor changed my personal life in many ways. It made it possible to access information on YouTube, Twitter, Blogger, and countless other sites. I am grateful to the Tor Project, people working on it, as well as people running Tor nodes."
We heard from someone using Tor to research transgender issues and access a site blocked by their network.
"I am transgender and sometimes look thing up on Tor about that. When I was in high school I also used it to access blocked sites like the Internet Wayback Machine."
We heard from an activist who relies on Tor to stay safe.
"I'm a political activist, part of a semi-criminalized minority. In my younger years I entered the public debate openly, and as a result got harassed by government agencies. I later tried to obfuscate my identity, but I found that my government has surprisingly broad powers to track down dissidents. Only by using anonymizing means, among which Tor is key, can I get my message out without having police come to "check my papers" in the middle of the night. Tor allows me freedom to publish my message to the world without being personally persecuted for it. Being a dissident is hard enough, privacy is already heavily curtailed, so anonymized communication is a godsend."
What is your Tor story? Have you used Tor to curtail surveillance, circumvent censorship, conduct research, cope with an abuser, or speak up about corruption? If any of these apply to you or if you have another story to share, please let us know. Because of our deep commitment to protect your privacy, we won't know your story unless you tell us. Your story can help us make Tor better for you and other people around the world who need it most: https://blog.torproject.org/how-has-tor-helped-you-send-us-your-story
Share Files Over Tor with OnionShare 2
OnionShare is an open source tool for securely and anonymously sending and receiving files using Tor onion services. It works by starting a web server directly on your computer and making it accessible as an unguessable Tor web address that others can load in Tor Browser to download files from you, or upload files to you. It doesn't require setting up a separate server, using a third party file-sharing service, or even logging into an account.
Unlike services like email, Google Drive, DropBox, WeTransfer, or nearly any other way people typically send files to each other, when you use OnionShare you don't give any companies access to the files that you're sharing. So long as you share the unguessable web address in a secure way (like pasting it in an encrypted messaging app), no one but you and the person you're sharing with can access your files.
I first saw the need for this tool when I learned about how David Miranda, the partner of my colleague Glenn Greenwald, got detained for nine hours at a London airport while he was trying to fly home to Brazil. Working on a journalism assignment for the Guardian, Miranda was carrying a USB stick with sensitive documents. I knew that he could have securely sent the documents over the internet using a Tor onion service, one of the most underappreciated technologies on the internet, and avoided the risk of physically traveling with them. I developed OnionShare to make this file sharing process over the Tor network more accessible to everyone.
After nearly a year of work from a growing community of developers, designers, and translators, I'm excited that OnionShare 2 is finally ready. You can download it from https://onionshare.org.
Learn more about OnionShare and its new features: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-onionshare-2
New Releases
Tor Browser 8.0.6
The main change in this new release is the update of Firefox to 60.5.1esr. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-806
Tor Browser 8.5a8
The main change in this new release is the update of Firefox to 60.5.1esr, fixing some vulnerabilities in the Skia library. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-85a8
Tor 0.4.0.2-alpha, 0.3.5.8, 0.3.4.11, and 0.3.3.12
These new source code releases all fix TROVE-2019-001. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-releases-tor-0402-alpha-0358-03411-and-03312
Upcoming Events with Tor
Nullcon. Goa, India. 1-3 March, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/nullcon-goa
LibrePlanet. Boston, USA. 23-24 March, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/libreplanet-boston
KNOW Conference. Las Vegas, USA. 24-27 March, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/know-2019-vegas-0
Internet Freedom Festival. Valencia, Spain. 1-5 April, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/internet-freedom-festival-valencia
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject
Published on 2019-01-31
Expect More from Tor in 2019
The Tor Project achieved a lot in the last year. We spent 2018 fighting for the fundamental human rights to privacy and freedom online and made our software more accessible than ever before.
In the last year, a significant shift took place in the public understanding of how big tech handles our sensitive, personal information, and how these companies build tools that further censorship in repressive places. For instance, Google's leaked plans to launch a censored search engine in China were met with global protest. The world is watching.
At the Tor Project, this is an important moment in time. More people are looking for solutions to effectively protect their privacy. 93% of the people we met doing 1:1 usability studies said they knew they needed some protection online. More people need robust censorship circumvention tools as internet freedom declines around the world. More people understand the risks that come from surveillance as the business model of the internet. And we have been working hard to make Tor more accessible than ever before with the goal that anyone online can enjoy the protections our software provides.
In 2018, we:
Gave Tor Browser a UX overhaul with the launch of Tor Browser 8.0, making it easier and friendlier to use than ever.
Made it easier for people in countries that censor the internet and censor Tor to circumvent censorship with the ability to fetch bridges from inside Tor Browser.
Localized Tor Browser into 9 previously unsupported languages, bringing the number of available languages to 25.
Launched the alpha version of Tor Browser for Android.
Improved our Core Tor code for mobile devices, optimizing its performances and making it easier for third party mobile apps to embed Tor.
Traveled to meet our users face-to-face and get feedback without using popular and invasive data-collection practices.
Improved the security of v3 onion services with the vanguards add-on.
Published 10 research reports through OONI on censorship and network disruptions happening around the world.
Pulled in a record number of donations as we reduced our reliance on government funding. We received donations from 115 countries around the world.
Said goodbye to Shari Steele, who helped usher the Tor Project into a new stage of organizational maturity, and welcomed our new Executive Director, Isabela Bagueros.
These developments, plus the reality of threats everyone faces online, make 2019 the year to try Tor.
Find out what you can expect from us this year: https://blog.torproject.org/expect-more-tor-2019
Tor Browser at TPL: Defending Intellectual Freedom, and Winning Awards Doing So
Guest post by Jonathon Hodge, Digital Literacy Service Lead, Toronto Public Library
Every public library worker will know that person: the one who is worried about being spied on.
For a long time in public libraries, that person was treated with the kindness and respect we treat every person, regardless of whether we felt that their concerns may have been overblown. The difference between that bygone past and today, is that today, that person is right! The internet is spying on them; it's spying on all of us. Even if we don't use it very much. Public libraries have long offered effective guidance to the wealth of information society produces. So the question today is, âAre we doing enough for âthat person', and by extension, for all of us?'
In Toronto, we felt that the answer was NO. Our communities let us know that they do not know enough about the actual threats they contend with on the internet, they do not know what tools to use or actions to take to protect themselves.
Public librarians can do a great deal to arm our users with the knowledge, the tools, and the confidence to navigate the surveillance society online. We in Toronto felt that Tor Browser should be the centerpiece of a multi-vector Digital Privacy Initiative, that combines privacy education, and technology training and providing privacy-enabling tools at the point of service.
With the software being easy to install and maintain, and with a new public appetite for secure technology, I would encourage other public libraries to install Tor Browser. Our professional defense of intellectual freedom can no longer exist only at the realm of policy. In this age when our tech spies on us for the sake of massive internet companies and the State, our defense must be a technological one as well. That tech is Tor.
Find out more about TPL's initiative: https://blog.torproject.org/tor-browser-tpl-defending-intellectual-freedom-and-winning-awards-doing-so
New Releases
Tor Browser 8.0.5
This new release updates Firefox to 60.5.0esr and Tor to the first stable release in the 0.3.5 series, 0.3.5.7. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-805
Tor 0.4.01-alpha
This is the first release in the new 0.4.0.x series. It introduces improved features for power and bandwidth conservation, more accurate reporting of bootstrap progress for user interfaces, and an experimental backend for an exciting new adaptive padding feature. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-0401-alpha
Tor 0.3.5.7
The Tor 0.3.5 series includes several new features and performance improvements, including client authorization for v3 onion services, cleanups to bootstrap reporting, support for improved bandwidth- measurement tools, experimental support for NSS in place of OpenSSL, and much more. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-releases-tor-0357-03410-and-03311
Upcoming Events with Tor
FOSDEM. Brussels, Belgium. 2-3 February, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/fosdem-brussels
Tor Meetup. Berlin, Germany. 2 February, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/tor-meetup-berlin
IT Defense. Stuttgart, Germany. 6-8 February, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/it-defense-stuttgart
LibrePlanet. Boston, USA. 23-24 March, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/libreplanet-boston
KNOW Conference. Las Vegas, USA. 24-27 March, 2019. https://blog.torproject.org/events/know-2019-vegas-0
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject
Instagram: https://instagram.com/torproject
Published on 2018-12-27
We're nearing the end of our year-end education and fundraising campaign, Strength in Numbers. Learn more about it or support our work: https://torproject.org/donate/donate-sin-tn3
Usability is about making sure anyone, no matter their technical background, can use a tool. Usability and user experience (UX) work has gained a lot of importance in the last decade as the tech industry has grown. To improve user experience, most of the tech industry relies on analyzing their users' behavioral data to drive decision making. Mechanisms for collecting this data are often invasive and performed without consent from users, who may never be told their behavior is being analyzed for this purpose. The same means used to collect behavioral data is also responsible for aiding the surveillance economy.
Tor does things differently. We refuse to collect this type of invasive data. Find out what we do instead: https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-usable-tools-dont-need-be-invasive
An Entire Ecosystem Relies on Tor
If the Tor Project, the Tor network, and Tor Browser were to disappear, what would happen? Not only would millions of global, daily users lose access to Tor's software, but the diverse ecosystem of privacy, security, and anti-censorship applications that rely on the Tor network would cease to function.
The same network and technologies that allow you to use the internet anonymously power the anonymity, circumvention, and privacy features of many third-party web browsers, communications apps, secure operating systems, monitoring tools, and file sharing apps.
Learn about the many vital anonymity and privacy applications that rely on the Tor network and technologies: https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-entire-ecosystem-relies-tor
The Internet Freedom Movement Must Be Localized
The aim of localization is much broader than just translating strings of words. To localize an application means to ensure that the application stays relevant in the local context, is understandable, and is usable.
English is the most common language used on the internet. People communicating in other languages have it harder.
We don't want language differences to be a barrier to using tools that protect people from tracking, surveillance, and censorship on the web.
We made big improvements this year on our mission to localize Tor software for everyone who needs it: Tor Browser now supports 25 languages, and 4 additional languages are supported in alpha; we started tweeting more often in languages besides English; we published additional subtitles for the Tor Animation; we have better statistics about our language support; and we are working on localizing our user support website and the Tor Browser User Manual, with more languages added every month.
Find out what's next in our mission to localize Tor tools and resources: https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-internet-freedom-movement-must-be-localized
Library Freedom Institute Applications Are Open
This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for librarians who want to take their privacy advocacy to the next level. Tell your radical librarian friends to apply for LFI. Though tailored to public and community college librarians, LFI is open to librarians from all types of libraries, and it is completely free: https://libraryfreedomproject.org/lfi/
New Releases
Tor 0.3.5.6-rc
This release fixes numerous small bugs in earlier versions of Tor. It is the first release candidate in the 0.3.5.x series; if no further huge bugs are found, our next release may be the stable 0.3.5.x. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-0356-rc
Tor Browser 8.0.4
Tor Browser 8.0.4 contains updates to Tor (0.3.4.9), OpenSSL (1.0.2q) and other bundle components. Additionally, we backported a number of patches from our alpha series where they got some baking time including a defense against protocol handler enumeration to enhance our fingerprinting resistance. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-804
Tor Browser 8.5a6
This release features important security updates to Firefox and updates OpenSSL to 1.0.2q for our desktop platforms. The most exciting news, however, compared to the alpha release early last week, comes from progress we made on our mobile builds. Tor Browser 8.5a6 is the first version that is built reproducibly for Android devices and is localized in all locales the desktop platforms support. Full changelog: https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-85a6
Getting involved with Tor is easy. Run a relay to make the network faster and more decentralized: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
Learn about each of our teams and start collaborating: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
Donate to help keep Tor fast, strong, and secure. Mozilla is matching every donation through 2018. https://torproject.org/donate/donate-sin-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\
Published on 2018-11-30
We're in the middle of our year-end education and fundraising campaign, Strength in Numbers. Learn more about it or support our work: https://torproject.org/donate/donate-sin-tn2
Growing Our Board of Directors
Like most nonprofit organizations, the Tor Project relies on its Board of Directors to provide fiscal and corporate oversight to our important work. Over the past two years, the Tor Project has been focused on growing our board to reflect the diversity of cultures of people who build and use Tor.
We are proud to welcome the newest member of our Board of Directors, Nighat Dad. Nighat is the founder and Executive Director of Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan. She is an accomplished lawyer and human rights activist, and she is one of the pioneers campaigning for access to a safe and open internet in Pakistan. Watch her TED talk to hear the amazing story of how she set up Pakistan's first cyber harassment helpline to support women who face serious threats online--a major problem in Pakistan: https://www.ted.com/talks/nighat_dad_how_pakistani_women_are_taking_the_internet_back
"Nighat brings an abundance of expertise and experience campaigning for digital rights in Pakistan and beyond," said Isabela Bagueros, Executive Director of the Tor Project. "She has strong ties to the communities we serve and our most at-risk users."
Our board has eight members representing four continents: North America, Europe, Africa, and now Asia. Over the past year, the board held 16 official meetings plus several committee meetings during our searches for a new Executive Director and new board members.
In the coming year, we hope to continue to grow our board in number and in diversity. Like everyone involved with Tor, our Board of Directors all share a common commitment to internet freedom and human rights.
As we challenge major threats to internet freedom around the world, there is strength in numbers -- our numbers keep us strong as we challenge those threats. And our diversity gives us the understanding to fight with compassion.
Internet Freedom Is on the Line
The Tor Project believes that everyone should have private access to an uncensored web, but digital authoritarianism is on the rise. For the 8th year in a row, internet freedom has declined around the world, including in the United States.
"Of the 65 countries assessed, 26 have been on an overall decline since June 2017," reveals a new report by Freedom House: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2018
A huge factor in this decline is government censorship, a growing problem in many countries. Freedom to publish, share, and access information online is critical for a healthy society, yet governments and entities around the world are denying people this universal human right, and their tactics for doing so are becoming more advanced.
In many countries around the world, people are only permitted to access state-sponsored news, where the stories always spin a nation's government and leadership in favorable lights.
Internet controls in China have reached new extremes, and China is exporting its methods to other governments. China, Egypt, Iran, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Turkey, and a few other countries now block the Tor network.
Getting involved with Tor is easy: you can help us make the network faster and more decentralized by running a relay.
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorRelayGuide
You can learn about each of our teams and start collaborating:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/WikiStart#Teams
If you want to make a contribution but don't have the time to volunteer, your donation will 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.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/torproject
Facebook: https://facebook.com/torproject