We’re Powering Digital Resistance with Help from Mozilla

by tommy | October 24, 2017

 

Today we’re launching our end-of-year crowdfunding campaign, “Powering Digital Resistance,” highlighting Tor’s work protecting essential human rights around the world.

As part of this end-of-year campaign, Mozilla is matching donations up to a total of $500,000 -- so your donation to the Tor Project will go twice as far!

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Privacy and freedom online under attack

The number of attacks on censorship and privacy over the internet was unprecedented in 2017. Countries around the world tried to limit access to the web, stifle dissent, and erode personal privacy. In Egypt, where they literally tried to turn off the internet in 2011, the new regime blocked access to over 400 websites, including several dozen news websites. Following unrest in Venezuela, the government blocked access to several online news services. In Turkey, the government censored the internet after a disputed referendum. In the United States, Congress rolled back laws designed to strengthen consumer privacy, allowing ISPs to track users and sell their data.

Tor powered digital resistance against these attacks, enabling activists to mobilize, journalists to report, and ordinary people to access blocked websites and avoid tracking. The internet is an essential tool for free expression and access to information, and we believe these essential rights should be available to all.

We’ve been busy this year making Tor stronger and easier to use. Some of the highlights: We made critical improvements to the Tor software, making it an even stronger tool for censorship circumvention. We designed the next generation of onion services, so Tor now provides a high degree of privacy for both sharing information online and web browsing, and we redesigned and expanded our metrics portal, giving people hard data about Tor use around the world.

More challenges ahead

It looks like the challenges will continue in 2018. Many governments and corporations want to make censorship the norm and make privacy a thing of the past. There is still much work to be done to protect our most vulnerable users and keep Tor powering digital resistance.

We’re very lucky to have Mozilla as a partner. Mozilla and Tor Project engineers regularly collaborate on Tor Browser and on importing (and substantially enhancing) Tor Browser privacy patches into Firefox. All of Tor Browser’s first-party isolation patches and most of our anti-fingerprinting patches are now in Firefox, and the last few are on the way. Mozilla engineers have helped Tor developers learn the Rust programming language. Mozilla supports our research and awarded us one of its first MOSS grants to enhance the security and integrity of the Tor Project’s metrics. Mozilla also helps the Tor network by running Tor relays.

Join the digital resistance

Because of Mozilla’s generous support, there’s never been a better time to make a gift to the Tor Project.

donate-button

Thanks for your help, and thank you, Mozilla! 

Comments

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Anonymous (not verified) said:

October 25, 2017

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I'm not a developer but I try to explain.
They could insert some sort of blacklist to sites or certificate ban, some new technology to do that .... etc

So, Tor Browser would be affected?

Then make a ticket in the Tor trac bugtracker and tell them to rip that blacklist apart? (Also your assumption is baseless, just because they're against "fake news" doesn't mean they'll start blocking those sites.)

The Tor node operators colluded to prevent the DailyStormer onion service from working by throttling/blacklisting connections to them. Not ever giving money to Tor again if they think they can pick and choose who has rights and who does not.

No. They didn't. Period.

The DS guy who said that is lying. He doesn't understand or purposefully doesn't mention how difficult it would be to have 6+ random relays (that change every day!) to collude in order to effectively block an onion service.

Even if it was true that some relays tried to block a site (which it fucking isn't, by the way), the Tor Project doesn't run any relays. You're getting mad and threatening to withhold money from the wrong people.

Anonymous (not verified) said:

November 05, 2017

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So you don't run any relays, but decided to speak for them anyway? Your credibility is now below zero. It became zero when you singled out DS but kept silent about the truly dark stuff that the dark web is known for.

"Who decides what is a "fake" news??"

It is common sense that sites like Breitbart and infowars are fake news that highly distort real events to push their political righ-wing agenda and sometimes even totally fabricate news stories.

It is also common sense that sites like riseup and indymedia are fake news that highly distort real events to push their political left-wing agenda and sometimes even totally fabricate news stories.

So, if we are to decide what is "fake news" then everything rolls. If you want to impose censorship, it works both ways.

That's not "common sense". That's the belief among liberals. Conservatives believe that CNN and MSNBC are fake news. I myself believe it's all a load of crap, and each site is distorting facts in whatever way gets them the most money. Liberal or conservative is no exception.

Lol. I suggest you watch CNN selectively editing Trump feeding the fish in Japan. And that's just the latest, mild piece of fake news the msm treats the brainwashed / gullible to on a daily basis.

Anonymous (not verified) said:

October 25, 2017

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In the United States, Congress rolled back laws designed to strengthen consumer privacy, allowing ISPs to track users and sell their data.

Please be more accurate, ISPs in the US did in fact track and sell user data as mentioned in as mentioned in one of the Tor FAQ entries.

Anonymous (not verified) said:

October 25, 2017

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Thanks for all your work! Does this apply to donations done in Bitcoin as well? Also why don't you have an XMR and zCash addresses for doing anonymous donations?

> how much do you get from the US M.I.C?

Military Industrial Complex?

Those who have been reading this blog for several years know that there has been a push from the user base to try to move Tor Project away from a funding model which depends primarily upon grants from USG tied entities, such as NED (National Endowment for Democracy) or SRI (Stanford Research Institute), which have in the past been major sponsors of Tor Project, and toward a funding model which depends primarily upon user donations. The current CEO of Tor Project was brought in precisely to work towards this goal.

IMO it would be going to far to say that TP was ever funded by the US MIC itself, but I and many other loyal users long felt that it was unseemly and ultimately dangerous to allow TP to depend too heavily upon USG-tied entities, even ones such as NED and RFA (Radio Free Asia) which might appear to many Americans as fairly benign. The problem was not so much funding tied to the U.S. military as funding tied to some of the less odious portions of the U.S. State Department. Apparently without explicit strings ever being attached, but still...

If you value Tor as much as I do, I hope you will join me and other ordinary users in contributing. This is the surest way to ensure the continued existence of Tor and also the best way to lessen the chance that Tor Project might somehow be subjected to undue influence (or worse) from the USG.

Td (not verified) said:

October 26, 2017

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Thanks for all your important work and continuous development.
Gladly awaiting my T-shirt now :).

Anonymous (not verified) said:

October 27, 2017

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Tor is going to be banned and blocked in Russia in 3 days. Thank you very much for your awesome programm, but I cannot emigrate, so, bye.

El Crumvbo (not verified) said:

October 28, 2017

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if you are all about freedom and activism, why are these comments so heavily censored?
Because you aren't about freedom in any sense, just promoting the interests of your sponsors.

You've got a strange definition of freedom if it means they can't moderate comments hosted on their platform.

You are free to post your thoughts on your own page if you've got issues with the moderation here.

Tor is Awesome (not verified) said:

October 28, 2017

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I just wanted to say thank you to the developers and everyone at the Tor Project. I use Tor on my main computers and mobile every day to keep my ISP's from selling my browsing history (and to keep the NSA at bay). It's given me an enormous peace of mind knowing I can do something to stop the further erosion of my privacy. Thank you thank you thank you! I donated a few months ago and again just recently when I saw Mozilla was matching donations. Thank you all for your hard work.

- a Privacy Advocate

sum1 (not verified) said:

November 01, 2017

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Are donations using 'other methods' like bitcoin donations also matched by Mozilla?

When trying to go to bitcoin donation page Bitpay says the page doesn't exist!

You do know bitcoin transactions are traceable right? Why don't you accept a privacy centric cryptocurrency like Monero?

They react before the law becomes active !
They shut down vpn & tor , like it is advised take a good vpn + tor (bridge if necessary).
The worst is all these malfunctions i noticed on the plugin : https & noscript ; i do not know if it is a bug , a general attack , a mass survey or a personal target ... and it can be also a bad joke related to Tor blog_Team (spoofing ? mitm ?).
good luck to Russian people.

Anonymous (not verified) said:

November 09, 2017

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The partnerships with Debian Project, Tails Project, and Mozilla are all very promising!

But that said, IMO all four organizations need to work together not only to ameliorate technical threats, but also to address political threats (for example though media outreach).

IMO it is particularly urgent that Tor Project act to counter the narrative being pushed by Rod Rosenstein:

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/359575-rosenstein-uses-texas-sh…
Rosenstein uses Texas shooter to lobby for encryption back doors
Joe Uchill
9 Nov 2017

> Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein used the encrypted phone of the Texas shooting suspect to argue against tech companies encrypting data in a way that law enforcement could not later access.
> ... The FBI has announced that Texas church shooter Devin Kelley's iPhone was encrypted, leaving them unable to access data on the phone for their investigation.
> Almost as soon as the FBI made the announcement, the cybersecurity community began to speculate that this would be the next front in the so-called "crypto wars," an argument between tech companies, security advocates and the government over encryption so complex the government would
need to spend decades of computer time in order to crack.

More evidence of how grotesque these political battles have become:

thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/359589-fbi-gets-advice-from-apple-on-unlocking-texas-gunmans-phone-report
FBI gets advice from Apple on unlocking Texas gunman's phone: report
Max Greenwood
9 Nov 2017

> Apple reached out to the FBI to offer advice on how to gain entry into the iPhone of the gunman who opened fire on a Texas church this week, after the tech giant learned that investigators were trying to access its data. Reuters reported on Thursday that the FBI did not initially ask Apple for help unlocking the phone, and that the company did not receive requests on the matter from law enforcement within 48 hours of the attack. According to The Associated Press, the FBI may have missed its opportunity to unlock the phone using methods such as the owner's fingerprint. If the phone had Apple's Touch ID feature, which uses fingerprints to unlock the phone, investigators could have tried to hold the dead gunman's finger on the phone, according to an AP source. That would have had to have been attempted within 48 hours of the last time the phone was unlocked.

The faux-702 reform bills and the SESTA bill--- also currently before the US Federal Congress and likely to pass in some form--- pose additional hazards to ordinary citizens around the world who need cryptography and Tor:

https://www.techdirt.com
Ron Wyden Puts A Hold On SESTA And Warns About Its Dangers
Mike Masnick
8 Nov 2017

> Following the Senate Commerce Committee voting SESTA out of Committee this morning, Senator Ron Wyden quickly announced that he is placing a public hold on the bill while at the same time issuing a warning about just how damaging the bill could be...

I hope Tor Project will reach out to Wyden's staff to ask what if anything he can share concerning the implications of the secret provisions for Tor, and for endangered journalists, political/union activists, environmentalists, and human rights supporters around the world.

detecTor (not verified) said:

November 11, 2017

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tor-browser 7.0.9 on tor-project.org: loads the page normally
tor-browser 7.0.8 on tor-project.org: strange redirect with ultra long URL
Who this "fake" website belongs to?

Sanchit (not verified) said:

November 22, 2017

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I want to run multiple tor instances each with different ip. I searched for it but nothing helped. Can somebody help me?