[tor-news] January 2012 Newsletter

[Andrew Lewman]

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 The Tor Project Monthly Newsletter
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           January 2012
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Welcome to the Tor Project's newsletter. Encourage your
friends to subscribe and help us spread Tor globally!

* Subscribe: https://www.torproject.org/donate/thankyou

Miss an issue? You can catch up on them all at
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-news/.
(Don't worry, this is the first; you haven't missed anything yet!)

# Welcome

Lots of the work we do at the Tor Project is behind-the-scenes. When
it works well, the network grows faster and more reliable, and you may
never notice it! This newsletter is our newest way to highlight some
of the work we've been able to do thanks to your support, and some of
the places we're going next. For those who want more detail, we offer
links to the Tor Blog (https://blog.torproject.org/), metrics portal
(https://metrics.torproject.org), and wiki
(https://trac.torproject.org).

## From the Policy Trenches

Tor people go to conferences to remind policymakers that privacy and
anonymity are important things to preserve, not annoyances to be swept
aside in the name of specific interests.

The United Nations Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and
expression presented a report strongly endorsing anonymous speech and
freedom from Internet censorship:

"The right to privacy is essential for individuals to express themselves
freely. Indeed, throughout history, people's willingness to engage in
debate on controversial subjects in the public sphere has always been
linked to possibilities for doing so anonymously."

The report found that monitoring, identification requirements, and
personal data collection all threaten free expression, "undermin[ing]
people's confidence and security on the Internet, thus impeding the free
flow of information and ideas online." Tor software can help people to
achieve those freedoms.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomOpinion/Pages/OpinionIndex.aspx
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf

## Highlights of progress from December 2011.

The full report is available at
https://archive.torproject.org/monthly-report-archive/2011-December-Monthly-Report.pdf

### New Releases

1.  2011-12-14. Torbutton 1.4.5 Released.
2.  2011-12-16. Tor 0.2.2.35 released.
3.  2011-12-16. Tor 0.2.3.10-alpha released.
4.  2011-12-17. Torbutton 1.4.5.1 released.
5.  2011-12-25. Tor Ramdisk version 20111225 released.

### Outreach and Advocacy

1.  Jake talked at "Internet and Democratic Change - Net activism,
    empowerment and emancipation" hosted by Sida.se, Internet and
    Democratic Change, <http://www.sida.se/Net_activism_outcome>.

2.  We announced the Farsi blog
    <https://blog.torproject.org/blog/announcing-tor-farsi-blog>.

3.  Roger and Jacob presented at the CCC 28C3 conference in Berlin,
    Germany. Slides,
    <https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/presentations/slides-28c3.pdf>
    and Video,
    <https://media.torproject.org/video/28c3-4800-en-how_governments_have_tried_to_block_tor_h264.mp4>.

4.  Steven and Jacob spoke at a press-conference regarding surveillance
    technology,
    <https://www.privacyinternational.org/article/wikileaks-release-shows-terrifying-power-todays-surveillance-industry>.

5.  Andrew trained some Russian activists on how to safely transport
    information across borders, communicate with sensitive people in and
    out of the country, and what level of sophistication to expect if
    targeted by the opposition.

6.  Andrew worked with two domestic abuse/stalking survivors who were
    pointed at Tor and who are trying to get the anti-abuse/survivor
    organizations to pay attention to the Internet. The proposals for a
    fully identified Internet in the USA scared them into action. They
    want to know how technology can help them stay anonymous, even in
    the face of breaking future laws that may exist. They are also
    interested in setting up an anonymous support forum for other
    survivors. One of them was swept up in an anti-terrorism operation
    for the steps she took to become anonymous. She wants to find a way
    to help others, anonymously.

Thanks for your interest in Tor. And thanks for reading this far.

See you next month with another update on progress.

-- 
Andrew
http://tpo.is/contact
pgp 0x74ED336B