[tor-project] OONI Monthly Report: November 2018

Thu Dec 13 11:08:41 UTC 2018

Hello Tor world,

In November 2018, the OONI team released the public beta of the revamped
OONI Probe mobile apps and, in collaboration with the Localization Lab,
we started coordinating the translation of the apps in preparation for
their stable release. We also dealt with infrastructure-related issues,
worked on pipeline ingestion fixes, added end-to-end integration tests
to the OONI Probe orchestration system, and presented OONI at a number
of events.

## Public beta release of OONI Probe mobile apps

We released the public beta of the OONI Probe mobile apps.

On Android:

* Sign up to the beta:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.openobservatory.ooniprobe

* Update your OONI Probe mobile app (to get the public beta) from Google
Play

On iOS:

* Tap on this link from your device and follow the instructions:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/rh3Ig7fE

## Translation of revamped OONI Probe mobile apps

The revamped OONI Probe mobile apps not only include new design, UI and
features, but they also include new (and hopefully improved!) copy.

During November we:

* Translated all of the new OONI Probe mobile app copy to Greek

* Published guidelines for translators:
https://github.com/ooni/translations/blob/master/Guidelines.md

The Localization Lab provided us support with regards to the
coordination of the rest of the translations
(https://www.transifex.com/otf/ooniprobe/).

## Infrastructure

During November, we worked on improving our infrastructure and dealing
with infrastructure-related issues. Specifically:

1. The eclipsis platform migrated their servers from Washington DC to
Miami and we dealt with the issues related to that migration:
https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/pull/247,
https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/issues/241

2. Dissecting the XEN bug with Greenhost:
https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/issues/240 (that was triggered by
simhash ingestion)

3. Open recursive resolver at ooni-zoo.infra.ooni.io used for
amplification attack: https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/issues/248

4. Dealing with services going down:
https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/issues/244,
https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/issues/245,
https://github.com/ooni/sysadmin/issues/157#issuecomment-435663643

## Pipeline ingestion fixes

We worked on pipeline ingestion fixes (that are a dependency for further
work on the pipeline code): https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/pull/126,
https://github.com/ooni/pipeline/issues/48

## Better testing for OONI Orchestra

We added end-to-end integration tests to ooni/orchestra
(https://github.com/ooni/orchestra/pull/44), the OONI Probe
orchestration system. We also added support for running a full
orchestration system as a docker-compose based harness.

## Worked towards the integration of Psiphon into Measurement Kit

During November 2018, we started working towards integrating Psiphon
into Measurement Kit (our network measurement library that powers the
OONI Probe mobile apps), in order to enable OONI Probe users to test the
accessibility of Psiphon.

To this end, we discussed with Psiphon developers how to best move the
project forward and we drafted an overall strategy
(https://github.com/measurement-kit/measurement-kit/issues/1425). As
part of this research activity, we improved the code of the Psiphon C
library to make it more easily accessible to C/C++ clients
(https://github.com/measurement-kit/libpsiphon/pull/2).

This is work in progress, and we'll continue to work towards integrating
Psiphon into Measurement Kit over the next months.

## Community use of OONI data

### Report on the blocking of Ukrainian websites in Crimea

Digital Security Lab Ukraine published a new research report based on
OONI data.

Their report, examining the blocking of Ukrainian websites in Crimea, is
available here:
https://medium.com/@cyberlabukraine/ukrainian-websites-in-crimea-banned-by-elite-net-and-realweb-the-most-a-research-df9fc4a18748

## Community activities

### Community meeting

We held a community meeting on Slack
(https://slack.openobservatory.org/) on Wednesday, 27th November 2018.
As part of the meeting, we discussed:

1. Post-court verdict scenario of cellular services suspension in Pakistan

2. Censorship measurement research during (and leading up to) the DRC's
upcoming December elections

3. OONI updates: Public beta (mobile apps) & translations

### OONI workshops in Taiwan

After the OTF Summit, OONI's Maria facilitated:

* OONI workshop at the Mozilla Community Space Taipei
(https://ocftw.kktix.cc/events/ooni-workshop), (1st November 2018)

* OONI seminar at the Science & Technology Law Institute of Taipei (2nd
November 2018)

### Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

OONI's Simone traveled to Paris to attend the Internet Governance Forum
(IGF), where he participated on a panel, explaining OONI and network
performance tests.

Information about the panel is available here:
https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/igf-2018-dc-net-neutrality-measuring-discriminatory-practices-dcnn

### OONI session at CryptoParty in Albania

OONI's Elio facilitated an OONI workshop at the CryptoParty in Tirana,
Albania (17th November 2018), where he taught local activist groups how
to use OONI Probe and previewed the new OONI Probe 2.0 Beta.

Photos of the event, including the OONI session, are available here:
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:CryptoParty_Tirana_2018

### Southeast Asia OONI Probe workshop

Our Malaysian partners, Sinar Project, have been leading efforts to
engage local Southeast Asian communities with OONI Probe censorship
measurement research, particularly leading up to and during political
events, such as elections.

Sinar Project recently organized and facilitated an OONI Southeast Asia
Regional Workshop for their local partners in Cambodia, Indonesia,
Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The aim of their workshop was to
teach their partners how to run OONI Probe, how to contribute to test
lists, and how to participate in censorship measurement research more
generally.

In November, Sinar Project published a report, documenting the workshop
and sharing their findings, resources and recommendations.

Their report is available here:
https://sinarproject.org/digital-rights/updates/open-observatory-of-network-interference-ooni-southeast-asia-regional-workshop

### OONI session at Barcamp Bangkhen in Thailand

Our Thai partners, Thai Netizen Network, facilitated an OONI session at
the Barcamp Bangkhen conference in Thailand on 25th November 2018.

Information about the conference is available here:
https://2018.barcampbangkhen.org/sessions

Thai Netizen Network also shared their slides from their OONI session:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-N6R_KqGipsBrDdUIskXMf1qr_BmEfIkPZO_C_xGF1U/edit#slide=id.p

## Userbase

In November 2018, OONI Probe was run 363,805 times from 4,733 different
vantage points in 213 countries around the world.

This information can also be found through our stats:
https://api.ooni.io/stats

~ The OONI team.

-- 
Maria Xynou
Research & Partnerships Director
Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI)
https://ooni.torproject.org/
PGP Key Fingerprint: 2DC8 AFB6 CA11 B552 1081 FBDE 2131 B3BE 70CA 417E

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