hellais
commented
3 years ago Closing this epic in favour of: https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/639
Closed hellais closed 3 years ago
hellais
commented
3 years ago Closing this epic in favour of: https://github.com/ooni/ooni.org/issues/639
We will expand OONI Probe tests to improve our ability to detect various forms of network interference.
More specifically, we will expand our existing tests or build new ones to measure the reachability of websites, blocking of instant messaging apps, speed and performance, the presence of middleboxes, or the blocking of circumvention tools. This might involve expanding upon our middlebox tests, improving the Web Connectivity test, or writing new tests for other instant messaging apps (such as Signal).
We will determine which new methodologies to prioritize based on the following:
Community feedback and requests. Through interactions with our partners and broader community, we will request feedback on which tests to prioritize on to better meet their needs. We previously, for example, developed the OONI Probe test for Telegram based on community requests (particularly since it was blocked in Iran). Emergent censorship events and trends. In response to emergent censorship events and trends around the world, we will expand our measurement methodologies. We recently, for example, developed a new test to measure SNI-based filtering because this censorship technique was increasingly observed in several countries (such as China, Venezuela, and South Korea) over the last year. OONI data analysis. We will analyze OONI data with the goal of better identifying short-comings in our existing methodologies and better understand how we can improve upon and expand our methodologies. Essentially, we aim to close the loop between research, nettest development, nettest execution, and data analysis. OONI data analysis will help inform how we should improve upon our methodologies.
We will also improve upon our current low-level data collection and analysis capabilities, as well as on our ability to run narrow follow-up tests. By narrow follow-up tests, we mean that when we detect a possible sign of network interference, the probes will autonomously trigger a follow-up test to collect more rich information that allows us to further confirm if that is in fact a case of censorship or just a transient network failure.
Essentially, follow-up tests are crucial for ruling out false positives, confirming censorship events, and for collecting richer information that enables us to better understand and characterize specific forms of internet censorship. This will be a continuation of the work that we previously did under our 2018-2019 contract with the OTF, where we integrated automatic follow-up measurements for SNI blocking detection, as well as for DNS over TLS and DNS over HTTPS fallbacks.
By expanding OONI Probe measurement methodologies, our goals include detecting more forms of internet censorship, collecting richer information to confirm censorship events with more confidence (and reduce the ratio of false positives), and ensuring that the internet freedom community is equipped with tools capable of measuring the forms of internet censorship implemented around the world.