{{Header}} {{Title|title={{project_name_long}} Census}} {{#seo: |description={{project_name_short}} User Count, Project Metrics, Design, Rationale, Disabling |image=Census3212.png }} [[image:Census3212.png|thumb]] = {{project_name_short}} User Count Statistic = {{metrics}} The user count is manually updated on occasion, but it is a low priority. The daily {{project_name_gateway_short}} users estimate is impacted by several factors: * Total number of {{project_name_short}} users: The total {{project_name_short}} user population is probably higher than the number of daily {{project_name_gateway_short}} users. * New day, still running, new count: A {{project_name_gateway_short}} that runs longer than one day (24 hours) will re-fetch the {{project_name_short}} warrant canary and therefore be counted again. * New day, new boot, new count: A {{project_name_gateway_short}} that has not been run for more than one day (24 hours) will re-fetch the {{project_name_short}} warrant canary and therefore be counted again. * Duplication: Users relying upon multiple {{project_name_gateway_short}} are counted multiple times; this is difficult to avoid with the current design (see next section). * Non-duplication: Boots are not explicitly counted. Users counts that rely upon the number of {{project_name_gateway_short}} boots would lead to overestimates because many users start and shutdown their computers several times a day. * Non-Live: Live users are not counted. = {{project_name_short}} User Count Design = There are strict requirements for the {{project_name_short}} user count: * no transfer of private information * no unique identifiers are utilized * no collection of IP addresses By using an onion service, the server has no way to log originating IP addresses. The {{project_clearnet}} website privacy policy is different, see: * [[Privacy_Policy#IP_Addresses_and_IP_Addresses_Logging_Policy|IP Addresses and IP Addresses Logging Policy]] * [[Trust#Trusting the {{project_name_short}} Website|Trusting the {{project_name_short}} Website]] * count only once within a 24 hour period * provide an option to [[#Disable {{project_name_short}} User Count|disable user counts]] * a by-product of, and based on [https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Systemcheck systemcheck]'s automated [[systemcheck#Warrant Canary Check|Warrant Canary Check]] Which verifies the [[Trust#{{project_name_short}}_Warrant_Canary|{{project_name_short}} warrant canary]]. * downloaded over Tor using the {{project_name_short}} v3 onion service This is similar to how [[sdwdate]] fetches time from onion time sources. * secure operation This process has identical security to the [[systemcheck#Warrant Canary Check|Warrant Canary Check]]. The census design was inspired by [https://cleaninsights.org Clean Insights (Privacy-Preserving Measurement)], Developed by the [https://guardianproject.info Guardian Project]. [https://matomo.org/ Matomo], Formerly Piwik, which is a free and open source web analytics application. [https://metrics.torproject.org Tor Metrics], [https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/16535 Tails boot statistics] * https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17545 , [https://crypto.stanford.edu/prio/ Prio] Private, Robust, and Scalable Computation of Aggregate Statistics by Stanford University. [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/10/testing-privacy-preserving-telemetry-with-prio/ Privacy-Preserving Telemetry] by Mozilla. * https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/DNF_Better_Counting * https://lwn.net/ml/fedora-devel/20190108152239.GA24118@gardel-login/ * https://lwn.net/Articles/776327/ and [https://divviup.org/ Divvi Up]. For further details, see: [[systemcheck#Warrant Canary Check|Warrant Canary Check]]. = {{project_name_short}} User Count Rationale = A user count statistic provides several benefits: * {{project_name_short}} maintainers can track if the user population is increasing over time. * Certain people or organizations decide whether to [[contribute]] based on the estimated impact of the {{project_name_short}} project. * Statistics can help answer certain questions such as the estimated user population of different anonymity platforms. * Direct comparisons between the number of Tor, Tails and {{project_name_short}} users become possible. * Users can make an informed decision about [[Fingerprint|fingerprinting]] risks. Like whether they prefer sharing the same network fingerprint as thousands of other users ({{project_name_short}}) versus millions of other users (Tor Browser in isolation). * User counts can inform broader Internet and network [[fingerprint|fingerprinting]] considerations. * The data is already available due to [https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Systemcheck systemcheck]'s automated verification of the [[Trust#{{project_name_short}}_Warrant_Canary|{{project_name_short}} warrant canary]]. Previously {{project_name_short}} News. = Disable {{project_name_short}} User Count = Refer to the following [https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Systemcheck systemcheck] chapters: * [[systemcheck#Warrant_Canary_Check|Warrant Canary Check]] * [[systemcheck#Disable_Warrant_Canary_Check|Disable Warrant Canary Check]] = Forum Discussion = * [https://forums.whonix.org/t/whonix-census-counter-the-number-of-whonix-users/7620 Whonix Census - Counter the Number of {{project_name_short}} users] = See Also = * [[Privacy_Policy_Technical_Details#View_Counters_on_the_Kicksecure_Website|No Accurate View Counters on the {{project_name_short}} Website]] = Footnotes = {{reflist|close=1}} {{Footer}} [[Category:Documentation]] [[Category:MultiWiki]]