Census.mw

{{Header}}
{{Title|title={{project_name_long}} Census}}
{{#seo:
|description={{project_name_short}} User Count, Project Metrics, Design, Rationale, Disabling
|image=Census3212.png
}}
[[File: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 <code><u>daily</u> {{project_name_gateway_short}} users</code> estimate is impacted by several factors:

* <u>Total number of {{project_name_short}} users</u>: The <u>total</u> {{project_name_short}} user population is probably higher than the number of <u>daily</u> {{project_name_gateway_short}} users.
* <u>New day, still running, new count</u>: 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.
* <u>New day, new boot, new count</u>: 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.
* <u>Duplication</u>: Users relying upon multiple {{project_name_gateway_short}} are counted multiple times; this is difficult to avoid with the current design (see next section).
* <u>Non-duplication</u>: 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.
* <u>Non-Live</u>: 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 <ref>
By using an onion service, the server has no way to log originating IP addresses.

The <code>{{project_clearnet}}</code> 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]]
</ref>
* 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]] <ref>
Which verifies the [[Trust#{{project_name_short}}_Warrant_Canary|{{project_name_short}} warrant canary]].
</ref>
* downloaded over Tor using the {{project_name_short}} v3 onion service <ref>This is similar to how [[sdwdate]] fetches time from onion time sources.</ref>
* secure operation <ref>This process has identical security to the [[systemcheck#Warrant Canary Check|Warrant Canary Check]].</ref>

The census design was inspired by [https://cleaninsights.org Clean Insights (Privacy-Preserving Measurement)], <ref>
Developed by the [https://guardianproject.info Guardian Project].
</ref> [https://matomo.org/ Matomo], <ref>
Formerly Piwik, which is a free and open source web analytics application.
</ref> [https://metrics.torproject.org Tor Metrics], [https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/16535 Tails boot statistics] <ref>
* https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/issues/17545
</ref>, [https://crypto.stanford.edu/prio/ Prio] <ref>
Private, Robust, and Scalable Computation of Aggregate Statistics by Stanford University.
</ref> [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/10/testing-privacy-preserving-telemetry-with-prio/ Privacy-Preserving Telemetry] by Mozilla. <ref>
* https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/DNF_Better_Counting
* https://lwn.net/ml/fedora-devel/20190108152239.GA24118@gardel-login/
* https://lwn.net/Articles/776327/
</ref> 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. <ref>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).</ref>
* 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]]. <ref>
Previously <code>{{project_name_short}} News</code>.
</ref>

= 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}}
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[[Category:Documentation]]
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