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Onion Services - User Research Plan

REF:

  • pad.riseup.net/p/onion-services-otf

  • pad.riseup.net/p/onion-services-1920-otf

  • “Detection and Analysis of Tor Onion Services” - nymity.ch/onion-services

  • Demographics > #6 (closed)

Onion Services and its users

This is a pilot research to understand how the changes on onion services can impact the user experience when browsing through Tor. The main goals are as following:

  • Understand if the users know what are the onion services
  • If users understand how onion services protect their identity and privacy
  • If users knows what’s the difference between https and onion services
  • What are users pain points when using onion services

Audience: regular Tor users

Participants: 5

Recruitment:

  • User should have Tor browser installed and running
  • Be familiarized with Tor browser experience

Methodology: As a pilot research, we will run online forms with data analysis.

Activity

Scenario: access your a given-URL news website, browse it, then access the same website onion service.

Success criteria:

  • User can access onion services without or after a little research to find the onion link.

Attachment

  • Demographics questionnaire
  • Limesurvey template

Attachment 2 – Limesurvey template

Screening

FIRST PAGE

  1. How do you want to be called?

  2. Your e-mail. This is how we are going to contact you, if you're selected to participate in this research.

SECOND PAGE

  1. How often do you use Tor Browser?
  • daily
  • weekly
  • just in specific situations
  • I never used it before

  1. Have you heard about onion services before?

  2. Do you know the difference between https and onion services?

  • [yes]
  • [no]

::: prompt if yes::: What are the differences between https and onion services?

  1. Do you know which security protections onion services have? (multiple choice)
  • protects my identity (anonymity)
  • encrypts my connection (privacy)
  • access blocked content (access)
  • other (please, specify _________)
  1. How often do you visit an onion service?

FINAL MESSAGE: Thank you so much for contributing with our research! If you're selected to participate, we will be in touch directly via e-maill to discuss details and set your appointment time.

Discovery

Scenario: you wanna post on Facebook about a demonstration going on in your city, but Facebook is blocked. You heard that Facebook has an onion service, find and access it.

  1. How hard is it to find the onion service you wanted to access?
  • very hard, had to navigate through many pages on my search engine

::: prompt ::: how did you search for it (specify your search engine and question asked) _________

  • as usual, searched it and found it after some searches

::: prompt ::: how did you search for it (specify your search engine and question asked) _________

  • easy, found it in my first search.

::: prompt ::: how did you search for it (specify your search engine and question asked) _________

  1. If you want to access it again, how would you do it?
  • search again
  • write it down
  • save it somewhere

Discovery 2

Scenario 2: You want to access a digital security guide from Privacy International, but you just discovered it is blocked in your country. You open Tor Browser to access it, type privacyinternational.org on your Tor Browser.

  1. What happened? (free form answer)

  2. How would you know this is the website you wanted to access? (I have a feeling if I’m redirected somewhere it might be a MIM attack)

  3. If you want to access it again, how would you do it?

  • search again
  • write it down
  • save it somewhere

Discovery 3 and Good Bye

Thank you message

  1. If you want, please give additional comments about your experience using Tor Browser. (free form)
Edited by Antonela