Starting August 1, every donation we receive during the month of August will count towards the Bug Smash Fund 2020. The Bug Smash Fund allows the Tor Project to find and fix bugs in our software and conduct routine maintenance.
At the beginning of August 2019, we asked you to help us build our very first Bug Smash Fund. This fund will ensure that the Tor Project has a healthy reserve earmarked for maintenance work and smashing the bugs necessary to keep Tor Browser, the Tor network, and the many tools that rely on Tor strong, safe, and running smoothly. We want to share a final update on the work the 2019 Bug Smash Fund made possible.
So far, we’ve marked 77 tickets with BugSmashFund. As of today, 56 of those tickets have been closed, and 21 of them are still in progress. With this reserve, we’ve been able to fix bugs and complete necessary maintenance on core tor, bridgedb, Snowflake, and Metrics, as well as complete the Tor Browser ESR 68 migration.
We are pleased to announce that we raised more funds in 2019 from individuals than ever before -- $833,956! This is almost double what we raised in 2018. A little over $300,000 of this income was donated during our end-of-year campaign and was generously matched by Mozilla. Thank you to everyone who contributed. You are helping Tor take back the internet.
I'd like to tell you about some of our work your contributions can help over the coming year. I'll be focusing on things that my team works on in the "tor" program itself.
This year’s campaign, Take Back the Internet, has been a great success so far. Thank you to the more than 3,000 donors who have helped us raise over $130,000 that will become over $260,000 with Mozilla’s match. This year we set an ambitious goal because the demand for privacy is growing and the demand on the Tor network and our small staff is also increasing.
It’s true that there is a lot at stake, and there are many well-funded adversaries. But we’ve seen some important victories in taking back the internet.
I know that a better internet is possible. In fact, it once existed. I started using the internet in the mid-90s, with a dial up connection in my family’s house in Brazil. I loved getting online because I could go down an infinite rabbit hole of hyperlinks, learning and discovering new things, and I could talk to all kinds of people without having to reveal my real name or my real identity. Who I was in the physical world didn’t matter when I got online.
As more and more people become aware of the ways the internet has been co-opted into a money-making tool fueled by their personal data—our day-to-day behaviors, our personalities, our relationships, our vulnerabilities, our fears—more people are turning to Tor for solutions. In turn, the Tor team is working hard to ensure everyone can easily access our tools. This means scaling the network to accommodate increased usage, improving speed and usability, and training people who are in most need.
Help us take back the internet, one user at a time. Win limited edition prizes.
To the Tor community: we owe you a thank you! You made the Bug Smash Fund campaign more successful than we could have predicted.