GetTor

Introduction

Tor2web implements the GetTor feature in order to make the adoption of Tor Browser to be as easy as possible for the user. It provides an easy and quick alternative to download the Tor Browser when the user can't connect to torproject.org for different reasons (censorship or plausible deniability).

How to use it

To use this feature the user just needs to click the link of a Tor2web instance and add the /gettor suffix. For instance:

https://demo.globaleaks.org/gettor

To download the signature file the user needs to add an extra /signature suffix:

https://demo.globaleaks.org/gettor/signature

That simple.

How does it work

When a user requests the special GetTor URL, Tor2web will detect the user's operating system and language, and it will automagically provide the Tor Browser according to that information.

This feature works for users running Windows, Mac OS X, Android and iOS.

In the case of the latter two, the user will be redirected to the corresponding app stores to download Orbot (Android) and Onion Browser (iOS) respectively.

In any other case, an error message will be shown to the user, explaining where else to download Tor Browser.

Linux users are expected to already have Tor in their repository and/or know how to download/use Tor Browser.

Requirements

GetTor feature is integrated in Tor2web since version 3.1.19 and it's enabled by default. To verify if the GetTor feature is enabled in a Tor2web instance, check that the Tor2web configuration has the following information:

disable_gettor = False

To disable it, just set disable_gettor option to True.

Please note that the Tor Browser files served to the users are hosted on the Tor2web instance itself, and are automatically updated every time a new version of Tor Browser is released.

This means an approximate disk space requirement is 2GB.

Acknowledgements

GetTor feature for Tor2web has been developed thanks to discussions with Amnesty International, whom supported the research on this field, and integrated in collaboration with ilv, who works on Tor Project's GetTor, a similar initiative which main goal is to provide alternative methods to download Tor Browser, specially for people who live in highly censored places.

The tickets related to GetTor feature are 168 and 202.