User Guide: OONI Probe Mobile App

Last updated: 19th October 2022

OONI Probe Mobile version: 3.7.1

Access the user guide in other languages: فارسی, Русский, Deutsch, Türkçe, Tiếng Việt, မြန်မာ

OONI Probe is a free and open source app that you can use to measure internet censorship and other forms of network interference. This user guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to install, run, and customize your use of the OONI Probe mobile app.

What you will get from this guide:

Learn how to run OONI Probe Mobile to:
- Test the blocking of websites
- Test the blocking of instant messaging apps
- Test the blocking of circumvention tools
- Measure your network speed and performance
Customize your OONI Probe testing to websites of your choice
Learn how to access and share your OONI Probe test results
Configure your OONI Probe app settings

Upon reading this guide, we hope you will feel empowered to share your OONI Probe knowledge and skills with others!

The following table of contents should help with navigating the guide.

Introduction to OONI Probe

OONI Probe is free and open source software designed to measure internet censorship and other forms of network interference. Since 2012, this software has been developed by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), a non-profit project that was originally born out of the Tor Project.

With the OONI Probe app (available for both mobile and desktop platforms), you can run network measurement tests to check the following:

Blocking of websites;
Blocking of instant messaging apps (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal);
Blocking of circumvention tools (Tor, Tor Snowflake, Psiphon);
Presence of systems (middleboxes) on your network that might be responsible for censorship and/or surveillance;
Speed and performance of your network and performance of your video streaming.

As soon as you run OONI Probe, your test results are automatically sent to OONI servers, processed, and openly published in near real-time (unless you opt-out of the publication of your test results).

OONI openly publishes OONI Probe test results gathered from around the world to:

Increase transparency of internet censorship worldwide;
Share evidence of internet censorship and other forms of network interference;
Enable the independent verification of OONI censorship findings;
Support reproducible research;
Support research, policy, legal, and advocacy efforts around the world;
Support public debate on information controls.

To enable public access to OONI Probe test results (more commonly referred to as “measurements”), the OONI team makes them available on OONI Explorer: a web platform that provides charts based on measurement coverage and a search tool for exploring the measurements.

As OONI Explorer hosts more than 850 million network measurements collected from 24,500 networks in 241 countries and territories since 2012, it is likely the largest global open data resource on internet censorship to date.

By running OONI Probe, you will:

Learn whether and how your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is censoring access to specific websites and apps;
Contribute measurements that will be publicly archived, enabling the global internet freedom community to monitor, detect, and fight against internet censorship.

This guide aims to walk you through using the OONI Probe mobile app so that you can join a global community measuring internet censorship.

Disclaimer

As OONI Probe is designed to measure internet censorship, running it may be risky for some people in some countries.

Some things to take into account:

OONI Probe is not a privacy tool. Anyone monitoring your internet activity (e.g. government, ISP, employer) may see that you are running OONI Probe (just the way they can probably see all other software you run).
OONI Probe is an investigatory tool. Some OONI Probe tests are explicitly designed to uncover internet censorship.
Your threat model. A high-profile activist already under heavy surveillance, for example, might attract more attention when running OONI Probe.
The laws and regulations of the country you’re running OONI Probe from. Best to consult with local lawyers.
The types of websites you test. You might test legally banned (in some countries), provocative or objectionable websites through the use of OONI Probe.
The types of OONI Probe tests you run. Not all OONI Probe tests carry the same weight in terms of potential risk. OONI Probe, for example, includes the NDT test (designed to measure the speed and performance of a network) which may be viewed as less political or controversial in comparison to other tests designed to measure the blocking of websites or apps.
Whether you publish your measurements or not. OONI openly publishes measurements collected from OONI Probe users to increase transparency of internet censorship around the world. We do our best not to publish your IP address or any other potentially personally-identifiable information. Learn more in our Data Policy.

To learn more about potential risks associated with the use of OONI Probe, please refer to our relevant documentation.

Installing OONI Probe Mobile

The OONI Probe mobile app is available for Android, F-Droid, and iOS.

You can install the OONI Probe mobile app through the following steps:

Step 1. Visit the OONI Probe Mobile installation page (on the OONI website): https://ooni.org/install/mobile

Step 2. Depending on your operating system (Android, iOS, F-Droid), tap the relevant app store button.

Step 3. Install the OONI Probe mobile app (from your app store).

Step 4. Open your OONI Probe mobile app.

Now that you have installed and opened your OONI Probe mobile app, you will be presented with some basic information about OONI Probe as part of the onboarding process.

You will also learn about potential risks associated with running OONI Probe. To ensure that you understand these potential risks, we have included a short quiz to practically acquire your consent. Answering the quiz questions correctly is a requirement for using OONI Probe.

In the final step of the onboarding process, we share the types of data that are collected by default when running OONI Probe (linking to our Data Policy for further information). You can opt-in to sharing crash reports to help us improve OONI Probe.

Below we walk you through the onboarding process.

Step 1. Once you have read basic information about OONI Probe, tap Got It.

Step 2. The next screen shares a summary of potential risks associated with running OONI Probe. Tap Learn more to read our documentation explaining potential risks.

Step 3. Once you have learned about potential risks associated with running OONI Probe, tap I understand.

Step 4. The following quiz is based on the information you just read in the previous screen. Tap True to demonstrate your understanding of the statement.

You will see that True is the correct answer. If you tap False, you will receive an explanation on why the answer is wrong.

Step 5. Tap True to demonstrate your understanding of the statement (in the second part of the quiz).

You will see that True is the correct answer. If you tap False, you will receive an explanation on why the answer is wrong.

Step 6. If you would like the app to collect the measurements automatically, tap the Sounds great button.

Step 7. If you would like to share crash reports to help us improve OONI Probe, tap Yes.

Step 8. The following screen shares information about the types of data that OONI collects and publishes by default (every time you run OONI Probe). You can learn more by tapping on OONI’s Data Policy on the screen.

Step 9. Tap OK.

You have now completed the onboarding process and are ready to start using OONI Probe!

Running OONI Probe Mobile

Now that you have completed the onboarding process, you can start running OONI Probe to measure internet censorship!

The Dashboard of the OONI Probe mobile app includes 5 cards, each of which entails OONI Probe tests:

Websites card. Includes OONI’s Web Connectivity test which measures the blocking of websites.
Instant Messaging card. Includes OONI’s WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and Signal tests which check if these apps are blocked.
Circumvention card. Includes OONI’s Tor and Psiphon which check if these censorship circumvention tools are blocked.
Performance card. Includes the NDT speed test, the DASH video streaming performance test, and OONI’s middlebox tests (HTTP Header Field Manipulation test and HTTP Invalid Request Line test).
Experimental card. Includes multiple new experimental tests developed by the OONI team. These tests might change over time. You can view these tests here.

Step 1. Tap Run to run your first OONI Probe tests.

Once you tap “Run” OONI Probe will launch all tests available (included in all cards) in one go!

If you tap the Running line the fullscale window with ongoing tests will open:

OONI Probe should have run all tests within a few minutes (though this depends on the performance of the network you’re connected to, and may take longer in some cases). If the performance of your network is not good enough and the tests take too long, you can stop the ongoing test by tapping the Stop test button.

Once the tests have ended, your OONI Probe test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API.

Would you rather limit your testing to a specific test type (card)? In the following sections, we share instructions on how to do that.

Measuring the blocking of websites

If you only want to measure the blocking of websites, you can do so through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap the Websites card in the Dashboard of your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 2. Tap Run in the Websites card.

You are now running OONI’s Web Connectivity test to measure the blocking of websites.

Your OONI Probe test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API.

Which websites are tested?

By default, you will test websites included in the following 2 lists:

Global test list. Includes internationally relevant websites (such as facebook.com).
Country-specific test list. Includes websites that are only relevant to the country you’re running OONI Probe from.

No matter which country you’re running OONI Probe from, you will always test websites from the global test list.

OONI Probe will automatically determine which country-specific list to pick for testing based on the country you’re running OONI Probe from. For example, if you run OONI Probe in Brazil, you will test websites from the global test list and from the Brazilian test list. If you travel to Germany and run OONI Probe, it will test the websites from the global and German test lists. But if you’re running OONI Probe from a country which doesn’t have a country-specific test list yet (because it hasn’t been created), you will only test websites from the global list.

If you would like to contribute to the Citizen Lab test lists (which include the default websites tested by OONI Probe users worldwide), please refer to our relevant documentation or use our Test Lists Editor.

Note: To avoid consuming all your mobile data, OONI Probe will only test as many websites as it’s able to test within 90 seconds when you tap “Run” (either from the Dashboard or from the Websites card). These websites (which are tested within 90 seconds) are randomly selected from the global and (relevant) country-specific test lists. Every time you tap “Run”, you will test a different, random selection of websites (from the global and country-specific test lists) within 90 seconds. Therefore, the more times you tap “Run”, the more websites you will test.

If you would like to test a larger selection of websites, or test entirely different websites, please refer to the Customizing website testing section of this guide.

Measuring the blocking of instant messaging apps

If you only want to measure the blocking of instant messaging apps, you can do so through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap the Instant Messaging card in the Dashboard of your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 2. Tap Run in the Instant Messaging card.

You are now running OONI’s WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and Signal tests to measure the blocking of these apps.

Your OONI Probe test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API.

If you would like to limit your testing to only WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or Signal, please refer to the Configuring your OONI Probe settings section of this guide.

Measuring the blocking of circumvention tools

If you only want to measure the blocking of censorship circumvention tools, you can do so through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap the Circumvention card in the Dashboard of your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 2. Tap Run in the Circumvention card.

You are now running OONI’s Tor and Psiphon tests to measure the reachability of these tools.

Your OONI Probe test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API.

If you would like to limit your testing to only Tor or Psiphon, please refer to the Configuring your OONI Probe settings section of this guide.

Measuring network performance

If you only want to measure network performance, you can do so through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap the Performance card in the Dashboard of your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 2. Tap Run in the Performance card.

You are now running the NDT speed test, the DASH video streaming performance test, and OONI’s middlebox tests (HTTP Header Field Manipulation test and HTTP Invalid Request Line test).

Your OONI Probe test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API.

Disclaimer: The NDT and DASH tests are conducted against third-party servers provided by Measurement Lab (M-Lab). If you run these tests, M-Lab will collect and publish your IP address for research purposes, irrespective of your OONI Probe settings. Learn more about M-Lab’s data governance through its privacy statement.

If you would like to limit your testing to only one (or a few) of the tests included in the Performance card, please refer to the Configuring your OONI Probe settings section of this guide.

Customizing your website testing

By default, when testing websites with OONI Probe, you measure the URLs included in the Citizen Lab test lists. In other words, if you just tap “Run” (in the Dashboard or Websites card of the OONI Probe app), you will test a random selection of websites taken from the Citizen Lab test lists. These lists have been created through collaboration with in-country researchers and experts. As they are openly available on GitHub, anyone can potentially review them, contribute URLs, and propose the removal of certain URLs. And it is important that we continue reviewing and updating these lists, since they contain the websites that are tested by most OONI Probe users regularly around the world.

But if you would rather limit your testing to websites of your choice, you can do so through the OONI Probe mobile app.

You can customize your website testing in the following ways:

Limit your testing to specific website categories (such as news media and human rights content);
Only test websites you care about;
Test your own list;
Test all URLs in the (relevant) Citizen Lab test lists (rather than testing a random selection of websites in 90 seconds);

The following sections explain how you can do each of the above.

Testing specific website categories

When you tap “Run” in the OONI Probe app, you test websites from the global and (relevant) country-specific Citizen Lab test lists.

These websites have been categorized based on 30 standardized categories. These categories range from news media, culture, and human rights issues to more provocative or objectionable categories, like pornography (the latter are included because they are more likely to be blocked, enabling the detection of censorship techniques adopted by ISPs).

By default, all 30 categories are enabled in the OONI Probe mobile app to encourage the testing of more diverse websites, enhancing the possibility of discovering more forms of website censorship.

But if you don’t feel comfortable testing all 30 categories of websites (particularly if they include content that is illegal, provocative, or objectionable in your country), or are only interested in testing certain types of content (such as news media), you can limit your OONI Probe testing to the website categories of your choice. The same categories will be tested during the background tests if you enable Automated testing option.

Step 1. Tap Settings in the bottom navigation bar of your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 2. Tap Test options in the settings.

Step 3. Tap Websites (in the “Test options” setting).

Step 4. Tap Website categories to test (in the “Websites” section of the “Test options” setting).

You will now see the 30 categories of websites that OONI Probe tests by default. All of these categories are enabled.

Step 5. Disable the website categories that you do not want to test.

In the above example, we have disabled 5 categories (“LGBTQI”, “Political Criticism”, “Pornography”, “Provocative Attire”, “Religion”).

When you go back, you can see that only 25 categories are now enabled (since 5 have been disabled).

You can revisit this setting anytime to enable or disable the website categories of your choice.

Testing websites of your choice

You can test the websites you care about directly through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap the Websites card in your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 2. Tap the Choose websites button in the Websites card.

You will now see a screen where you can add the website(s) you want to test.

Step 3. Type the URL of the website you want to test. In the following example, we have typed https://www.facebook.com.

Important: Please ensure that the URL is typed correctly. If it is mis-typed, OONI Probe will not test the intended website and this will potentially lead to inaccurate test results.

A few things to keep in mind:

Is the website on HTTP or HTTPS? If the latter, please add an extra s after http.
Does the domain include www? If so, please include it.

To ensure that a URL is typed accurately, please check how it appears when accessed from a normal browser.

Step 4. Tap the plus sign to create a new line for adding another website for testing.

Step 5. Type another URL that you would like to test. In the following example, we have added https://twitter.com.

If you change your mind and would like to remove any of the URLs you have added, you can do so by tapping on the red icon next to each URL.

You can continue to add as many URLs as you like. In the following example, we have added https://www.gutenberg.org.

Step 6. Tap Run to test all of the websites you have added.

You will now see OONI Probe testing the websites of your choice!

Your OONI Probe test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API.

Testing a custom list of websites

Manually adding URLs one by one (through the “Choose websites” button of the OONI Probe mobile app) can potentially be tedious – particularly if it involves more than a dozen URLs. Researchers are often interested in testing their own list of websites, which can include hundreds of URLs.

You can test your own list of websites through the following steps:

Step 1. Compile your list of websites in a text editor, where each URL is in a separate line. Below we share an example.

Important: Please ensure that each URL is typed correctly. If it is mis-typed, OONI Probe will not test the intended website and this will potentially lead to inaccurate test results.

A few things to keep in mind:

Is the website on HTTP or HTTPS? If the latter, please add an extra s after http.
Does the domain include www? If so, please include it.
If the website is on HTTPS (e.g. https://www.hrw.org/), you probably don’t need to specify a webpage (e.g. https://www.hrw.org/publications), since ISPs usually cannot limit blocking to a specific webpage when it’s hosted on HTTPS. Rather, they would have to block access to the entire website.

To ensure that each URL is typed accurately, please copy-paste it from a browser.

Step 2. Copy your list of URLs (from your text editor).

Step 3. Visit the OONI Run website: https://run.ooni.org/

Step 4. Select http:// in the first URL slot of the OONI Run page (to avoid having a double http in the formatting of your first URL).

Step 5. Paste your list of URLs into the first URL slot of the OONI Run page.

You should now see that all of your URLs have populated each URL row in the OONI Run page.

If you notice any empty rows (or otherwise misformatted URLs), please delete them by clicking on the deletion icon.

Step 6. Click the Generate button at the end of your list.

You will now see the following pop-up window.

You have generated an OONI Run mobile deep link for the testing of your list of websites.

Step 7. Copy the generated link either by:

Clicking the link under “Share this URL with your friends”, pressing Control+A to select the whole link, and subsequently pressing Control + C to copy it; or
Right-clicking the Link button and selecting “Copy link address”.

Step 8. As you’re probably doing all these steps from your desktop, share the copied link with your mobile phone (so that you can subsequently open the link with your OONI Probe mobile app). You can also share this link with other OONI Probe users, if you would like them to test your list of websites as well.

Step 9. Tap on the OONI Run link from your mobile device.

Step 10. Open the link with your OONI Probe mobile app (not with a web browser).

You should now see your list of websites in your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 11. Tap Run to test your list of websites.

Your OONI Probe test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API.

Testing all websites from the Citizen Lab test lists

Due to bandwidth constraints, the OONI Probe mobile app only tests as many websites as it can connect to within 90 seconds (based on the default settings).

If you’re connected to WiFi and would like to test all websites from the (relevant) Citizen Lab test lists in one go, you can do so through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Settings in the bottom navigation bar of your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 2. Tap Test options in the settings.

Step 3. Tap Websites (in the “Test options” setting).

You now see the OONI Probe website settings.

Step 4. Disable Limit test duration (in the “Websites” section of the “Test options” setting).

There is now no time limit in your website testing. This means that OONI Probe can test all websites included in the relevant Citizen Lab test lists every time you tap “Run”.

Alternatively: If you would like to test more websites within a longer time duration (but without necessarily disabling the time limit and testing all websites), you can do so through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Test duration (in the “Websites” section of the “Test options” setting).

By default, the website testing duration is set to 90 seconds. This means that OONI Probe will only test as many websites (from the relevant Citizen Lab test lists) as it can connect to within 90 seconds.

Step 2. To change the test duration, type the number of seconds that you would like OONI Probe to test websites for. In the following example, we have typed 360 which would make OONI Probe test websites for 6 minutes.

Accessing your OONI Probe test results

As soon as you run an OONI Probe test, you can immediately access the test results directly in your OONI Probe mobile app.

Step 1. Tap Test Results in the bottom navigation bar of your OONI Probe mobile app.

You are now presented with an overview of all your OONI Probe test results.

In this overview, the test results are grouped based on the 4 thematic cards of the app (“Websites”, “Instant Messaging”, “Circumvention”, “Performance”).

In each thematic test result card, you have an overview of:

The network (e.g. AS16010 - Magticom Ltd.) on which each test was run;
The date and time of testing (e.g. 22nd August 2022 at 12:01 local time);
Summary of relevant findings (e.g. 3 instant messaging apps were found accessible, while none blocked).

This overview can potentially help with comparing results across networks (if you run tests on many different networks), and provides a bird’s-eye view of the findings.

To dig deeper (and access the relevant measurement data), you would need to tap on each test result, which we explain in the following sections.

Deleting test results

In the top menu (of the Test Results screen), we share an overview of:

The number of OONI Probe tests you have run so far;
The number of networks on which you have run OONI Probe so far;
Your OONI Probe data usage.

Step 1. If you would like to delete your OONI Probe test results (for example, to save up on storage), tap on the deletion icon in the top right corner.

Don’t worry about your test results getting lost; as soon as you run an OONI Probe test, your results are automatically published on OONI Explorer and on the OONI API in near real-time. If you would like to opt out of the publication of your test results, please refer to the “Configuring your OONI Probe settings: Privacy” section of this guide.

Upon tapping on the deletion icon, you will see the following pop-up:

Step 2. Tap Delete if you would like to delete all of your OONI Probe test results. Otherwise, tap Cancel.

Filtering test results

In the Test Results screen of your OONI Probe mobile app, the results are presented chronologically, with the latest tests listed first.

Step 1. If you would like to filter your results based on a specific testing category (“Websites”, “Instant Messaging”, “Circumvention”, “Performance”), tap All Tests (or “Filter Tests”, or the arrow in that row).

You are now presented with a drop-down menu which lists all the thematic testing categories.

Step 2. Tap on the category based on which you would like to filter the results. In the following example, we have tapped on “Websites”.

You have now filtered the results based on the “Websites” category, enabling an overview of the website testing results. In the above example, we can see that out of 3 websites tested on Magticom Ltd. (on 2nd August 2022 at 12:01 local time), 0 of those websites presented signs of blocking.

While the Test Results screen provides an initial overview of results, you can dig deeper and access the data pertaining to each test, as explained in the following sections.

Websites

You can access your OONI Probe results from the testing of websites through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Websites in the Test Results screen of your OONI Probe mobile app.

You will now see a list of all the websites that you have tested so far.

In the top header, we share an overview of your website testing results. Next to each tested URL, there will either be a green tick (indicating website accessibility), or an orange exclamation mark (indicating potential website blocking).

Step 2. Tap on the row of a tested website (to access the data from the testing of that website).

You now have access to the data pertaining to the testing of a specific website. The following measurement page pertains to the testing of https://telegram.org/.

Through this measurement page, you are presented with an overview of the test result. In this case, we can see that https://telegram.org/ was found accessible when tested on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 11:10 local time.

If a website was found (potentially) blocked, it would be presented in the website test results with an orange exclamation mark, as illustrated below.

You can access the measurement page pertaining to the above (potentially) blocked site by tapping on the row with the tested site.

In this case, we can see that http://1tv.ru presented signs of blocking (“anomaly”) when tested on Magticom Ltd (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 10:16 local time. In particular, we can see that it presented signs of DNS tampering (based on the heuristics of the OONI Web Connectivity test). This means that Magticom Ltd. may have blocked access to http://1tv.ru (on 2nd August 2022) by means of TCP/IP blocking.

As false positives can occur, we annotate test results that failed to meet all of the criteria of our Web Connectivity test as “anomalies” (rather than “confirmed blocked”), indicating that the tested website might be blocked.

In evaluating the blocking of a website, it is useful to examine relevant measurements (from the testing of a specific website on the same network over time) in aggregate, which you can do through OONI Explorer (where we publish all test results). OONI Explorer also displays measurements for all “confirmed blocked” cases, where we automatically confirm the blocking of websites based on block pages.

When the testing of a website presents an anomaly, it is particularly important to re-test it (on the same network) as many times as possible, as this can help with ruling out false positives (if, for example, we see a site failing in the same ways every time it is tested). One anomalous measurement alone is often not enough to evaluate blocking (particularly since testing can fail due to several networking reasons, which may have nothing to do with censorship).

Step 3. To retest a tested URL, tap the retry icon on the top right corner of the website test results page in your OONI Probe app.

You will then see the following pop-up window, asking if you would like to retest all of the websites (that you have already tested).

Step 4. Tap Run to retest the websites.

Instant Messaging

You can access your OONI Probe results from the testing of instant messaging apps through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Instant Messaging in the Test Results screen of your OONI Probe mobile app.

You will now see a list of the instant messaging apps (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram) that you have tested so far.

In the top header, we share an overview of your instant messaging app testing results. Next to each tested app, there will either be a green tick (indicating app reachability), or an orange exclamation mark (indicating potential app blocking).

Step 2. Tap on the row of a tested app (to access the data from the testing of that app).

The following measurement page pertains to the testing of WhatsApp.

Through this measurement page, you are presented with an overview of the WhatsApp test result. In this case, we can see that WhatsApp was found accessible when tested on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 10:16 local time. This conclusion is reached because OONI’s WhatsApp test was able to successfully connect to WhatsApp’s endpoints, registration service, and web interface (web.whatsapp.com).

If WhatsApp was found (potentially) blocked, this test result would show an orange exclamation mark and information about why it’s potentially blocked (based on the heuristics of OONI’s WhatsApp test).

Similarly, you can access Telegram test results through the instant messaging results in your OONI Probe app.

In this case, we can see that Telegram was found accessible when tested on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 10:16 local time. This conclusion is reached because OONI’s Telegram test was able to successfully connect to Telegram’s endpoints and web interface (web.telegram.org).

If Telegram was found (potentially) blocked, this test result would show an orange exclamation mark and information about why it’s potentially blocked (based on the heuristics of OONI’s Telegram test).

As you can see, there is a grey line at the bottom of the screen saying that the measurement was not uploaded to OONI Explorer and the OONI API. This may have occurred due to poor network connectivity. To re-try uploading the measurements, tap Upload.

You can access Signal test results through the instant messaging results in your OONI Probe app.

In this case, we can see that Signal was found accessible when tested on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 10:18 local time. This conclusion is reached because OONI’s Signal test was able to successfully connect to Signal’s endpoints.

If Signal was found (potentially) blocked, this test result would show an orange exclamation mark and information about why it’s potentially blocked (based on the heuristics of OONI’s Signal test).

In all cases, we recommend referring to OONI measurements published on OONI Explorer, where you can examine results in aggregate (which can help with ruling out false positives and confirming blocking).

Circumvention

You can access your OONI Probe results from the testing of circumvention tools through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Circumvention in the Test Results screen of your OONI Probe mobile app.

You will now see a list of the censorship circumvention tools (Psiphon, Tor) that you have tested so far.

In the top header, we share an overview of your circumvention tool testing results. Next to each tested tool, there will either be a green tick (indicating reachability), or an orange exclamation mark (indicating potential blocking).

Step 2. Tap on the row of a tested tool (to access the data from its testing).

The following measurement page pertains to the testing of Psiphon.

Through this measurement page, you are presented with an overview of the Psiphon test result. In this case, we can see that Psiphon was reachable when tested on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 13:11 local time. This conclusion is reached because OONI’s Psiphon test was able to successfully bootstrap a Psiphon connection.

If Psiphon was found (potentially) blocked, this test result would show an orange exclamation mark and information about why it’s potentially blocked (based on the heuristics of OONI’s Psiphon test).

Similarly, you can access Tor test results through the circumvention results in your OONI Probe app.

In this case, we can see that Tor was reachable when tested on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 13:11 local time. This conclusion is reached because OONI’s Tor test was able to successfully connect to most of the default Tor bridges and to all Tor directory authorities.

If Tor was found (potentially) blocked, this test result would show an orange exclamation mark and information about why it’s potentially blocked (based on the heuristics of OONI’s Tor test).

Performance

You can access your OONI Probe results from the testing of your network’s performance through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Performance in the Test Results screen of your OONI Probe mobile app.

You will now see a list of the performance tests that you have run so far. In the top header, we share an overview of the results, with the main findings listed next to each test result.

Step 2. Tap on the row of a test result (to access relevant data).

The following measurement page is from an NDT speed test.

In this case, we can see that an NDT speed test was run on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 13:26 local time. When the test was performed, the download speed was 9.44 megabits per second, the upload speed was 11.5 megabits per second, and it took 151.6 milliseconds to establish a connection to an M-Lab server (mil03-IT). This indicates average internet speed, given that the average ping (to this M-Lab server) is 453.3 milliseconds.

You can compare your NDT test results with what is offered in your internet plan provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

You can access DASH results through the performance results in your OONI Probe app.

In this case, we can see that a DASH video streaming test was run on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 13:35 local time. When the test was performed, it was possible to stream up to 1080p (full HD) video without buffering, with the median bitrate being 6.07 megabits per second. This indicates that the user could stream high definition videos on that network if the streaming server was co-located with the measurement server.

You can compare your DASH test results with what is offered in your internet plan provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Through the performance card, you can also run two of OONI’s tests designed to measure the presence of middleboxes on tested networks:

A middlebox is a computer networking device that transforms, inspects, filters, or otherwise manipulates traffic for purposes other than packet forwarding. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the world use middleboxes to improve network performance, provide users with faster access to websites, and for a number of other networking purposes. Sometimes though, middleboxes are also used to implement internet censorship and/or surveillance.

You can access OONI’s HTTP Invalid Request Line test results through the performance results in your OONI Probe app.

In this case, we can see that the HTTP Invalid Request Line test was run on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 13:36 local time. When this test was performed, it sent an invalid HTTP request line (containing an invalid HTTP version number, an invalid field count and a huge request method) to an echo service listening on the standard HTTP port. The echo service (a debugging and measurement tool which simply sends back any data it receives) sent the invalid HTTP request line back to us, exactly as it received it. This indicates that there is no visible middlebox or traffic manipulation on the tested network.

If, however, a middlebox was present on the tested network, the invalid HTTP request line would have been intercepted by the middlebox, potentially triggering an error that would have been sent back to us by the echo service. Such errors indicate that software for traffic manipulation is likely placed on the tested network, though it’s not always clear what that software is.

Similarly, you can access OONI’s HTTP Header Field Manipulation test results through the performance results in your OONI Probe app.

In this case, we can see that the HTTP Header Field Manipulation test was run on Magticom Ltd. (AS16010) on 2nd August 2022 at 13:35 local time. When this test was performed, it emulated an HTTP request towards a backend control server (which sends back any data it receives), but sent HTTP headers with variations in capitalization (i.e. non-canonical HTTP headers). Since we received the HTTP headers exactly as we sent them, there is no visible middlebox or traffic manipulation on the tested network.

If, however, a middlebox was present on the tested network, it may have normalized the invalid headers that we sent or added extra headers. Depending on whether the HTTP headers that we send and receive from a backend control server are the same or not, we are able to evaluate whether a middlebox is present on the tested network.

Through each OONI Probe test result, you can:

Access and share your measurement published on OONI Explorer;
Share the measurement with your contacts;
Access the raw data of your measurement;
Access the log of your measurement.

Accessing your measurement on OONI Explorer

Step 1. Access any OONI Probe test result (for details on how to find OONI Probe test results, please refer to the previous section of this guide).

Step 2. Tap the Show in OONI Explorer button on an OONI Probe test result.

The app will redirect you to the OONI Explorer page relevant to your measurement. For the 1tv example that would be the following page: https://explorer.ooni.io/measurement/20220802T082305Z_webconnectivity_GE_16010_n1_mqcSN23znJTURgOm?input=http://1tv.ru

You may be interested in sharing your test results, particularly if and when you come across cases of potential blocking. While your OONI Probe results are automatically published on OONI Explorer (unless if you opt-out, as discussed in the “Configuring your OONI Probe settings: Privacy” section of this guide), you may still be interested in sharing your test result(s) directly with your contacts.

You can share your OONI Probe measurements through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap the Share button in an OONI Probe test result.

This will open the Share with function of your phone, enabling you to share the selected measurement directly with any of your contacts (for example, through applications like WhatsApp, Signal, or Slack).

Step 2. Tap on the contact you would like to share the measurement with.

Step 3. Tap Send to share the measurement with your contact. They will receive the relevant OONI Explorer measurement pertaining to your test result.

Raw data

Every OONI Probe test result provides an overview of the findings. The actual data (i.e. the raw measurement data) that each test result is based on is available through the Data button of each test result.

It is useful to access the raw measurement data because:

It provides technical details that can potentially serve as evidence of blocking;
It can help with determining if a website is in fact blocked, or if its testing triggered an anomaly due to other, non-censorship related reasons (i.e. ruling out false positives).

To access the raw OONI data of a test result:

Step 1. Tap the Data button on an OONI Probe test result.

Step 2. You can copy and share the data by tapping Copy to clipboard on the top right corner.

Log

A log is a file that records how specific software ran. In the context of OONI Probe, each test result comes with a log, which records how that specific test ran on a specific network. This data is only visible if you have the Debug logs option turned on. To check if this option is enabled, please proceed to the Advanced menu in Settings.

It can potentially be useful to access the log of an OONI Probe test result if it presented an error or otherwise failed to run as expected. In these cases, you can share the relevant log with the OONI team to help us debug the issue.

Configuring your OONI Probe settings

You can customize your use of OONI Probe through the settings.

Step 1. Tap Settings in the bottom navigation bar of your OONI Probe app.

You can now see all of the OONI Probe app settings.

In the following sections, we walk you through each setting.

Notifications

If you are using OONI Probe on Android, you can enable push notifications to receive messages from the OONI team.

We primarily send out notifications when we hear of censorship in a particular country, encouraging OONI Probe users in that country to test the services that are reportedly blocked (or which appear blocked based on OONI measurements). We generally don’t send push notifications too often.

You can configure your push notification settings through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Notifications through the settings of your OONI Probe app.

You will see that push notifications are disabled by default.

Step 2. Enable the Enabled option to receive push notifications.

By enabling push notifications, you may receive a message from us when and if we hear of a case of internet censorship in your country. In our message, we may provide an OONI Run link for the testing of the specific services which are reportedly or seemingly blocked.

Automated testing

Instead of having to remember to manually run tests, you can enable automated testing in the settings of your OONI Probe app and OONI Probe will run tests automatically for you!

By enabling automated testing, OONI Probe will run all tests in the background multiple times per day (excluding the bandwidth-intensive performance tests), testing a different set of websites (from the Citizen Lab test lists) each time. To avoid cluttering the Test Results section of your app, these test results are automatically published on OONI Explorer in near real-time (but are not visible through the Test Results section).

With automated OONI Probe testing, you can regularly contribute censorship measurements (without having to do anything), enabling the internet freedom community to monitor and detect censorship events in your country over time. If you are concerned about traffic consumption or risks connected with regular testing of specific websites categories, you can limit the types of tests to be ran or list of categories to be tested through Test options section of OONI Probe settings.

You can enable automated OONI Probe testing through the following steps:

Step 1. Tap Settings in the bottom navigation bar of your OONI Probe app and tap the Automated testing button.

You will see that the Run tests automatically option of the settings is disabled by default.

Step 2. Enable the Run tests automatically option in the settings.

You have now enabled automated OONI Probe testing! OONI Probe will run tests automatically multiple times per day (without user intervention) once your device is connected to WiFi and charging. All test results will automatically get published on OONI Explorer.

If you do not have any restrictions on traffic or battery usage, you can run automated measurements without WiFi connection or charger. To do that, please disable the Only on WiFi and Only while charging settings.

Important: If you have a VPN enabled, OONI Probe will not run tests automatically. Please turn-off your VPN for automated OONI Probe testing.

Test options

You can customize your testing based on the various test options of each thematic card (“Websites”, “Instant Messaging”, “Circumvention”, “Performance”). The settings you choose will be applied both to manual and automated testing. The Performance testing is disabled during Automated testing by default due to the bandwith constraints.

Step 1. Tap Test options through the settings of your OONI Probe app.

You will now see that the subsequent settings are grouped under each thematic testing card.

In the following sections, we walk you through the settings of each group.