en	From the number of automatic upgrades, we know that Tails was used 20% more in 2020 than in 2019. It's our biggest increase since 2016.

en	**We designed and tested usability improvements to the Persistent Storage and the connection to Tor.**

en	We know from previous surveys and usability research that these are 2 critical aspects to improve the usability of Tails, especially for less technical users and people experiencing heavy online censorship, for example in Asia.

en	Your donations will help us implement as many of these improvements as possible during 2021. You can already have a look at the new designs in our blueprints on the [[!tails_blueprint Persistent-Storage-redesign desc="Persistent Storage"]] and the [[!tails_blueprint network_connection desc="connection to Tor"]].

en	We always test the usability of major features with users before releasing them. It was particularly exciting this time because we tested our design remotely using paper prototyping with people in Greece, Mexico, Italy, Uganda, Germany, Ireland, and Malaysia!

en	**We simplified the verification procedure on our download page** by [[replacing the *Tails Verification* extension|verification_extension_deprecation]] with similar JavaScript code that runs [[directly on the download page|install/download]].

en	This simple usability improvement had a huge impact and 60% more downloads are verified and secure now than with the verification extension.

en	- **We automated the most time-consuming parts of our release process.**

en	We estimate that we divided roughly by 2 the amount of time, work, and stress needed for us to publish a new version of Tails.

en	For you, this means a quicker response time in case of important security vulnerability and more time available for us to work on new features and improvements.

en	- **We hired a new core developer, boyska.**

en	boyska has very strong experience in the technical aspects of operating systems and software development, and also in the social implications of technology, Free Software, and privacy.

en	boyska will be key to bringing more improvements to Tails more quickly.

en	Thanks again for supporting Tails!