[Ssc-dev] Press Request about InformaCam

Tue Jan 29 12:43:46 EST 2013

Will review once out of my meeting - so give me an hour or so.
S

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 12:38 PM, Harlo Holmes
<harlo at guardianproject.info>wrote:

> Yeah, replace my #2 with what Nathan says.  I hate answering those
> questions...
>
>  And yes, for #1, you can send it off via email (or better yet,
> PGP-encrypted email) to someone and still maintain your data.
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Research Fellow, Head of Metadata
> The Guardian Project <https://guardianproject.info>
>
> pgp: 0xA4469630
> twitter: @harlo
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 12:32 PM, Nathan of Guardian <
> nathan at guardianproject.info> wrote:
>
>>
>> A few addition/mods inline - Sam/Bryan, please take a look, to make sure
>> we aren't straying too far from or missing any major points.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 01/30/2013 12:16 AM, Harlo Holmes wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 10:43 AM, Nathan of Guardian <
>> nathan at guardianproject.info> wrote:
>>
>>> 1. Does the recipient of the photo or video file also need the app or are there other ways to process the data?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>  An InformaCam user is supposed to submit their media to a remote
>> server, which process the photo or video.  The user can always choose to
>> export their photo once it's been taken, and it can be looked at on the
>> web, shared over twitter, or posted to a blog. However, exporting "breaks
>> the seal" so to speak, and the data can no longer necessarily be trusted.
>>
>>
>> Hmm. Is this true though? Couldn't someone decrypt/parse/verify the
>> metadata in the image, as long as they had the spec for J3M and the
>> InformaCam embed info? I can send a signed/encrypted OpenPGP email through
>> an insecure system w/o corrupting the email itself, right?
>>
>> I think it is okay to say that from a legal perspective, we wan't to keep
>> it in a closed system, but that from a format perspective, we want to have
>> an open, non-proprietary format that many tools can support.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> 2. How do you make sure that the files are not manipulated via hacking the app or so?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  We are carefully and continuously auditing our code so as to minimize
>> ways the app can be hacked.  We are an open source project, and encourage
>> members of our community to help make our code more robust.  We are also
>> aware of "the analog hole" in digital media, which never fails to poke
>> holes in even the most foil-proof systems of security.
>>
>>
>> I would perhaps say something like this:
>>
>> With InformaCam we are working to meet a standard of evidence that is
>> held by international criminal courts. Through our partnership with the
>> Int'l Bar Association, we are trying to understand what it takes for an app
>> to provide enough checks and metadata to verify media "beyond a reasonable
>> doubt", so to speak. We also think that in some cases, the app and mobile
>> device itself could become part of the verified evidence, much like a gun
>> being matched to a bullet.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> 3. Is there a way to verify user-generated content that was not shot or edited using InformaCam?
>>>
>>>
>>  Forensic analysts specializing in digital media have plenty of methods
>> of verifying photos and videos; we employ some of those methods when
>> processing media submitted from the app to the servers.  However, one of
>> InformaCam's key concepts is establishing an auditable chain-of-custody to
>> lend weight to the "trustworthyness" of the media.  This is something that
>> cannot be done with forensics alone.
>>
>>
>> I would add this:
>>
>> This is not to minimize the potential of combining InformaCam with social
>> or crowd-source verification, as we have seen Andy Carvin at NPR do, or
>> what the team of editors at Storyful.com do. From a news journalism
>> perspective, being able to reach out and cross-verify a photo or video from
>> multiple independent eyewitness sources, could still be faster and more
>> effective that sorting through data and code. Ultimately, we see our work
>> with InformaCam providing more data points to both journalistic and legal
>> verification process, not replacing them.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> 4. Will the app stay limited to Android devices? Will it be available via the official channels (Google Play, AppStore etc.)? When will the pilot version be available?
>>>
>>>  We are piloting the app with partner organizations instead of
>> releasing to the general public just yet.
>>
>> , however, the source code is completely open-source, and available for
>> any interested users or groups to join in the development and testing
>> process. Ultimately, we do feel InformaCam can be relevant to activities
>> beyond global crisis, be it documenting an insurance claim, or gathering
>> rich metadata for historic or personal archiving reasons.
>>
>>
>>   We do think about developing a version for iOS, but Android is better
>> suited to this project for so many reasons: world-wide reach, licensing,
>> and most importantly, hardware.  As we've recently seen with the release of
>> the Nikon Coolpix and Samsung Galaxy cameras, Android is becoming better
>> integrated with better pro-sumer hardware; it's exciting to see where this
>> is leading.
>>
>>   +n
>>
>
>

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<http://blog.witness.org/2013/01/how-informacam-improves-verification-of-mobile-media-files/>-
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