Orbot Update: New Setup Wizard at Startup
Posted on July 29, 2010
| n8fr8
We’ve been working away at the 0.0.9 release of Orbot over the last few months, and have put a decent amount of effort into usability. Specifically, we hoped to better communicate to users what it means to run Tor on your Android phone. In addition, we wanted to clearly lay out how the various configuration options help to improve your mobile web anonymity and ability to circumvent web filters and tracking by your mobile service provider.
[Read More]
Calling all Guardians – Alpha Testers Needed!
Posted on July 13, 2010
| Derek
Recently here at the Guardian Project we’ve been brainstorming & designing a new tool that we think will be core to enabling truly protected mobile communications . We think it will a big step in improving the user-friendliness of making your communications secure, anonymous and private , but we need your help to make it great.
While it may give some of us a certain satisfaction to manually cobble together a suite of secure applications that suites our needs, this is by no means a long-term, wider-market solution.
[Read More]
How To: Lockdown Your Mobile E-Mail
Posted on July 9, 2010
| Derek
Update 2015-04-27: _We now recommend OpenKeychain over APG, the app described in this blog post. The set up is drastically easier, so you probably don’t even need this HOWTO anymore. Start by downloading K-9 and OpenKeychain, then go into OpenKeychain and start the config there._
Over the past few years it’s become increasingly popular to sound the call that ‘email is dead{#y8a0}.’ And while many complementary forms of synchronous and asynchronous communication – from IM to social networking – have evolved since email first came on the scene, it’s hard to see email suddenly disappearing from its role as the most important way organizations communicate.
[Read More]
aPad / iRobot / Moons e7001 Teardown
Posted on June 5, 2010
| n8fr8
This is the aPad or iRobot Android 7″ tablet device from www.hiapad.com. I decided to tear mine apart, as the unit I received has a battery issue, and I hoped to see if I could find a bad solder point. In addition, I was curious to see just how hackable or extensible the hardware was. In the end, I was mostly surprised by how much of the thing is put together with tape.
[Read More]
How To: Setup a Private VOIP Phone System for Android
Posted on May 26, 2010
| n8fr8
MAY 2011: Learn more about our new efforts on the Open Secure Telephony Network at https://guardianproject.info/wiki/OSTN – we currently recommend the CSipSimple Android app instead of SIPDroid, for secure voice calls.
Near the very top of Guardian’s open-source application suite wish list is something that might seem like a no-brainer for a secure mobile device: voice. When we take into account network performance and audio fidelity requirements, as well as the International nature of Guardian’s target users (everything from average citizens to multi-national journalists or humanitarian organizations), the prospect of a truly real-time secure VOIP solution starts to reveal itself as quite the challenge.
[Read More]
Tor on a Tablet
Posted on May 25, 2010
| n8fr8
We recently acquired a Moons e-7001 “iRobot” tablet which runs Android 1.5. This device is also known as the “aPad”. It is a very basic iPad-clone, though honestly, it can’t really compare with the iPad in terms of quality of screen, build or general use. However, it does only cost $185, supports USB host mode, has a built-in camera, and it is running Android, an actual open-source operating system! It should also be pointed out that you can also now get the Archos 7 Android tablet, which is basically the same thing as this, from Amazon for $199.
[Read More]
Beem+Orbot: Mobile Instant Messaging over Tor
Posted on May 10, 2010
| n8fr8
It is no secret that we are big fans of open-source here at Guardian. In fact, it is what we are made of. Guardian is not just a single app or just one phone, it is a vision for a more private and secure future for personal mobile telecommunications. As part of our work, we are constantly on the lookout other similar, like-minded projects that are developing open-source communications tools for the Android OS which we can make to work with our underlying security platform.
[Read More]
Ultimate Droid and Orbot
Posted on April 11, 2010
| n8fr8
The InsecureSystem blog has a nice write-up on how to get Orbot running on your Droid:
I’ve always been a supporter of net privacy and Tor in particular, and a friend of mine got me interested in the guardian project, so I grabbed the beta version of Orbot just to try it out.. sweet, tor from my phone.
Unfortunately the Smoked Glass Rom I was using didn’t support the Iptables modules necessary for the transparent proxy method orbot used for tunnelling apps through privoxy/tor.
[Read More]
Ushahidi-Linda: “Testimony” + “Protection”
Posted on March 10, 2010
| n8fr8
Ushahidi-linda (“Testimony” + “Protection” – disclaimer: we don’t speak Swahili so this was a shot in the dark!)
This is a fork of the Ushahidi on Android app, done as a way to prototype the implementation of increased security, anonymity and privacy for users viewing and submitting reports through Ushahidi.
Ushahidi is a platform that crowdsources crisis information, allowing anyone to submit crisis information through text messaging using a mobile phone, email or web form.
[Read More]
Orbot goes Beta
Posted on March 4, 2010
| n8fr8
As announced on the Tor Blog, an important development:
The Tor Project has been working very closely with Nathan Freitas and The Guardian Project to create an Android release. This is an early beta release and is not yet suitable for high security needs. The Android web browser is not protected by Torbutton and we have not yet developed an anonymous browser on the Android platform. Please be cautious with this release, it’s probably pretty fragile and it’s certainly not ready for serious use.
[Read More]
MobileActive Helps Secure Citizen Journalists
Posted on March 2, 2010
| n8fr8
While we appreciate the mention in this new guide from MobileActive, we appreciate even more the hard work put into documenting practical solutions for citizen journalists that are available today. This guide covers both low and hi-tech approaches to using a mobile phone to document and share media, while still trying to protect your identity and safeguarding communication:
Mobile phones are used to compose stories, capture multi-media evidence and disseminate content to local and international audiences.
[Read More]
Orbot main screen redesign
Posted on March 1, 2010
| n8fr8
Here’s a few screenshots of the new “ACTIVATE ORBOT!” user interface. Just polishing up some of the features and doing a last few days of diligent testing before we release to the wider public.
Overall, we want Tor on Android to be a one touch type experience, while still offering all the necessary options for configuration of bridges, rate limiting, etc.
The coolest Android-only feature, which unfortunately requires your device to be rooted, is the ability to choose which apps on your device will be “Torified” automatically and transparently.
[Read More]
One Solution for Push-to-Talk
Posted on February 11, 2010
| n8fr8
As part of rolling out the first-phase of The Guardian Project, I will be writing short reviews of existing applications for Android-based mobile phones that share our general goals or desired functionality. The goal of Guardian, in short, is to enable safe and secure communication for activists, organizers and advocates working for good around the world through the mobile phones they carry in their pockets.
The Guardian project has no official relationship with these apps or their creators, but as we work towards developing our own unique software, we want to make sure to shine the spotlight on existing efforts that we admire and which are currently available.
[Read More]
Orbot: Initial Release (repost)
Posted on February 10, 2010
| n8fr8
This was originally posted in October 2009.
I’d like to make this post without much fanfare. Just looking to share information on the work I’ve been doing with the fantastically radical team over at the Tor Project, as part of my work on the Guardian Project. We have successfully ported the native C Tor app to Android and built an Android application bundle that installs, runs and provides the glue needed to make it useful to end users….
[Read More]
Ideas and Inspiration
Posted on February 8, 2010
| n8fr8
Watch the video below to hear directly from Google’s Android Team about the benefits of an open-source mobile OS.
And now, another clip from one of our core, yet fictional, inspirations.
Alan Bradley: I still don’t get why you want to break into the system.
Kevin Flynn: [frustrated] Because, man, somewhere in one of these memories is the evidence!
Posted on January 1, 0001
In 2010, at the Open Video Conference hackathon, I came up with a concept called “auto blur the news”, while in a brainstorm with activists, advocates and coders, including Sam Gregory, a longtime ally from WITNESS. Using the built-in face recognition features on modern smartphones, you could instantly redact faces from a photo or video, instead of tagging or tracking those same faces. Out of this came an app called ObscuraCam, which was always meant as a proof of concept demonstration to help lobby mainstream apps and operating systems a simple feature available for all.
[Read More]