Guardian Project Blog

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!

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]