Edward Snowden’s Haven app turns any Android smartphone into a remote security camera

If you have a spare Android device around you, you can turn that into a remotely accessible security camera of sorts. Edward Snowden recently launched an app that can turn any Android smartphone into your watchdog device of sorts. It lets you record video, sound, vibration, as well as detects motion and changes in light. According to the app’s website, “Haven is for people who need a way to protect their personal spaces and possessions without compromising their own privacy. We designed Haven for investigative journalists, human rights defenders, and people at risk of forced disappearance to create a new kind of herd immunity.”

By using a smartphone, it makes this less conspicuous to the baddies who want to invade your space. Since Haven is open source, those who want to tinker around with it to suit their needs can do so here. Some of its more notable and useful features include being able to access activity logs remotely and being able to forward detected events to a separate device via SMS, Gmail, WhatsApp, or secure messaging app Signal. The latter feature ensures that you get the data it records even if the phone where Haven is installed gets compromised.

Source: BGR

Edward Snowden held secret talks with Joseph Gordon-Levitt for actor’s biopic role

Actors generally talk to the people they play in biographical movies. But what if you’re researching a high-profile fugitive? It would seem it’s still possible. Joseph Gordon-Levitt admitted to holding a secret four-hour meeting with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in Russia. The meeting was so secret that Gordon-Levitt was advised to not record the conversation and avoid acknowledging the talks even happened for a while. According to the actor, he believes Snowden acted out of genuine concern that mass surveillance in America was going too far. Gordon-Levitt will be playing Snowden in the upcoming biopic helmed by Oliver Stone.

Source: The Guardian | Via: Engadget