InformaCam Beta Preview: New Open Source Tool Helps Verify Citizen Media

Google Hangout on December 11,2013 with Nathan Freitas (Guardian Project), Harlo Homes (Guardian Project), Matisse Bustos Hawkes (WITNESS), and Yvette Alberdingk Thijm (WITNESS), developers of InformaCam. Video: WITNESS via YouTube.

InformaCam is a new application for Android devices that allows users to attach metadata like GPS coordinates, timestamps, compass bearing, altitude, and light meter readings, among other attributes, to digital pictures and video. These features are designed to provide journalists, human rights activists, and the legal community with the tools to secure and verify images and footage from areas of conflict and political unrest, where access to consistent, reliable information can be scarce. Ultimately, says developer Nathan Freitas, it creates “a digital snapshot of the environment in which the photo or video was taken.”

The application also has the ability to encrypt a user’s data, permits them to share media only with specified users, and connects to social media platforms like Facebook and Flickr for easy, secure posting. InformaCam also supports delivery of media to a server through the Tor network, hosted as a Tor Hidden Service.
Note: InformaCam is currently in its Beta testing phase. Its developers caution against using it to capture sensitive information as of yet.

InformaCam was created by WITNESS and Guardian Project. It was funded by the Knight News Challenge, via the Knight Foundation.

See the initial stages of InformaCam in action here.

Nathan Freitas, software developer and founder of Guardian Project; Harlo Holmes, software programmer and activist with Guardian Project; and Sam Gregory, program director for WITNESS, present InformaCam and explain how it works. Video: Knight Foundation via Vimeo.