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Andrew Orr

Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.

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Articles by Andrew Orr

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Students Want to Ban College Facial Recogntion

Andrew Orr ·

Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Fight for the Future are teaming up to ban college facial recognition from campuses.

Facial recognition surveillance spreading to college campuses would put students, faculty, and community members at risk…Schools that are already using this technology are conducting unethical experiments on their students. Students and staff have a right to know if their administrations are planning to implement biometric surveillance on campus. Grassroots organizing stopped facial recognition from ruining music festivals. Now we’re going to stop it from invading university campuses.

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Hackers Dump 70,000 Tinder Photos of Women

Andrew Orr ·

Over 70,000 Tinder photos of women have been dumped in an online forum for cybercrime.

Contextual clues, including particular phone models like the iPhone X seen in the photographs, as well as limited metadata, suggest that many of the (mostly) selfies were taken in recent years. Some of the photos, in fact, contain timestamps dated as recent as October 2019.

Tinder also noted that all of the photos are public and can be viewed by others through regular use of the app; although, obviously, the app is not designed to help a single person amass such a massive quantity of images. The app can also only be used to view the profiles of other users within 100 miles.

Emphasis mine.

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The ‘Cult’ of Apple, Ranking No. 6 on an Evil List

Andrew Orr ·

Writing for Slate, Cory Doctorow criticizes Apple, calling its customers a cult and Apple a monopoly. I don’t plan to pick apart his article and defend Apple, but I do particularly disagree with this quote:

When it comes to Apple, even if you’re paying for the product, you’re still the product: sold to app programmers as a captive market, or gouged on parts and service by official Apple depots.

I guess consumers can’t do anything right. Not only are we a cult, but we don’t even have the power of the free market, instead we’re “sold” to developers.

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Scotland Police to Use ‘Cyber Kiosks’ to Extract Smartphone Data

Andrew Orr ·

Starting January 20, 2020 Scotland police will use devices called cyber kiosks to analyze the contents of smartphones during investigations.

Police Scotland will only examine a digital device where there is a legal basis and where it is necessary, justified and proportionate to the incident or crime under investigation.

Cyber kiosks used by Police Scotland will not be enabled to store data from digital devices.  Once an examination is complete, all device data is securely deleted from the cyber kiosk.

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Google’s iPhone Security App Keeps You in its Ecosystem

Andrew Orr ·

Google updated its Smart Lock app on iOS to let iPhones be used for two-factor authentication. But it will only work inside Chrome. Now your only choices for Google two-factor authentication are this Smart Lock app, or a phone number (an insecure method). You can also use a physical security key but not an app like Authy.

After installing the update, users are asked to select a Google account to set up their phone’s built-in security key. According to a Google cryptographer, the feature makes use of Apple’s Secure Enclave hardware, which securely stores ‌Touch ID‌, Face ID, and other cryptographic data on iOS devices.

Update. So I made a mistake and you can use an app like Authy, but you first have to surrender your phone number to Google. Which I’m obviously loathe to do so I use a disposable number.

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Cellebrite’s Acquisition Adds Computer Forensics to its Portfolio

Andrew Orr ·

Cellebrite, a company specializing in hacking smartphones for law enforcement, has acquired BlackBag Technologies, a company specializing in hacking computers for law enforcement. This will let Cellebrite offer law enforcement an “all-in-one” forensic solution to cover smartphones, laptops, desktops, and cloud data.

It also means offering a broad array of field acquisition capabilities including consent-based evidence collection along with an integrated solution set that provides access, insight and evidence management to facilitate and control large-scale deployments and orchestrate the entire digital intelligence operation.

Cellebrite offers all of these capabilities to law enforcement, but the FBI still wants Apple to create a backdoored version of iOS.

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How to Avoid Online Scams With This Guide

Andrew Orr ·

Emily Long put together a guide on how to avoid online scams, like not clicking links in emails, not sharing passwords, and more.

The basic rule for surviving internet scams is simple: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A little common sense goes a long way to realizing that you aren’t going to suddenly win the Spanish National Lottery when you didn’t even know you had a ticket.

A useful guide.

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Build an Apple I Replica With This $99 SmartyKit

Andrew Orr ·

Steve Wozniak built the Apple I computer by hand, and it sold at US$666.66 when it went on sale July 1976. And with a product called SmartyKit you can build a replica of it.

Besides a cool DIY project, the company behind SmartyKit also proposes it as an educational tool for those interested in knowing what are the main parts of every computer, what a processor is and how it works, how a video signal is formed and how a simple operating system works.