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Project Overview
eyeWitness to Atrocities captures images, video and audio through a disguised camera app - the app icon is designed to look like a third-party camera, preventing recognition without detailed inspection. Media is recorded along with comprehensive device metadata such as GPS location, date, time and content verification data. Users have the option to add notes and tags to the content, which is stored in a secure in-app Vault rather than the device’s image gallery. The media is then uploaded to a secure server, where it can be reviewed by the IBA’s team of experts.
Project Commissioner
The International Bar Association
Project Creator
Team
The International Bar Association (IBA), established in 1947, is the world’s leading organisation of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. The IBA influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession throughout the world.
Compsoft have been specialising in mobile since 2009, having designed and developed web-based applications for many years prior. Compsoft combine stunning interface design with cutting edge development to deliver the best possible app for each customer. Our thirty-strong team lives and breathes mobile - we love nothing more than to apply our passion, creativity, skill and experience to each client’s individual requirement.
Project Brief
One of the principal aims of the IBA is to support human rights. Social media has heightened awareness of human rights abuses around the world and enabled members of the public to post photographs and videos of these abuses. However such content is often not able to be verified, and can therefore not be used as evidence. The brief for eyeWitness to Atrocities was to provide a solution to these challenges by creating a method for documenting and transferring content in a confidential, secure, and verifiable manner.
On first opening the user is guided though information on using the app and keeping safe. The user can choose from several home screen icons for the app; eyeWitness therefore appears as an innocuous standard camera app with no indication of true purpose. The user is able to demonstrate to a curious inspector the taking of photos, videos or audio for display in the standard device gallery.
A hidden control enables the user to switch to secure mode, recording content to the Vault. The app automatically records additional metadata to help authenticate the evidence. All Vault content is encrypted with a unique key, preventing any access from outside of the app. A hidden swipe enables the user to access the secure content, and then add notes and pins to provide additional information. Once complete, the encrypted evidence can be securely transmitted.
Compsoft also developed a comprehensive server-based system to receive, validate and display/review content uploaded from the app.
Project Need
We have all seen news coverage from around the globe featuring human rights abuses captured on camera and shared via social media. However while such footage plays a vital role in heightening public awareness of such abuses, the methods of capture, transmission and storage do not meet the requirements of courts when it comes to trying alleged perpetrators.
The IBA conceived eyeWitness to Atrocities to solve these problems. The eyeWitness to Atrocities Android app captures images, video and audio through a disguised camera app - the app icon is designed to look like a third party camera, preventing the app from being recognized without detailed inspection. Media is recorded along with comprehensive device metadata, enabling factors such as place and time of capture to be confirmed and verified. Users have the option to add notes and tags to the content, which is stored in a secure in-app Vault rather than the device’s image gallery. The media is then uploaded to a secure server, where it can be reviewed by the IBA’s team of experts.
eyeWitness to Atrocities is a unique solution, enabling secure, verifiable recording, transmission and storage of evidence utilising standard smartphones. The eyeWitness app empowers the public and victims of atrocities to help hold accountable the perpetrators of these crimes.
User Experience
In creating the UX for eyeWitness to Atrocities, it was critical to consider both safety and ease-of-use. The app had to cater for three distinct situations; learning to use, recording in volatile situations, and reviewing/uploading content.
It is essential that the user understands the app early on in their use, as it would not be safe to provide further help during normal use, when eyeWitness behaves as a standard camera app. Therefore on first opening a detailed introduction ensures the user knows how to use the app and how to stay safe; onboarding then guides the user once through the whole process.
As users may need to record events during difficult situations, eyeWitness makes this as easy as possible, opening direct to the camera view, with a single input for secure mode and one-tap recording. There is also easy access to emergency self-preservation features enabling panic deletion of the entire app if needed.
From the Vault, the user can easily view and filter recorded evidence, annotate a photo or video, and upload when complete. Users can also add explanatory notes to content or drop pins with further information to highlight something specific. When in the Vault, the user can quickly return to the standard camera view if they are interrupted, change app icon, and review the introductory information if required.
eyeWitness includes localisation for 6 languages to support use in the world’s troubled areas, and works offline (with the exception of initial registration and content upload).
Project Marketing
The app is intended as a tool to empower human rights defenders, media professionals, citizen journalists, and ordinary citizens to capture footage that can be used to hold individuals who commit international atrocity crimes accountable. eyeWitness is working to disseminate the app to these target groups through three primary channels.
First, the app received substantial traditional media coverage, including stories run by CNN, BBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and many other outlets. Second, eyeWitness is publicizing information about the app through social media, including Twitter and a YouTube page which has informational videos about the app available in all six app languages. Finally, eyeWitness is communicating directly with individuals and organisations that document or report on violations in conflict zones and other troubled regions.
Project Privacy
On first install the app registers with the server, generating a unique encryption key; the user must provide an alias however no other identifying information is required. The user also sets up a secret pass-swipe to access the app’s secure Vault.
When recording the app automatically captures comprehensive metadata to aid authentication, including data on the location, but nothing which may identify the device or user. All Vault content is immediately encrypted on device. The app even calculates maximum recording time based on available storage to ensure there is sufficient capacity for the encryption process. Furthermore all content is uploaded over encrypted links.
The server-based system has been designed to ensure the data is valid without compromising the user who supplied the content. App registration is validated and a public/private encryption key is generated via integration with the “Submissions” server application. The key is then transferred to the separate “Key Storage Vault” application. Received submissions are uploaded to the Submissions server, checked for known registration ID match, and passed to the “Submission Storage Vault”, where an untampered copy remains permanently. A Decryption Dashboard application pulls in copies of new submissions and keys from the Submission Storage and Key Storage Vaults, decrypts the media, verifies it has not been tampered with (using hash values), and places it into a database. A GUI enables administrators to filter submissions and view on a map, and to review individual items, including annotation and metadata.
Tags
Best New Service or Application
This can be any new service or application from a start-up to an industry leader. It’s not just bells and whistles we're after but true innovation, exceeding expectations and filling a void that had previously been open.
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