Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories • Hacker News Board

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#21

Post by fletchowns » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:19 PM UTC

mholt wrote: post #18

Not quite what I expected when I clicked on this, but anyway. I would never treat my phone as my only copy of my data. I don't consider phone storage to be permanent OR a backup. If you're into preserving your memories that are locked into your online services and apps like Google Photos, Facebook, Twitter, etc, I've started a project called Timeliner which downloads your data to your own home computers: https://gith…

Cool project! I think there is definitely a need for something like this. I've achieved something similar by syncing Google Photos to Google Drive (https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6093613) and then using Google Drive for Windows to sync to my local computer, and then run restic periodically to store snapshots in Backblaze B2. It sounds like timeliner would make that a little easier, with some more powerful capabilities.

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#22

Post by MrGilbert » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:20 PM UTC

the_snooze wrote: post #4

I'd feel a bit weirded out at the prospect of someone going through my digital records after I pass. Not so much for my own embarrassment (I'd be too dead to feel that, after all), but to protect the trust and confidentiality of everyone I've communicated with.

At the end, it doesn't matter if you go through the digital or "analog" records. I had to do the same after mom & dad passed away.

I found a lot of open questions I'll never get an answer for. Ultimately, this made me a more open and honest person towards my siblings. They should never find something "surprisingly" in my digital or analog records. It also changed a bit how a communicate online. I never write something I wouldn't say anybody face to face.

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#23

Post by anbop » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

mholt wrote: post #18

Not quite what I expected when I clicked on this, but anyway. I would never treat my phone as my only copy of my data. I don't consider phone storage to be permanent OR a backup. If you're into preserving your memories that are locked into your online services and apps like Google Photos, Facebook, Twitter, etc, I've started a project called Timeliner which downloads your data to your own home computers: https://gith…

A phone is particularly terrible as a single copy of data because it has a high exposure to theft, physical damage, and water damage.

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#24

Post by zrail » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:24 PM UTC

In a related vein, I created a thing called VMSave a few years ago to let people easily save outgoing voicemail messages, something that the carriers make significantly harder than it should be. It’s saved almost 15,000 messages so far.

https://vmsave.petekeen.net

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#25

Post by LannisterDebt » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

Maximus9000 wrote: post #5

kennyadam wrote: post #2

Weird title. They never managed to get in to the phone. They just took the SIM out and put it in another phone to use 2FA SMS codes, along with logins they found written down.

IMO hacking is getting into a system by any means. Ultimately they were going after the "memories" which were all stored on the cloud. They needed to get into that. They determined they didnt need to get into the phone in order to get into the cloud.

I thought iCloud contents were all encrypted?

  No one else, not even Apple, can access end-to-end encrypted information [1]

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#26

Post by docker_up » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

After going through my dad's computer while trying to fix it for him, I realized that there are a lot of things I really don't want to know about my parents. Everything I know about them is enough. Digging through their texts, their browsing history, their emails, etc is not fair in my opinion, and better left unread.

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#27

Post by mceachen » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:36 PM UTC

LannisterDebt wrote: post #25

Maximus9000 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO hacking is getting into a system by any means. Ultimately they were going after the "memories" which were all stored on the cloud. They needed to get into that. They determined they didnt need to get into the phone in order to get into the cloud.

I thought iCloud contents were all encrypted? No one else, not even Apple, can access end-to-end encrypted information [1] [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303

They got access to her iCloud account.

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#28

Post by rjohnk » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #6

I wonder how long (if ever) it will be until we have really good mechanisms for handling digital affairs after death. 1Password has the emergency kit [0] which I really should fill out and store alongside a will but I would need to write one of those first. It's just something that seems so.... antiquated? That's not the right word but writing a will feels like it will involve talking to a lawyer and not be cheap/eas…

I've been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. While I hope to be around for awhile yet, I'm getting things ready for my wife to take over our digital life. Setting things up for easy backup and retrieval, ect. One of the things I've started is a

Word document with instructions on how to backup, what to do if the computer crashes, how to handle 1Password, what subscriptions are important ect. It'll be printed out and put in the safe.

My opinion is modern generations are woefully unprepared for how to handle our digital stuff when we pass. Whereas before we had physical photos, video cassettes, ect. that were easily handled, now everything is digital, sometimes just on phones.

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#29

Post by aaron695 » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

We need a TV show like horders, about digital horders.

We need to learn to lose things again.

We have many orders of magnitude of info about everything compared to our past history. We have enough.

One photo, is enough.

Most people in history and the poor today have less.

Learn to live in the present with the people you love.

Re: Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

#30

Post by mceachen » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

fletchowns wrote: post #21

mholt wrote: post #18

Not quite what I expected when I clicked on this, but anyway. I would never treat my phone as my only copy of my data. I don't consider phone storage to be permanent OR a backup. If you're into preserving your memories that are locked into your online services and apps like Google Photos, Facebook, Twitter, etc, I've started a project called Timeliner which downloads your data to your own home computers: https://gith…

Cool project! I think there is definitely a need for something like this. I've achieved something similar by syncing Google Photos to Google Drive ( https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6093613 ) and then using Google Drive for Windows to sync to my local computer, and then run restic periodically to store snapshots in Backblaze B2. It sounds like timeliner would make that a little easier, with some more powerful…

It looks like timeliner requires your phone's files to be uploaded to a third party cloud beforehand.

If you want to directly backup files from your phone to your home computer or NAS, https://syncthing.net/ and https://www.resilio.com/individuals-sync/ have android, iOS, desktop, and NAS support. It's what I've been recommending to PhotoStructure's beta users, and both seem to work well.