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Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories

nytimes.com

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

#31

Post by ssully »

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…

Google has Inactive Account Manager[1], which lets you specify a user who can get access to your account after a specified time of inactivity has been determined. It also lets you specify if you want the account deleted after so much time.

I set it up a few years ago and get periodic reminders saying that it's setup. Lastpass offers something similar.

[1]: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en

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

#33

Post by mceachen »

rjohnk wrote: post #28
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 an…

Having the physical photos still didn't mean we saved the context and relevance surrounding those images.

I've got boxes of photos from my Mom and Dad and Grandparents. For the most part, they don't have dates or captions. If I don't recognize a face, it's just random imagery that are, for the most part, just noise to my generation. If we knew why something was relevant, that'd be a different story.

If you can record your voice and retell the story behind an image, that could be golden to the people in your life. I only captured a couple of these recordings (just using my cell phone to record), and they're wonderful to listen to.

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

#34

Post by larrik »

williamscales wrote: post #17

Physical security keys seem nice here. If I am taken out by a bus my master password and backup security key can be used to get in to everything.

What happens if they get destroyed in the bus accident?

Or you go missing entirely (lost at sea)?

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

#35

Post by 0x54D5 »

781 wrote: post #19
wccrawford wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also imagine all the wannabe journalists that would just do character assassinations on long-dead people revered as heroes for a quick buck and some internet fame. They would completely ignore all the harm it would do. Worse, there would be those that would do that same thing with plenty of intent to cause harm, especially to the groups they are prejudiced against. It's the problems from the "right to be forgotte…

> But also imagine all the wannabe journalists that would just do character assassinations on long-dead people revered as heroes That's an easy one. Pretty much anyone of notice living today will be labeled a "savage meat eater" and canceled. They will say "many people were already vegan, why was he/she still eating meat? Clearly a monster. Cancel"

Eating meat is not going anywhere. Veganism is a US based fad. The rest of the world isn't cutting meat consumption. In fact it's growing... by a lot.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47057341

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

#36

Post by aspenmayer »

mceachen wrote: post #30
fletchowns wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can you link to iOS version of Syncthing? Main page doesn't link to it.

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

#37

Post by xvector »

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

End-to-end encryption only works for “certain sensitive information” according to your link. A close inspection at the link you provided reveals that just about nothing of value aside from the Keychain is E2EE.

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

#38

Post by sebazzz »

docker_up wrote: post #26

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.

Agreed. My father is currently fighting multiple myeloma. The treatment will have a risky phase in hospital where his immune system will be rebuild.

He is, in preparation, currently organizing a packet of information and passwords (Keepass) which I need if the worst thing would happen. The rest I will respectfully erase. And I hope my relatives will do the same for me.

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

#39

Post by jorgesborges »

docker_up wrote: post #26

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.

This sort of experience is fundamental to developing an appreciation for privacy. It just feels bad on a pretty basic level to have your privacy violated, or to uncover things you weren't supposed. Here's my two big transformative privacy moments.

I'm fifteen and talking online with various strangers from all over the world, as one did at the time, and one night at 3am one of my closest friends calls me as a joke. It was an older man from a different country. My mom answers, freaks out, and wakes up my dad who comes into my room and drags me away from the computer and asks who the hell is calling for me at this hour. I tell my dad it's a friend. He asks me who. I tell him his internet handle and my dad calms down, tells my mom it's okay, and sends me to bed. What I put together later and through similar experiences was that my dad had already vetted the guy. He knew everything I was doing and saying to people. Everything. It took me a long time to understand he was a nervous, technically-minded parent navigating a new aspect of parenting in the early 2000s. But the feeling of paranoia and violation lingered.

The second experience was being an insecure teenager and accessing people's emails and msn conversations. The things I learned were things I didn't want to learn, and weren't fair for me to know, and they just made me feel bad, untrusting, and slimy. But I'm grateful to have learned that early in life. I don't care about other people's emails or texts. I have zero interest or inkling to go through anyone's phone or data out of a basic level of understanding and respect for privacy.

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

#40

Post by QuercusMax »

JimProuty wrote: post #9
admax88q wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand it would be super interesting if we _could_ get in to people's data maybe several generations after they've passed. Imagine what historians could learn about what life was like hundreds of years ago if those people left the same digital footprints that we're creating today.

See the "Lasting Impressions" episode from "The Orville" which involves exactly that plot. Pretty good episode, actually.

The Orville (especially season 2, but really from ~Ep 4 onward) is actually a really solid series. I'm a big fan; after the second season it's really more like "TNG with minor Seth McFarlane moments" than "Family Guy does Star Trek".
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