HRANA News Agency – Human Rights Activists in Iran released Hafez application to support the free flow of information, promote the safety of Iranian users, as well as legal support to victims of human rights abuses in Iran.
Hafez application is a multi-functional application that is now available for Android phones.
This application is the result of a 10-month joint work of three human rights organizations and cyber-security specialists with the support of Iran Cubator affiliated with United for Iran. The value of the app will be doubled because the release of this app coincides with the recent developments in the country and the necessity of supporting the free flow of information recently.
Download the Persian version of this report in P.D.F
The application covers a wide range of audiences with different demands and requirements; however, its services are defined in four main sections:
Receiving News: Users can easily access the latest Iranian human rights news, without using the anti-filter and similar apps; the news is the result of the reporting of HRANA and monitoring more than 200 sources of news inside and outside the country.
Citizen Journalism, Sending Reports: Users can safely send their news and human rights reports to HRANA in various formats to share the news with the Iranian human rights community.
Lawyer’s Database: Users can get access to the database of contact with lawyers in Iran and contact them for the benefit of legal services.
Legal Tutorial: Users can obtain legal information on legal charges by searching them. As well as they can read the fate of the people facing such a charge and the trial process, figure out how to defend in courts and ultimately read a suggested strategy for legal defense.
Security of the application
Resistance to censorship and filtering as well as safety of communication are the most important features of “Hafez” app.
Security is not completely guaranteed in today’s communications but the suppliers of Hafez app are aware of the importance of security for their users, they believe in the right of users to know the technical and legal details of this app. Therefore, it can be assured that the latest technology and technical knowledge have been used for the design of Hafez app, while its designers are required to provide the highest possible level of transparency and accountability to the users.
In summary, the security of the structure and the communication mechanism and the privacy of the user are considered in this app.
Privacy Policy: Hafez does not collect or store the users’ information and does not share them with a third receiver. Even HRANA, as the recipient of news and reports sent by they users, gets no information related to the identity or contact information of the users.
On the other hand, Hafez removes any type of data as unrecoverable, even semi-finished reports, after each closing time.
Hafez saves the information you enter as encrypted, which cannot be opened by anyone other than Hafez’s management team (even you or anyone who has access to your device), before sending and deletes them after sending.
However, the images, videos and sounds, which you record through Hafez, will remain on your device after closing Hafez and are accessible by the user.
Hafez has considered other cases to prevent taking screenshots of the app’s working environment, also in the settings section, it is also possible to clear the app with a click on the phone.
Communication security: Hafez can provide secure access to the ability to send and receive news and human rights reports without using an anti-filter or side software.
Hafez uses one-way encryption for sending user’s reports, which means that reports cannot be redefined even from the source.
With all these explanations, Hafez’s designers would ask users to not just rely on these statements and investigate these claims themselves. Pay attention to the review of the points which were mentioned above.
1- Hafez is an open source app: Based on our belief in the transparency and professional adoption, Hafez will be released as an open source app; the feature allows everyone, especially cyber-security experts, to check it and ensure its security. We hope by releasing this app’s sources, we will increase the security of the app and eventually introduce it to users as a secure application, in which more than ever the free flow of information is necessary in Iran.
Specialists and those interested can access the Open Source version of Hafez by visiting the following link:
https://github.com/hafezapp/Hafez/tree/master
2- Hafez has already been inspected by independent institutions: Regardless of whether we have provided the ability to reviewing Hafez’s code and structure for the experts, its suppliers have also provided Hafez to qualified foreign companies before releasing it, to be inspected. Professionals interested in viewing Security Audit reports of Hafez can download the Security Audit report at GitHub by visiting the following link:
https://github.com/hafezapp/Hafez/blob/master/docs/Hafez%20Security%20Audit.pdf
At the end of all the steps, Hafiz was checked, endorsed and ultimately released as an open source app on Google Play after 10 months of continuous work by three human rights organizations and cyber specialists after verifying the security checks and obtaining the necessary permissions.
The users can install this application by visiting Google Play (Link) and searching the word “HRANA” and downloading it directly and for free. People who have no access to Google Play due to filtering can also download Hafez from this secure and direct link from Amazon servers:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/hrana/hafez-app.apk
The Hafez application file is also signed with PGP and you can download and check the Hafez signature file here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/hrana/hafez-app.apk.sig
A Brief Look at the App’s Working Environment
Sending Reports
In this section, you can write your own report, capture, record video or audio by the tools embedded on the page, or even add attachments to your report from your phone’s media gallery. Just press the post button at the end of the work.
In the pre-post stage, you can select the type of report that is a news or is specifically a human rights report. If you would like to give HRANA a chance to contact you, if necessary, given that your contact information is not available for HRANA, enter your email address. These sections are fully selective.
If your report is semi-finished and you exit the application, all information will be cleared.
As you noted earlier, your report will be sent directly to HRANA’s news team.
News section
You can read the latest news from HRANA news agency, which is the result of a daily review of more than 200 different news sources, without using the anti-filter or other side software. The full text of news will be displayed for you by selecting the news.
Lawyer’s database
In this section, which will be updated continuously, you will see a list of valid lawyers who are classified according to general information in different fields of work. By selecting any lawyer, that person’s contact information will be displayed.
The lawyers you see in the app are not the partners of this project and are not aware of it, but are our suggestions for users who need to hire lawyers or receive legal advice.
Legal Tutorial
When you or those who are around you are charged with a crime, you will need to obtain legal information. This section serves users in this regard.
Select the charge subject to open four sections.
The first section provides you the legal definition of that charge.
The second section tells you how the charge is proven in court proceedings.
The third section introduces you a few cases in order to find out the trial process of those who have been acquitted or convicted.
The fourth section offers you how to defend yourself against this charge.
This section will be updated with new legal information.
Settings
In this section, in addition to the possibility to manage net consumption by Hafez, you can add an option to the application menu under the heading “Delete by One Click.”
After activating this option, a new option will be added to the Hafez menu, that Hafez will be uninstalled by clicking on it in less than a moment.
If you have any problems with the operation of the app, questions or suggestions, please contact us:
Hafez’s Technical Team – Human Rights Activists in Iran
