I “found” the database of a college app (2018)

Pressing the handle down, maybe even opening a door, but not walking in and not taking anything. No theft, no trespass. AFAIK in my local laws trespass requires entry and theft requires carrying-off. Indeed -- apparently -- you're legally allowed to enter abandoned properties if you don't break-in.

That to me is equivalent to access, maybe even duplication (proving access with no 'alarms'), of digital data. When it becomes immoral is when you use that data, or make it available for use by others.

Of course the CMA(UK)/CFAA(USA) don't see things this way they both seem to make the equivalent of 'looking in the direction of a door and noticing it's open' into an illegal act.

The issue is organisations being reckless with our data and then blaming hackers when they lose it. It should be common sense that if you have sensitive information then it needs an appropriate level of security but someone companies have convinced everyone it's not their fault

I guess a key is a legal metaphor and not an actual physical device. Huh.

> Static Analysis

> From my phone, I exported the APK to my computer. I used the app called APK Export

> Play Store Link

> I used apktool to get the resources of the app.

> I used jadx to obtain the decompiled source code from the extracted DEX file.

> Now, I have everything I need.

----- with ------

> Static Analysis

> 1) From my phone, I exported the APK to my computer. You can use this app for example:

> [APK Export (Backup & Share) - Apps on Google Play]

> 2) An APK is a ZIP file, so I unzipped it and extracted the DEX file.

> 3) Thanks to jadx, I managed to obtain the decompiled source code from the extracted DEX file.

> 4) To finish, I used apktool to get the resources of the app.

> Now, I have everything I need.

We see this as academic freedom, if you miss out on in-person seminars you won't pass, if you do not go to some lecture because you have to work and teach yourself afterwards, who cares.

The thinking as I understand it goes along these lines: there are requirements to get a degree (thesis, pass exams, score high enough in exercises), but the university is primarily a center for learning and you are an adult, so how you achieve the abilities to fulfill the requirements is your own business. If you want to do things on your own, you are free to do so.

There are more paths to the final destination than just turning up to all of your lectures, particularly if a lecturer is not doing a good job of presenting the material.

One of the controversial issues here in the UK at the moment is how much students are now paying for their university fees compared to how much value the university offers in return. Governments over the past generation or so have turned undergraduate degrees into a much more commercial proposition: you're taking on a lot of debt, but you're leaving with (in theory, according to the marketing brochure) much better career prospects.

At the same time, advances in technology and communications are rendering obsolete the old school lectures where you turn up and transfer the lecturer's notes from their paper to yours without passing through either brain along the way. You can find some of the best presentations of subjects ever given in freely available videos online today. Manually transcribing notes (or typing them on your laptop, or whatever) is largely a waste of time when you can just download well-written notes and spend your time in a lecture actually concentrating on understanding the material. For many courses, you really need to look at multiple sources anyway, to avoid getting tied up with a single view of the subject or a single expert's personal style of presentation and notation.

So if you said to a typical UK undergraduate today that the most important thing about their university journey was to attend all of their lectures, even when they're being phoned in by some researcher who is simultaneously daydreaming about their latest funding application, I don't think many people would agree with you.

Showing up for lectures is by far the least important part of the journey. It's a passive activity that usually adds zero value versus watching lessons on YouTube or reading the textbook.

The real learning (IMO) is in doing the assignments, networking with people in your residence, social activities, internships, etc.

Their is nothing wrong by adhering to the rules of a school, and I think it is not that good that subverting the rules is such common practice that actually following the rules is considered annoying. If the rule is so egregious that it can not be followed then sure, but showing up is literally the easiest part and statistically has strong correlation to better performance.