I have a few colleagues that are aficionados of the crowd-funding site "Kickstarter." Fascinated
by the concept for both its ability to fund new technologies as well as from a
pure business standpoint, I was intrigued.
So I began looking for a project I could invest in and eventually came
across the Anonabox.
Billed as a “$45 router that would run all a user’s online
traffic over the anonymity network Tor,” the project advertised an easy-to-use
solution to today’s increasing privacy concerns (Greenberg, 2014). With a modest funding goal of only $7,500,
many were surprised that Anonabox raised over half a million dollars in less
than a week. The project’s founder
August Germar seemed to have tapped into a growing desire for discretion in an
increasingly prying world. I took a look
at the Kickstarter site and watched the fairly compelling sales video and I was
intrigued. Although I’ve spent 50 bucks
on more frivalous purchases, my hesitation in automatically hitting the “back
this project” button was the obvious lack of technical specs about the
device. After all Germar claimed the
project would be open-sourced, where were the details?
Apparently, I was not the only potential investor with these
questions. A few days after the project
was launched, funders began to unravel Germar’s claims. What started out as a custom
hardware/software solution was eventually determined to be somewhat of scam. As
it happens the hardware was actually an off-the-shelf Chinese router (roughly
$20) and the open-source software was determined to be full of potential
security vulnerabilities including a hardcoded root password and default
settings. The project was eventually
scrapped with the following explanation provided by Germar:
“In an email to the project’s investors, Kickstarter told
backers only that ‘a review of the project uncovered evidence that it broke
Kickstarter’s rules.’ Those rules, the
email continued, prohibit ‘offering purchased items and claiming to have made
them yourself,’ ‘presenting someone else’s work as your own’ and ‘misrepresenting
or failing to disclose relevant facts about the project or its creator’
(Greenberg, 2014).
The Anonabox Kickstarter campaign illustrated a number of
interesting facts. With increasingly
intrusive governments across the globe, people are craving privacy more than
ever. This desire can even transcend to
the dillusional in some cases. Even
after the project was shown to be riddled with inconsistencies, a lot of
people still sought to fund the technology.
The one positive take-away from this is that even if you’re not paranoid
about your government, securing your web traffic is just plain smart. Whether you’re shopping online while sitting
in a Starbucks or connecting to your hotel’s Wi-Fi while on the road, you
should never feel digitally secure. As
the need and demand for this type of security will only increase in the digital
future, rest assured more projects like this will arise.
And I’m still on the lookout for my first Kickstarter
investment.
References
Greenberg,
A. (2014). Kickstarter Freezes Anonabox Privacy Router Project For Misleading
Funders. Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2014/10/kickstarter-suspends-anonabox/
