Anonabox Kickstarter Cancelled Following Criticism

The Internet can be a feral place, and to tame it a bit came Anonabox, a device that launched on Kickstarter promising the security of Tor in a tiny plug-and-play package. Popularity grew quickly and the campaign saw an ample number of pledges, but in the light of that fame came scrutiny from many individuals who quickly spotted problems and became quite vocal about them. That criticism reached a feverish pitch, and has now lead to Kickstarter cancelling the project.

Anonabox's claims were great — the device was hailed as a small portable way for everyone to avoid government snooping and state censorship with very little effort. That combination of simplicity and promise to solve one of the modern world's bigger concerns prompted thousands of people to pledge in only a handful of days, propelling Anonabox to what looked to be possible record-breaking success.

Between the hype came discrepancies, however. It was noted that, despite claims otherwise, the device's parts were cheap components from China rather than being made-from-scratch hardware. This not only meant claims about the device's development were false, but also that the open-source promises were likely not true, putting another black mark on one of the big bragging points.

The criticism lead to Kickstarter investigating the campaign, and what the Trust and Safety team found was damning: violaton of Kickstarter's rules. As a result, the crowdfunding company cancelled Anonabox and refunded its backers. The official reasons revolve around false claims, skewed facts, and taking credit for the components' design.

SOURCE: Washington Post