Controversial Tor router Anonabox restarts crowdfunding

The Anonabox has reappeared on the Indiegogo platform. The box is a network device that routes data traffic via Tor. It was previously removed from Kickstarter after a storm of criticism, after the makers raised more money than the target in a short time.

In early October, the Anonabox was posted on Kickstarter. The maker promised that the device, thanks to the support of the Tor network, will easily enable users to operate anonymously on the internet. Despite the fact that the project managed to achieve almost 600,000 dollars, approximately 483,000 euros, and thus far exceeded its target, the project was quickly criticized.

According to critics, the Anonabox hardware is not original but was bought off the shelf in China, making the claim that the design is completely open source not valid. Images are also allegedly manipulated with Photoshop and critics argued that there may be backdoors in the Anonabox. In response to the criticism, Kickstarter decided to remove the Anonabox, also because it would have violated the house rules. Investors got their investment back.

However, the makers of the Anonabox have now turned up on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform that competes with Kickstarter and generally has less strict rules. The makers say they learned from the Kickstarter riot and now promise to come with a self-designed circuit board, a new housing, an improved OpenWRT version and Tor software that can update itself.

The restart of the Anonabox seems to be working: the makers have already raised more than 16,000 dollars, approximately 12,900 euros, in a few days. A copy of the Anonabox will cost 51 dollars, approximately 41 euros. The makers also promise that a portion of the proceeds will go to the makers of the Tor software and to the civil rights movement EFF. Despite this, a security expert still questions claims made by August Germar, one of the individuals behind Anonabox. For example, he would again wrongly say that he is involved in various Tor projects.