Privacytools.io accuses PrivacyGuides of takeover attempt and steal donations
The administrator of privacytools.io accuses an initiator of PrivacyGuides of trying to take over the project he initiated. Also, the administrator of the competing site allegedly stole donations.
The administrator of privacytools.io, Burung Hantu, describes in an extensive article his grievances about Jonah Aragon’s alleged conduct. Aragon was previously closely involved with privacytools.io, but was instrumental in the spin-off of a similar project called PrivacyGuides last year. Both sites provide information about software, services and providers related to privacy protection.
According to Hantu, privacytools.io first had a very free license that allowed anyone to copy the website to start their own project. When Aragon started working at privacytools.io, he allegedly removed that license without Hantu’s permission, even though he was responsible for 90 percent of the content at the time. Hantu and Aragon shared a cryptocurrency wallet that received donations. Hantu now accuses Aragon of funneling nearly $4,000 worth of cryptocurrencies “to test a hardware wallet.” He would never have refunded that money.
Aragon also allegedly stole money that came in through the Brave Rewards program. In addition, the administrator complains that after the launch of PrivacyGuides, he was removed from his project on GitHub, the OpenCollective platform and relevant subreddits that he managed. Again, PrivacyGuides members would remove references to Hantu’s complaints from privacy-related subreddits.
Some PrivacyGuides team members deny the allegations. The screenshots of the transaction would have been taken out of context and Aragon would have paid for the hosting of privacytools.io, for example. They also point out that Hantu was unavailable at privacytools.io for a while and that this was one of the reasons for splitting off its own project. Hantu also lost his reddit administrator privileges because he hadn’t logged in for a year.
PrivacyGuides is a fork of privacytools.io and the two broke up after a fight last year. The team members who split off stated that Hantu was often unreachable, but still managed the domain, posing risks to its survival. He would have ignored requests to transfer this management. After the split, Hantu continued privacytools.io itself.