Slashdot Mirror
Anonabox Accused of Lying About Its Product Being Open-Source On Kickstarter
blottsie writes The "anonabox" has raised more than $550,000 on Kickstarter in only three days. But some believe the company's claims that the router-like device, which is said to automatically route users' Internet traffic through Tor, is entirely open-source are false. Anonabox developer August Germar tells the Daily Dot, however, that the device was commissioned specifically to run their code.
the problem isn't just the fact that the code and hardware isn't open-source, it's the fact that the developers openly lied on their Kickstarter campaign. Not only is the hardware not open-source but it wasn't even designed by them, it's a cheap Chinese knockoff of a tp-link 3G router! On top of that after looking through the firmware they've found that it's not custom software, but a badly configured OpenWRT build with a standard root password (set to "developer!"), an unsecured wifi ssid and sshd installed and running by default! The scale to which these jokers have deceived their backers is ridiculous, and this Kickstarter needs shutting down.
The issue doesnt seem to be the code.
People are claiming that the hardware is just a re-flashed existing micro router, eg here - http://www.aliexpress.com/item...
Anonabox claim they custom designed the hardware, other are claiming it doesnt seem so, mostly it seems like it a moot point if it's cheap and offers the functionality specified.
well.. from the looks of it..
the question should be to ask do they understand the difference between an INVENTION and a product.
clearly they had read about the invention way before and just hashed together a product. they don't seem to have clear understanding of how the product works.
basically they're just selling a 20$ box for 50$. which isn't too bad. but if they don't understand the product, why the fuck trust with them running it, instead of running tor on your laptop? or better yet, running something like tails on the laptop.. the tor wont help if the os on the laptop is the problem - and how they can vouch for the closed source drivers on the board? and if it's not their board, I doubt it's theirs to give away as "open hardware" either. it seems like it's open in the sense that they used whatever was openly available to them...
I think they just saw the project on hackaday, asked around for some boards and smelled money and wanted the money upfront from the customers to negate risks - and then did some bullshit to sell it. now that bullshit could technically be in violation of kickstarter rules, so they might have to move to indiegogo and spin up some more bullshit why they moved("big brother forced us to!" most probably).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Someone else put together a handy picture highlighting a number of the errors present in just the description of the product:
https://twitter.com/Sc00bzT/st...
Some of them seem to be worth a laugh.
And then they should continue on to destroy the month and the year.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
No, I'm sorry, but if the vendor of a privacy product lies about how the product was developed, why would you trust them? The first thing you buy with a product like this is trust.