Networking device raises over $550K in 3 days on Kickstarter

CHICO, Calif. A networking device that helps users bypass Internet censorship smashed its fundraising Kickstarter goal after bringing in over $550,000 in 3 days.

August Germar launched the Kickstarter campaign on Oct. 12 and the project raised $350,000 within 24 hours. Germar said on the Kickstarter page that he and several IT friends created the device in 2010 after seeing Internet censorship in schools and Arab Spring protesters being cut off from Twitter.

The Anonabox provides anonymous Internet access and encryption and helps bypass censorship in areas where Internet access is limited. It is an open source, embedded, networking device designed specifically to run Tor, which provides online privacy, according to the Kickstarter page. The Anonabox is ultimately intended for users where the Tors anti-censorship and privacy properties can help protect activists and journalists.

In places where the government or private entities may try to control or limit access to the Internet, the Tor network allows access to the full, uncensored Internet, and also access to some parts of the web that are hidden even in uncensored places, like .onion domains, the page says.

Germar and his friends created four versions of the Anonabox over a four-year period and the latest model has a 64 megabyte memory and a 580mhz central processing unit. The fundraiser page says the Anonabox is reliable and hides the users location, as well as all the other personal data that leaks through ordinary Internet use. The Anonabox can be used with a regular motem and router and due to its small size is easily portable.

Anonabox is not the first product to attempt to integrate Tor directly into a router, but Germar argues it will offer the best balance between affordability, easy setup, size and security, according to Wired.

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Networking device raises over $550K in 3 days on Kickstarter