Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has stopped funding for a router capable of hiding people’s online activity due to conerns about its hardware.
The device, called Anonabox, received pledges of over $585,000 in its first five days, beating its goal of $7,500, according to BBC News. The router is designed to encrypt data as people are using the Tor network, and keep users from being traced when they are on the site.
Human rights activists around the world use Tor so they can avoid official scrutiny. Kickstarter said it pulled the project because it was concerned about who made the hardware for the router.
The concerns were raised when critics talked about the flaws in the router's software and questioned who developed the hardware, which, instead of being custom-made, apparently was bought from a Chinese supplier, Yahoo! News reported. Kickstarter then reviewed the project and cancelled funding pledges, which was met with protests of censorship from Anonabox.
The router would have been able to work with any device used to go online, such as Macs, PCs, tablets and phones.
August Germar, who spawned the idea for Anonabox, vouched for the router's legitimacy, saying devices on Chinese websites that looked like his were only "generic knockoffs," BBC News reported.
While the project has been cancelled, Germar plans to keep working on Anonabox and directly sell it to customers.
