About
To keep up to date after this Kickastarter project is finished, you can subscribe to our newsletter.
People have a legal right to privacy and we believe they should have simple tools available that allow them to enforce it. Cloak is a router that makes it possible for non-experts to protect their privacy using robust open source software.
Just put it on.
Pocket sized privacy when you need it for everybody.
Solves important Tor hardware router issues and enables more devices.
Cloak is for honest people who need confidentiality or just want privacy.
About Cloak
Cloak produces a standard wireless access point plus a Cloaked (anonymised) one that forces all traffic through the Tor network. Cloak is powered by a version of OpenWrt, a free and open source router operating system that has been modified for the purpose. We have had it running trouble free on a variety of standard hardware platforms for many months now.
We are being helped - thanks!
The volunteers at Tor helped us implement this cool feature to help keep your privacy safer. Cloak sends information from different apps and devices through separate network routes to avoid them being matched up.
If you are interested to understand more about how Cloak works with Tor network technology, more information is available on our site here.
With your help we will be able to deliver a low cost Tor access device to the general public within a few months.
We need money to finance the purchase of injection moulds, components and custom assemblies at a sensible volume. Our target is set at a realistic level to make the finished product economically viable for the manufacturer in the long term.
Prototypes and Engineering Models
You can read the product development history here. There is a cool 3D model of our board design here.
Here is a video of a working prototype being used
Technical Information
The PDF documents for the electronics (as output directly from the design tool) and the schematics are here;
https://github.com/ReclaimYourPrivacy/hardware-cloak/blob/master/rfq/cloak-pcb.pdf?raw=true
https://github.com/ReclaimYourPrivacy/hardware-cloak/blob/master/rfq/cloak-schematics.pdf?raw=true
Our initial project map.
- 29 Oct Launch Kickstarter
- Early Nov Prototype of production PCB
-
Early/Mid Nov
Enclosure design and amendments to PCB layout to fit the enclosure
- 28 Nov
Kickstarter Resolution (corrected - this is a 30 day project)
- Late Nov, Early Dec Enclosure Design finalized and sent for injection mould manufacture
- Late Nov, Early Dec Final PCB design sent for manufacture/assembly
- Early/Mid Jan Shipment to Backers
Commitment to Open Source and the Open Source Community
The software that Cloak operates on is Open Source. It is the product of voluntary labour by ordinary people who understand the power of sharing.
Thanks to all of you.
We have made some changes to integrate Tor with OpenWrt and our commitment to the open source ethos demands that we publish our work.
Here it is https://github.com/ReclaimYourPrivacy
You are welcome to use, modify and distribute freely according to the GNU general public license included. All improvements are welcome and thanks to everyone on the Tor boards for those so far.
Tor Exit Nodes
Tor depends on volunteers who own and operate a network of computers. The most precious resource in that network is the exit node, the point where traffic moves to/from the encrypted untraceable Tor network from/to the regular Internet. We commit to establish and operate new exit nodes, to ensure that we are pulling our weight. Tor is currently at approx 2000 users per exit node. For every 1000 devices we ship, we will establish new exit nodes with sufficient capacity - we are seeking advice on assessing this.
Cloak vs The Competition
The Cloak team has been working this project since February and greeted the recent launches of competing projects with mixed feelings. Public response shows there is a strong demand for privacy protection. We were pleased to be right about the level of support for the concept but can't deny we were disappointed to be beaten to launch by days.
We read the increasing volume of technical criticism of similar projects on public forums with interest. We are deeply concerned that failed efforts can tarnish public perception of the underlying cause. The principles that motivate people to demand privacy are core to liberal democracy and are much too important to be obscured by the smoke from faulted attempts at implementation crashing and burning.
We believe we have a sound approach to the technology and will work with the experts out there to demonstrate that.
We are a diverse bunch. There are as many nationalities (British, Danish, Swedish, Malaysian and Chinese) as people in the team.
- Adrian Wade - Project Lead
- Lars Bøgild Thomsen - Firmware and Networking
- Niclas Hedhman - Electronics Design
- Edwin Chen - Hardware Manufacture
- Praba Ganesan - Public relations
- "The Artist" - Mechanical design
Thanks to Martyn Tott for video production assistance.
Risks and challenges
We face very few technical obstacles to delivery. Our code will be scrutinized by the open source community and the core technology manufacturer is part of the team allowing us to oversee and test the entire hardware process hands on. Details of our production design will be published here.
As any of you who have been involved in similar undertakings know, getting the finished product assembly right can throw up unforeseen issues. Should we encounter problems with initial mass production boards we will have to go through an additional design iteration which will cost us 3-4 weeks. We will keep you informed about technical progress.
The Tor network is managed by volunteers and runs on donated servers. We are mindful of the need to pull our weight in terms of network expansion as demand grows. This is central to the long term effectiveness of any Tor based project.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterQuestions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support
Funding period
- (30 days)