We unfortunately live in a world where every single activity we engage in on the Internet is surveilled, recorded, and stored without restriction. As much domestic and international outrage this behavior stokes, no amount of it will affect what has been the norm for decades, especially when any new opportunity to augment its scale is immediately enacted without checks.
The Dark-Ingress is a portable Tor Wi-Fi adapter that allows anyone, anywhere to encrypt and anonymize the data coming in and out of their hardware over Wi-Fi. The adapter uses Tor, an Internet communication method to enable anonymity online, to change your IP address every five minutes. In addition, it is automatically configured never to use an exit address in one of the Five Eyes nations or Germany, a group of countries with an agreement between them to cooperatively spy on each other to get around strict domestic spying laws.
The open source software itself isn’t particularly user-friendly, but casual users need not install or configure anything themselves. This gives users the ability to bypass portals like those at coffee shops and airports, and access the Deep Web in confidence. In addition, the hardware-based design is USB powered and offers more security versus being strictly software-based. The Dark-Ingress is slated to be delivered by February 2015 for $120. The campaign is looking for $25,000 to help users stay hidden.
Most Tor hardware, like the recently covered anonabox, work by connecting themselves to a router directly, which eliminates portability. The Dark-Ingress is a lightweight, powerful solution that lets you take your digital safety blanket no matter where you go. There will always be an arms race for privacy on one side and complete surveillance on the other, but it doesn’t hurt to make it harder for them, does it?