Safeplug is a new network device from Cloud Engines, Inc., the company behind Pogoplug.
Using Tor, Safeplug allows you to browse the Internet anonymously from any device that you own. This is possible because it is designed to be connected to your router. And once activated, all connections that originate from any device behind your router are anonymized.
I like devices like this, but not those that I know very little about. Other than the fact that it uses Tor, there is no other substantial information that the manufacturer has released about Safeplug. No hardware specification, not even on the device’s marketing page, or on an official blog post.
Not even a picture of the rear of the device has been made public. Or its dimensions. It’s like a black box, and I hate those things. For something that retails for US $49 ($58 plus S&H), I think more information needs to be made available.
UPDATE (November 23 2013): A reply email from Safeplug says that:
Safeplug hardware specifications is similar to our Mobile device’s:
Processor: Feroceon 88FR131 rev 1 (v5l)
CPU Hardware: Feroceon-KW
BogoMIPS: 799.5
Total Memory: 128MBWhat differs Safeplug from other devices, is it uses a whole different firmware.
DON’T BUY IT, IS BAD DON’T BUY IT, IS BAD DON’T BUY IT, IS BAD
This is a Junk device, it works for my for 2 days and them stop the protection. I been sending request to support, they gave a service number and keep asking me to try multiple changes, but nothing works. they service is very very BAD. I believe this is a fraud Device, you will loose your money and all the time you put to make it work.
DON’T BUY IT, IS BAD DON’T BUY IT, IS BAD DON’T BUY IT, IS BAD
I share your doubts about this thing – a $50 black box with “military-grade security technology” offering “complete security and anonymity”?
Oh boy.
They do link to the Tor FAQ and at least tell you to about cookies (in their very last FAQ entry) but that’s obviously not even close to enough to ensure “complete (sic!) anonymity”.
I get that they’re trying to reach a non-techie audience but bold claims like “complete security” will do more harm than good, I’m afraid.
Safeplug got a mention in Tor Weekly News, flaws pointed out: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-weekly-news-—-november-27th-2013