After Threats, Austin Founder Shut Down Browser Firm Authenticated Reality

Found on Xconomy on Thursday, 02 August 2018
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Users would have to sign up for an account—scanning their driver’s license and taking a photo—in order to download the browser, which would sit “on top” of the Internet, said Chris Ciabarra, Authenticated Reality’s co-founder, in an interview last year. “Everybody knows who everybody is,” he said.

In addition to the personal visits, Ciabarra said, the company received “hundreds” of harassing e-mails, all of which he said was reported to law enforcement. Ciabarra said the company returned nearly all of the $1 million it had raised to its investors. “I just realized we have to turn it off,” he said.

There is no way this will catch on. After all these problems with the theft of identities, this company expect users to hand over personal documents. Not only would this turn into a big problem once the authenticated browser gets into the wrong hands, but it also makes tracking users online even easier.