JewelBoxHello, and thank you for your interest in JewelBox.
I have worked in technology for 2 decades and have seen the building blocks of technology improve by leaps and bounds. While optimists around us thought that this would be a strong force in making our lives better, a lot of us have been humbled to see how technology has just been a strong force — but not necessarily for the good.
The Problems
One aspect of this is large-scale and in-depth data collection on individuals who have no say on how this data is used. This is not about a handful of tech companies who run targeted advertising or commerce. Our technology is so good now that targeted commerce using broad data collection is too strong an economic force to ignore. We can try (and should) regulate the most egregious issues with such data collection and follow-up economics, but the cat is out of the bag and there is no way of putting her completely back in (reverting the economic incentives).
The way technology has evolved has also been very complex. There are many types of computers: laptops large and small, tablets, mobile phones, wearables — and several ways of storing, processing and accessing information. While that is great, tying these technologies together for a good user experience is too complex a task for most people. They rely on technologists (like me) to use these building blocks judiciously to best serve the people. Unfortunately, due to various pro-monopoly forces, we have seen a few platforms rise up to aggregate such services (and devices) which effectively lock-in their customers with high switching inertia. The devices and services from these platforms have a high total cost of ownership.
The marriage of the two forces above is something we should all consider for a moment. Expensive (to build) devices and services can be offered at lower price with targeted commerce. However, we are seeing the bad effects of both these forces — lack of choice for users and the systematic erosion of their privacy. Is there a better way?
The offenses of these two forces are well known to people — what they aren't aware of are good options which they can use instead.
Offering JewelBox
I created JewelBox so that there was at least an option for anybody who is tired with this conundrum. JewelBox is a platform for privacy-forward, web-based applications which are easy and delightful to use.
JewelBox is committed to:
- Strong privacy guarantees — for apps with in-browser data encryption, not even JewelBox operators can peek into people's data.
- The modern web — modern web technologies are open and available on all major or minor devices and platforms. They offer a compelling way to build and distribute rich applications without platform lock-in.
- Low total cost — it is surprising how cheap basic services can be made using modern servers and storage. JewelBox is not subscription-based and offers pay-per-use for the storage and computation used.
A plea to fellow technologists
Technologists know the computing industry well, and given the complexity in the space, have the real power to shape how people experience it. For technologists who have reached this page, I urge you to consider that people understand that it is we who have this power. It will be a shame if they have to collectively reign us in and show us the direction they actually want technology to go. They will do it via protest and regulation — and the only thing that demonstrates is the lack of our own ingenuity to deliver something grounded in public benefit.
- with ❤️, ritesh