Jumbo Is Your Digital Privacy Assistant.
Pierre Valade (previously CEO of Sunrise Calendar, which was acquired by Microsoft) has launched Jumbo, a “privacy assistant” for iOS. Curious, I thought, because most other digital assistants are hellbent on collecting as much information about me as possible. In reality, Jumbo is less of an assistant and more of a user-friendly way for you to delete old tweets, Alexa voice recordings, and Google searches. One tap and everything gets erased. If you’ve ever tried to delete this sort of data by hand (data that Twitter, Amazon, and Google would rather you let them keep) you’ll know how wonderfully simple Jumbo’s approach is.
My favorite thing about Jumbo is that everything’s handled locally—none of my data gets stored or manipulated server-side. The compromise is that since Jumbo doesn’t store any of my logins or information on their servers, it’s on me to open the app every week and initiate a cleaning. A small price to pay.
Jumbo is the rare example of a truly user-focused privacy product. None of your information is slipped out the side door to sell ads, and Mr. Valade is upfront with how they plan to make money: premium features, accessible via subscription. I’m not optimistic that Jumbo will be around for the longterm—how many people will pay for something like this?—but for now consider me a fan.