Jumbo, the brilliant application that gives you back power against GAFA
Greg Taieb · · 3 min read
We know that Google, Facebook and Amazon provide us with valuable services but that comes at a price: giving up a growing amount of data.
Just for Google, the Mountain View giant stores the pages you visit, the searches you do, the videos you watch, what you ask your voice assistant and of course the places you go.
Certainly you keep control and all of these options are available in the settings on the page My Activity (Google – My activity) but let's be honest, who takes the time to go there regularly and clean up? Especially since we would have to multiply the manipulation for each service.
Let's be honest, who takes the time to delete their Google history?
In short, no chance of doing this regularly to the delight of GAFA.
That was before Jumbo. This application launched by the incredible Pierre Valade meets exactly this need. For those who don't know Pierre Valade is a French entrepreneur with an incredible career who achieved the feat of creating and selling Sunrise (a calendar application) for 100 million to Microsoft!
Jumbo: What is it for?
Jumbo is a mobile application which, upon launch, offers you the ability to connect a certain number of services for which you wish to monitor: Amazon, Google, Facebook or Twitter.
Interestingly, Linkedin is not in the list of services concerned. Perhaps it's simply that its business model is less based on advertising than other services...
How does it work?
Once the services are connected Jumbo works in the background and will allow you the following things:
- Erase voice commands made on Alexa or Google Home
- Erase Google searches and history, YouTube,…
- Delete places visited on Google Maps
- Archive your old Facebook or Twitter publications on Dropbox
Add an alternative
It's ultra simple to configure and there is real pedagogy in the way the application presents GAFA with for each person the data they have on us and what it is used for.
You will get it understoodthe idea is not to deprive ourselves of GAFAbut to better control the data we leave with them.
Why keep a Tweet that is 3 years old?
For example, I particularly appreciate the Tweet archiving options. It’s quite stupid, but not a week goes by without us digging up a publication several years old, sometimes taking it out of context to harm someone. And when you think about it, the added value of a Twitter or Facebook post 3 months after its publication is generally very low.
Should we be wary of Jumbo?
I can already see the most skeptical starting to wonder. Should we trust a free application to which we connect all our Google, Facebook & other Amazon accounts? Can't they spy on me and sell my data under the pretext of protecting it?
The answer is of course and if Jumbo is currently free, that won't last since the chosen business model is a monthly subscription to the service. Basically you pay to no longer have to worry about the data you leave with GAFA.
I'll let you form your opinion by installing the application available on iOS and Android.
Do not hesitate to share your opinion on Jumbo or your tips for better managing the data you leave with GAFA.
