Astrohaus Founder Statement on AI and Privacy

July 30, 2024 | 2 min read

Artificial intelligence has already transformed writing. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be in control of your own words.

Here at Astrohaus, we embrace new technologies, i.e., we are not a retro-computing company. We love thinking about how new technology can be thoughtfully added to our lives. The key word "thoughtfully" being very important here. We also believe that we shouldn’t lie down and let technology trample us and our values.

I want to be crystal clear, your writing is your writing. Other than syncing to authorized cloud providers like Google and Dropbox, we will never sell, lend, or otherwise give access to your private work.

If you want to use your written work as input to an LLM, that should be entirely up to you and opt-in. We currently do not have any AI or LLMs as part of the Astrohaus offering, but these tools are too powerful to ignore. They are already helping writers brainstorm, summarize, and edit. If we ever do integrate any AI tools, I want you to know that your data will never be used without your explicit consent.

And just to reiterate: the Astrohaus team does not have access to your data, except for limited members of our development team when it is required for doing their job to improve our services and maintenance.

When you sync your documents from Postbox to third-party cloud services like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Evernote, or Dropbox, your data is then governed by those services’ AI policies, not by Astrohaus. We’ve linked their relevant policies here:

Dropbox

Google Drive

Microsoft OneDrive

Evernote

Astrohaus is committed to promoting expression and celebrating the value of human-written language. Your commitment to the craft of writing inspires us daily, and maintaining the integrity of your voice is at the heart of everything we do. Thank you for choosing Freewrite as your partner in creativity.

- Adam, Founder

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Astrohaus, the team behind Freewrite, is an American company. Like many American companies, and virtually all consumer electronic brands, our cost base is global. We work with contractors in Europe, in South America, and in Asia. We purchase components from a global supply chain and assemble our product in China, but make no mistake, we are an American company. The majority of our costs, including goods, services, and payroll, are from the United States. Most of our team lives in the Midwest. I founded this company in Detroit, Michigan, and am still here. I am proud to have built an American company that supports 10+ Americans and their families.

But now we are caught in a trade war that threatens our very existence. A war that was building up over time but has crescendoed to a point that no business owner could have prepared for. As I write this today, we have to pay an additional 145% of the cost of any product made in China as a tax to the U.S. Government.Yesterday it was 104%, up from 54%. In March it was 20% and in February it was 10%. Tomorrow?

Astrohaus is an importer because there is no consumer electronics industry in the U.S. China has emerged over the decades as the world's factory. At first, as a low-cost solution, but in 2025, they are undeniably the best in the world.

Now we are in a pickle because we have established relationships with our contract manufacturing partners that go back to when we started in 2014. Yes, some of the folks we work with today have been with us since the very beginning. They took a chance on us and helped us get off the ground. I have personally spent months on the ground in Hong Kong and China working closely with these folks, whom I now call friends.

Everyone, including our contract manufacturing partners, is helping us explore our options, but the truth is that it is incredibly difficult to move factories. It takes careful planning, huge expense, and much more time than we have.

Unfortunately, we can’t wait to let the trade war resolve itself, nor do we have the advantage big companies like Apple have with a diversified supply base in various countries. We must work with our existing supply base in China, and that means adjusting prices to cover some of our new costs. That's assuming a trade deal gets done, because 100%+ tariffs are simply untenable long term.

As one last hurrah, today through Sunday we will be keeping prices as they have been. Get them while they last.

On Monday, April 14, we will be raising prices. Not because we want to, but because we have to.Thank you for standing by us over the years. We aren’t going anywhere.

Write on,

Adam

Freewrite Founder & CEO

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