ChromeVault

What I Built

I built ChromeVault, a client-side photo encryption application designed to keep personal photographs private and secure.

Photos are encrypted locally using AES-256-GCM before being saved to Google Drive. This means the original unencrypted photos are not sent to a backend server for encryption.

I interpreted the theme Ghost in the Machine through the idea of digital memories. Photographs preserve moments from our past, and ChromeVault focuses on protecting those memories while keeping control of personal data in the user's hands.

The application has:
Client-side photo encryption.
AES-256-GCM encryption.
Google Drive storage for encrypted photographs.
No dedicated backend server.

Code

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/ikshita22/ChromeVault

How I Built It

I built ChromeVault using:

HTML for the application structure.

JavaScript for application logic and encryption.

AES-256-GCM for secure photo encryption.

Argon2 for password-based key derivation.

JSZip for handling ZIP archives.

Google Drive for storing encrypted photographs.

The encryption takes place on the client side, before the photographs are uploaded to Google Drive.

Open-source AI disclosure: The current version of ChromeVault does not yet integrate an open-weight AI model or an AI framework. Its core functionality is based on client-side encryption and privacy rather than AI.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Open innovation is important for privacy-focused applications because users should have more control over how their personal information is processed and stored.

ChromeVault follows this principle by performing encryption locally instead of relying on a third-party server to encrypt photographs.

Using open technologies also makes it easier to inspect, understand, and modify the application's implementation.

The Spirit of It

Our photographs are more than just files. They hold memories, people, places, and moments that we might otherwise forget.

With ChromeVault, the idea is simple: even as technology changes, our digital memories should remain private and under our control.