About QR Codes

In today’s tech ecosystem, nearly every consumer technology operates on closed platforms that mediate access, collect data, and monetize participation. Users are not participants so much as subjects within proprietary systems.

This process — what Cory Doctorow calls enshittification — describes how open, user-benefiting systems become gradually optimized for profit extraction.

QR codes sit at the opposite end of that spectrum.

• Open-standard technology (ISO/IEC 18004) — no single company owns them.
• Device-agnostic & interoperable — any camera and software can read them.
• Low-bandwidth & offline-capable — they don’t require a network or proprietary service.
• User-generative — anyone can create one without permission, payment, or a developer account.

That combination — universal access, open encoding, and local control — makes QR codes one of the last surviving digital tools that don’t depend on surveillance capitalism or centralized gatekeeping.

I’m drawn to them because this is how technology was meant to work: neutral, lightweight, and empowering by design. In a world built on closed platforms, QR codes remain an accidental utopian artifact — a reminder that simple systems can still serve people, not profits.

okQRal exists to defend the moral right to use technology that doesn’t use you back.