Privacy

You’re being watched online.

Imagine walking into a physical store where someone scans a barcode on your body to learn your identity. They follow you around, taking notes on everything you pick up, put back, or purchase. When you leave, they send that information to a central agency, and soon, people are tracking you to your home and work, suggesting products based on your behavior.

Understandably, this would be unsettling. Yet, this is the reality we’ve accepted with online advertisers. It’s intrusive and often done without your explicit consent.

While cookie banners may pop up, they don’t truly address the issue. They merely clutter the web, and in most cases, you’re left with no choice: accept the cookies and tracking or leave. Even then, tracking may have already occurred.

Here’s the key point: this website does not track you.

As a software engineer, I’ve become increasingly aware of the implications of privacy and tracking in the digital landscape. I recognize that many technologies can inadvertently contribute to the problem of data collection without explicit consent.

We can do better. I can do better.

This website does not use cookies or any form of tracking. I also advocate for more privacy-conscious practices in the software and tools I develop.

If you run a website, I encourage you to do the same. For most of us, there are no real benefits to tracking our visitors. We’re simply complicit in the pursuit of “free” analytics from services like Google Analytics.

If you still want to know how many people visit your site, there are alternatives that respect privacy.

Personally, I use Umami, a privacy-first, software alternative that doesn’t collect or store personal information. Visitor data is collected anonymously and gives me just enough information so I can understand how people are finding my website and what content they are finding useful.

Our choices matter. If you care about online privacy, be mindful and choose businesses and tools that prioritize your privacy.