Privacy
I genuinely, actually/factually care about visitor privacy. I have worked with - and on - analytics software for over 10 years, so I understand it quite well. I've used privacy-first browsers as long as I can remember. So, I understand you probably care too if you're looking at this page.
First, hosting: I use Ghost. If you subscribe to my site, I have access to your name, and email address. They capture no other identifiable data about you. This will remain in Ghost, and will not be used in any other context other than for the site newsletter.
Second, web analytics: I use web analytics because I want to know what works, and what makes my website useful - and hopefully delightful - to my visitors. I don't use them to actively generate revenue by selling to companies, and I don't use any analytics software that hijacks your data for ad purposes.
I'm currently using Contentsquare. There are some professional reasons for this choice. Here's the privacy statement CSQ shares with service users, which I'm adhering to here.
We use Contentsquare on our website(s) and/or app(s) to create a better digital experience for our visitors’ and to optimize this service and our interactions with them. Contentsquare’s Digital Experience Analytics tool helps us analyze visitors’ digital behavior and visualize their journey to improve their online experience (e.g. how much time the visitor spends on which pages, which links they choose to click, the visitors’ click rates (to measure things like hesitation or frustration), etc.) and visualize how our visitors interact with our website(s) and app(s) to identify issues and friction points by reconstructing individual visitor sessions (Session Replay). To provide these services, Contentsquare uses first-party cookies and other technologies to process personal data of our visitors’ behavior and their devices on our behalf. This may include data like online identifiers (e.g. device's IP address, user ID), identification data (e.g. name, email address, only if we explicitly collect it), technical data (e.g. device type and screen size, browser information), geographic location (country only), behavioral data (interactions with our website/app such as clicks, taps, scrolls, accessibility needs), and any additional personal data that may be explicitly submitted through Contentsquare Digital Experience Analytics tool [you should list here the categories of any additional personal data you submit through our product, for example, identification data (e.g. email address)]”.
Contentsquare Group may reuse this personal data to develop and improve tools and services for us and our visitors.
For more information about Contentsquare Group and its privacy practices, please visit Contentsquare’s Trust Portal and its privacy policies.
Third, referrals: Yes, I use referral links. My site hosting (currently) costs $9/month, and the domain about $35 per year. I hope I can at least clawback these costs. Plus, I believe that if I'm successfully promoting another company's products, I should at least get a small commission: otherwise they're taking advantage of me. You can read more about the referral programs I use here.
Fourth, ad-tech: at the time of writing, I don't use any. I don't intend to.