Indie Hackers: Let's be Privacy-First

Fredrik -

We're going in the wrong direction. Big tech companies are growing bigger and bigger and admin processes become harder and harder to manage for small businesses. If we keep this up, everything will soon be owned by a few huge companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Wait... Did that already happen? 🤔

It doesn't have to be this way though, and as Indie Hackers we don't have to be a part of the problem. Instead, let's move the needle in the right direction. It doesn't take much to get going, just think a little harder before you add a Big Corp script to your website. You might not even need it, or maybe you could support a small company instead and use their software. It might cost you a few dollars a month. But it's definitely worth it.

(I'm not going to argue about why everything being controlled by a few big companies is bad as many others have already written about it. I can recommend a good book about privacy though, and that's "Data and Goliath" by Bruce Schneier.)

Things you can do

These are the things I'm doing with Wobaka.com in my quest to become a Privacy-First company and that you can consider as well:

  • Drop services like Big Corp analytics/maps/et al and support other alternatives like SimpleAnalytics, OpenStreetMaps etc instead.
  • No re-targeting. It makes me super annoyed, why would I want to do it to anyone else? Removing some scripts will save you a lot of loading time too.
  • Share as little as possible with third parties. For example, don't share user records with your bug tracker when an id is enough.
  • Store only the data you need. It's not cool to keep a record of peoples information "just in case".
  • HTTPS everything. It's 2020. Don't let your users transfer data on insecure networks in plain text.
  • Track nothing as default. Finding a needle in a haystack (your data) only get's harder if you add more hay.

Let's change things

As Indie Hackers we have an opportunity to change things. It's the decisions we make now that will be the baseline for the future of online privacy.

It doesn't require a lot of time or money. You can start today and keep moving forward. We can do this. ✊