2019 has seen some interesting — and scary — developments in data privacy. Here are some tools to help you navigate this.
Sometimes it feels like the only way is to collect absolutely every single data point you can and a user. However, we want to show that there are amazing, ethical alternative tools that you should be considering going into 2020.
Humane by Design
What this does: Not so much a tool, as a set of principles to stick to when building things. If you’re ever struggling with alternative ideas for current design standards (which are designed to turn the internet into an addictive casino) this is a great resource.
🤠 Pros:
- Nice ideas for how to implement privacy controls straight into your site or app
- Solutions for stuff like infinite scrolling and annoying interruptions, such as unwanted notifications
- A completely free resource that also links out to more resources such as books, articles and podcasts
😬 Cons: This is not so much a concrete solution as it is a set of principles that you have to implement yourself — more of a resource than a tool.
Intergram
What this does: it’s a customer live-chat solution by Squarecat who make a bunch of other great tools. They used Telegram to make this, so you already know how private and secure it is.
🤠 Pros:
- It’s free and open source, you can just get it right now
- Works on any platform as it’s built with Telegram
- Intergram are just acting as a pipe for you — no database. You can also self-host.
😬 Cons: you need to get a Telegram account for this to work, of course. Might be a tad annoying to get yet another chat app. Also, Telegram is free and without ads now, but there’s no guarantee it will stay that way.
Host Yo Self
What this does: let’s you self-host from anything… your browser, your phone, your watch, your smart kettle. You can host a site or share a file instantly from your browser.
🤠 Pros:
- Host from your browser or from the terminal — there’s a command line tool that lets you run it in the background in case you need to close your browser.
- No servers: just you, and the people interacting with what you’ve hosted. Large corporations like Google shouldn’t need to store everything for you
😬 Cons: of course, it all disappears once you turn off your machine. This is more of a quick and easy way to do daily tasks, not a solid way of actually hosting a website.
Company
What this does: Yes that’s right, we shopped around and realised that we have the best cookie consent management tool out there — it will block scripts before they load and therefore give your users true control over the flow of data as they browse.
🤠 Pros:
- A quick sign-up process, and it works right out of the box.
- You can customise a lot of things — it won’t ugly up your site because you can get it to match with your colour palette.
- It’s a great help with GDPR compliance because you’ll be empowering your users with active, informed consent.
- Seriously helps you navigate the dazzling world of third-parties by providing copy for the most widely used third-parties like Google Analytics and Intercom, and automatically links out to their privacy policies.
😬 Cons: we don’t have any of these, silly…
Bonus tool for everyone: trackthis.link
What this does: based on what persona you choose, it will open about a hundred tabs relating to that to completely change your browsing history and therefore screw up your ad profile.
🤠 Pros:
- Just pick an alter-ego and let the obfuscation happen before your eyes
- A great solution if you’re tired of knowing that even a private window is not enough sometimes — if you can’t avoid being tracked, let them track the wrong thing.
- It’s hilarious, and it’s made by Mozilla who are huge privacy advocates.
😬 Cons: will temporarily eat up a lot of RAM because… you’re opening a hundred tabs.
👋 Thank you for reading — navigating the world of digital products ethically is tough enough as it is. Hopefully using tools like the ones listed here is a good first step in changing the way you make things.
Georgia Iacovou
Content Writer