Over the past few weeks I’ve made a few changes to how I do things on my website and for my newsletter.

Cleaning up cookies

I’ve never used many services in the running of my website that require cookies to be set. I don’t use sharing buttons or embed media from third party services, and I choose to use a privacy-friendly analytics tool with cookies turned off.

I gave the site an overhaul recently and part of that process was checking what cookies were set. The only ones listed in the report were those set by the cookie notification plugin I was using, which seems redundent when there’s no other cookies to accept or reject…

So I’ve turned off that plugin and am pleased to report my site is cookie free.

No to spy pixels

I’ve also been following Dave Smyth’s work on a new project, No To Spy Pixels, which aims to raise awareness, and encourage regulation, of what gets tracked when you open emails from mailing lists.

I use ConvertKit to send my newsletter which doesn’t currently have the option to allow you to turn off tracking. However, following the launch of No To Spy Pixels, I went to find out if this was a planned feature and if not, to request it is added to the list.

I’m pleased that it is currently in development and I’ve joined the beta testing. From now on, my newsletter and other emails sent through ConvertKit won’t track opens, location or device information. It’s not yet possible to turn of link tracking, but I’ve requested this be added to the development. And I’m fully prepared to find an alternative email provider if I can’t get this functionality.

This is day 28 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com