Since the beginning, we were against Off-Page SEO and Google Ads because we never wanted to depend on our business on Google or any other search engine alone. But even then, can you believe we were using Google Analytics to know visitor states to our website and willingly telling Google about every visitor to shimbilabs.com. We were letting Google collect every information possible through their tracking code. I can't believe it!
For many years we allowed them to capture our visitor's data, and what they do with it has collectively been brought to shame. Most people know that using the internet leaves behind a data trail, but quite a few people have begun to question just how deep that trail should be, and who should have the right to follow it.
But today, it feels like an obligation to ensure we're not helping those who seek to exploit our customers' data. Collect every move and signals, then put together a puzzle that'll ultimately reveal user intents and interests, then sell that bigger picture to the highest bidder.
We think the internet needs to know less about us, not more. Just because it's possible to track someone doesn't mean we should.
We are firmly against this, and those are the ethos we're trying to live at Shimbi Labs. It's not an easy path. It will take time, and sometimes we may lose some benefits, but worth protecting our customer privacy who trust us.
Today we are dropping the Google Analytics tracking codel on shimbilabs.com and shimbi.in/blog. Now, when you visit our website or blog, you can trust that we won't let third-party abuse your data.
We still track our website visits, but it's really only the basics that interest us. How many people visited our website? Which pages? From which country? Did a new marketing page work better than the old? How many people signed up? Basic stuff like that. And basic stuff doesn't require sophisticated software. So we use AWStats - an open-source web analytic software that is hosted on our servers. It isn't nearly as fancy or as pierces as Google Analytics. But it doesn't need to be. We don't need it.
We still use Youtube to show some video on our website or blogs, use google fonts. Few other third-party tools, but we are taking one step at a time to reduce dependencies, send fewer customer data outside, and protect them as much possible in our capacity.
It is a painful and time taking task, but it's worth doing.