Let’s talk about Google Analytics.

Google gives it away for free, and surprise, surprise, it has helped Google get its tracking code on 70% of websites. 70%! Not only does Google know what everybody is searching for, it also knows what people are doing on most websites. This is one of the biggest monopolies that ever existed.

The thing that sucks the most is that the tech industry depends on Google. Everybody needs their search juice. Whimsical is no exception. We can’t stop depending on Google. But we can do a small thing - stop using Google Analytics.

In fact, we decided to take it a step further and default to being tracking-free. We realized that all our tracking stuff had barely marginal value. We were just accumulating data because it might be useful someday. And because everybody else was doing it. Yet 100% of our product decisions over the past year were based on strategy, qualitative feedback, and our own needs.

More importantly, we wanted to do the right thing. Tracking people should not be the default.

So we removed pixel tracking from emails.

Advertisement pixel trackers? Gone.

Tracking everything is like second nature to most tech companies. It’s time to change and start treating privacy as table stakes, not an inconvenience.