Originally published at: Why didn't we do this sooner? - Mycroft
Mycroft Ethos
Over the past couple of years, Mycroft has made significant progress and updates to its operations. Recently, we launched our second equity crowdfunding campaign on July 27th, 2021. With campaigns like this, marketing and analytics are integral to tracking how we’re doing on what we’re doing. The question arose: is there an alternative to using Google Analytics that is more in line with Mycroft’s ethos? Short and sweet answer: yes, Fathom.
Other changes to operations came in the form of hiring, platform changes, there were updates to SEC guidelines, and more. Some of these switches resulted in wholly new operations. For this reason some of the “old ways” of doing things flew under the radar of keeping Mycroft in tune with company values. Some of us kept using privacy infringing browsers and search tools.
A trip down memory lane…
Before they started Mycroft, the founders made a switch from Mozilla to Chrome because they ultimately thought that Google was the better friend of small business. Their browser was indeed superior to Firefox at the time, but it was also data infringing. We all know now how much Google is tracking search history.
Several Mycroft staffers analyzed the various software platforms that are used in daily business: communications, search, community outreach, analytics, etc. and found alternatives that don’t infringe on privacy. Overall, we abide by our values wherever possible: Signal for SMS messaging, Mattermost for community engagement/chat, DuckDuckGo for search, Fathom for analytics. Many of these we have been using for a while, others are new to us.
We want to ask our community: Are there ways that we can do even better?
If there are privacy focused platforms or software that we don’t already know about, let us know. Join us in the discussion on Mattermost . We owe it to ourselves, our community, and the issue of Big Tech’s impediment on privacy to do better.
PS- bonus points for open source alternatives.
PPS- Now is the time to invest in Mycroft.