Cookies

Last updated: March 2026

I’ll keep this short because I hate cookie pages as much as you do.

What I collect and why

This site uses Matomo for analytics, self-hosted on my own server at a subdomain of techie-show.com. That means your data never leaves my infrastructure, no third party gets it, no one sells it, it just helps me understand which articles are actually useful. I run Matomo with IP anonymization on, so I can’t identify you individually even if I wanted to.

If you’ve ever watched one of my videos about self-hosting, this is me practicing what I preach.

YouTube embeds

Some pages embed YouTube videos. When the player loads, YouTube sets their own cookies. I have no control over that. If you’d rather not have YouTube track you, you can watch directly on the channel instead. I get it.

Google AdSense

The site runs AdSense ads to keep the lights on. Google uses cookies to serve ads, which may be personalized based on your browsing history. If you want to opt out of personalized ads, Google’s own opt-out tool is at adssettings.google.com.

I don’t love the ad ecosystem either, but until the channel gets to a point where it funds itself through other means, this is part of the deal. I try to keep ads minimal and non-intrusive.

If you don’t want to see ads I do have a system in place, check it out here. If you share my content, your browser gets a cookie and a free-pass for ads on this blog for 30 days. Basically share an article and you can read this blog ad free. This does not affect videos as I cannot control what YouTube does when you embed a video.

Some articles contain affiliate links to Amazon, Proton, Hetzner, and maybe others. Clicking one sets acookie that tracks whether you make a purchase. I earn a small commission if you buy something, at no extra cost to you. I only link to things I’ve actually used or would genuinely recommend.

Newsletter

If you subscribe to the newsletter, your email address is stored and processed by MailerLite. I use it to send occasional updates: new articles, videos, things I think are worth your time. No spam, no selling your address to anyone.

You can unsubscribe at any time with the link at the bottom of every email. MailerLite’s own privacy policy is at mailerlite.com/privacy-policy.

I don’t import your email anywhere else or use it for anything outside the newsletter.

What I don’t do

  • I don’t sell your data
  • I don’t run any tracking beyond what’s listed above
  • I don’t use Facebook Pixel, TikTok trackers, or any of that
  • Matomo data stays on my server, period
  • Newsletter emails are stored only in MailerLite, nowhere else

Your options

You can opt out of Matomo tracking entirely by enabling Do Not Track in your browser and Matomo respects it. For everything else, a standard ad blocker like uBlock Origin handles most of it. I won’t be offended. I use one too.

Questions? You can reach me at sorin at techie-show.com. I actually read those.