Privacy
Last updated 19 October 2026
This is a personal website — essays and a few project write-ups, run by me, Matt Owen, from Cape Town. It isn't a business, it doesn't sell anything, and it doesn't try to track you. Here's exactly what happens with data when you visit.
Anonymous, aggregate analytics through two tools: Vercel Analytics, and Umami, which I host myself. Together they show which pages get read, rough country, broad device type, how fast pages load and which outbound links get clicked. Neither sets cookies: nothing is stored on your device, and nothing identifies you personally. There are no ads, no logins, no profiles, and I never sell data to anyone.
So I can see which essays land and which don't. That's the whole reason.
Vercel, the host of this site, processes its analytics on servers in the United States. Umami runs on my own server at DigitalOcean in Amsterdam, with a nightly backup to a private GitHub repository. Those are the only places the data goes, and the only points at which it leaves South Africa.
Under South Africa's POPIA you can ask what — if anything — is held about you, ask me to stop, or ask me to delete it. Because the analytics are anonymous I usually can't tie a record to a specific person, but if you have a question I'll answer it honestly.
Matt Owen is the responsible party for this site. Reach me at matt@autoalphaadvisory.co.za.