Privacy Policy

Last updated: 24. November 2025

Introduction

This privacy policy explains how ModalThinking (“we”, “us”, or “our”) handles information when you visit our website at https://modalthinking.blog/.

We take your privacy seriously. This website is a personal blog operated from Switzerland and complies with Swiss data protection regulations.

Data Controller

Philipp Drebes, Email:

Information We Collect

No Cookies

This website does not use cookies of any kind.

Local Storage

We use your browser’s localStorage to save your theme preference (dark mode or light mode). This allows the website to remember your preferred color scheme when you return.

What we store:

Theme preference (stored under the key theme-preference)
Value stored: either “dark” or “light”

Important notes:

This data is stored locally in your browser only
It is never transmitted to our servers
It is not shared with any third parties
You can clear this at any time through your browser settings
If you don’t interact with the theme toggle, we respect your system preference without storing anything

Server Logs

Our website is hosted on Azure Storage. Like most web hosting services, the hosting provider may automatically collect certain technical information for operational purposes, including:

IP address
Browser type and version
Operating system
Date and time of access
Requested pages

This information is processed by Microsoft Azure and may be stored temporarily in server logs for security and operational purposes. We do not have direct access to or control over these logs. For more information, please refer to Microsoft Azure’s Privacy Policy.

Analytics

We use Umami Analytics, a privacy-focused, open-source analytics tool that does not use cookies. Umami collects basic usage statistics to help us understand how visitors interact with our website.

What Umami collects:

Page views and visits
Referrer information (where you came from)
Browser type and version
Operating system
Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet)
Country (based on IP address, but IP addresses are not stored)

What Umami does NOT do:

Does not use cookies
Does not collect or store personal data
Does not track you across websites
Does not collect IP addresses in identifiable form
All data is anonymized and aggregated

Custom Event Tracking

In addition to basic page views, we track specific user interactions to understand how visitors use our website and to improve the user experience. All event tracking is completely anonymous and follows the same privacy-first principles as Umami Analytics.

Events we track and why:

Blog Post Clicks - Helps us understand which content is most interesting to readers and where they discover it (homepage, related posts, etc.)
External Link Clicks - Shows which external resources (RSS feeds, social media, references) are valuable to visitors
Code Snippet Copies - Indicates which code examples are useful, helping us create better technical content
Navigation Clicks - Reveals how visitors navigate the site, allowing us to optimize menu structure
Tag/Category Clicks - Shows which topics interest our audience, guiding future content
Theme Toggle - Tracks dark/light mode preferences to understand user interface preferences (this is separate from the localStorage that saves your individual preference)
Scroll Depth - Measures reading engagement to understand which articles resonate with readers

Privacy guarantees:

No personal information is collected with any event
Events only track anonymous interaction patterns
All event data is aggregated and cannot identify individual users
Event data follows the same anonymization principles as page view analytics

Umami is GDPR-compliant and respects user privacy. For more information, visit Umami’s privacy policy.

We offer an optional email newsletter to keep subscribers informed about new blog posts and updates. Newsletter subscriptions are completely voluntary.

What we collect:

Your email address (only if you choose to subscribe)

How we use it:

To send you new blog post notifications and occasional updates
Your email is only used for our newsletter and is never sold or shared with other third parties

Third-party service:

We use Buttondown as our email newsletter service provider
Buttondown processes and stores your email address on our behalf
Buttondown is GDPR-compliant and respects user privacy
For more information, see Buttondown’s privacy policy

Your rights:

You can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link in any newsletter email
You can request deletion of your email address by contacting us directly
Unsubscribing will permanently remove your email from our newsletter list

Data Processing

The anonymized analytics data collected by Umami is used solely for understanding website usage patterns and improving user experience. This data is aggregated and cannot be used to identify individual visitors. We do not share, sell, or otherwise distribute this data to third parties.

Your Rights

Under Swiss data protection law, you have the right to:

Request information about any personal data we might hold
Request correction of inaccurate data
Request deletion of your data
Object to data processing

If you have any questions or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us via the information provided above.

Links to Other Websites

Our blog may contain links to external websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

Children’s Privacy

This website is not directed at children under 16 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page indicates when this policy was last revised. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us:

This is a personal blog operated from Switzerland. This privacy policy is provided in accordance with Swiss data protection regulations.