To build a website involves making an enormous amount of decisions.

Starting from the domain name, the web hosting service (go green!), to questions of style; colours, fonts and of course the content. What is the most relevant information, and where should it be? How should my website be structured, so that visitors will find what they are looking for?

But on top of that there’s a lot of moral questions to consider too: What is the main goal of running a website or blog, what are the main goals of our businesses?

Which tools are the right ones to reach these goals? And how much data of our customers are we willing to share in order to offer a smooth service?

If a service is offered for free, we have to check if we’re actually customers or the product. When we use services, who offer their users as a product – to make it easier and more convenient to share our content, because we believe that our content is relevant for many people and should reach them – then it is our responsibility to let our visitors and potential customers know about that and give them a chance to opt out.

I don’t think that there is a right answer to using Social Media or not – I think it is essential to stay in critical reflection, ask questions and also hold the big companies accountable.

In the meantime, we can use add-ons to our browsers to protect ourselves, and we can be open about the services we use and the information we share, so our visitors have a chance to make their own decisions.