Our values and principles

Life is rarely a case of black and white but in some cases we think that there is definitely a correct, honest way of doing things and then the 'other' way. We're against surveillance capitalism, we're against exploitative business models and we don't accept that the only thing that matters is profit.

When it comes to Speckled Banana most of our decisions are driven by three beliefs:

1. That the biggest challenge of our times is the climate crisis and that all organisations should take meaningful steps to mitigate their own impact.
2. That you should be entitled to just as much privacy in the digital world as you are in the physical.
3. That honesty is an asset and builds trust. We don't bullshit 💩.

In Practice

Not compromising on our values mean that we won't take on certain types of projects or clients.

Clients We Won't Work With

• Businesses that operate in sectors that are directly or indirectly having a negative impact on the planet. For instance the fossil fuel industry, industrial meat production, fast fashion etc.
• Consumer debt and buy now pay later providers.
• Gambling, cryptocurrency and day trading firms.

Projects We Won't Take On

• Any surveillance capitalism or user tracking such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel etc. If you want to know how many visitors your site is receiving that can be done using privacy centric, GDPR compliant providers. We have a list of privacy friendly alternatives to some common services below.

• Implementation of dark design patterns e.g. Cookie notices where the links to reject are obscured, confusing marketing opt outs etc. By using privacy friendly services such as Plausible in a lot of cases you don't actually need to have a cookie notice.

How We Operate

• Servers that we host or operate on behalf of clients are always hosted using 100% renewable energy providers in jurisdictions with strong privacy laws.
• We try to minimise file sizes wherever possible. Less data going over the network = less energy used = fast load times!
• We keep things simple. New technologies come out every week, some stick around for years and become a new standard, others disappear in a few months and were never production ready in the first place. Our job is to cut through the hype and use the simplest, most maintainable tool to solve the problem in hand.
• We're honest. If something isn't going to plan, we'll tell you. If someone else would be better placed to work on your project, we'll tell you. If there's a better way to achieve your goals, we'll tell you.
• We minimise costs wherever possible but not at the expense of data sovereignty or privacy.