When you use an online service, you are trusting someone with your data. With a wishlist, that means your interests, your desires, sometimes hints about birthdays, occasions, and personal priorities. Most services ask you to trust their privacy policy. Lieblings-Wunschliste does it differently: every line of code is public.
What Open Source Actually Means
Open source means the source code of a software project is publicly accessible. Anyone can read it, study it, check it for issues, and suggest improvements.
For Lieblings-Wunschliste this means:
- The complete code for the website and browser extension is publicly available on GitLab
- Every change is recorded in the Git history
- External developers can report bugs or submit improvements
- Anyone who wants to can run the application on their own infrastructure
Why AGPL – and Why It Matters
There are different open-source licences, each with different rights and obligations. Lieblings-Wunschliste uses the AGPL (Affero General Public License) – and that is a deliberate choice.
Most open-source licences have a loophole: software can be modified and run as a closed service without the changes needing to be disclosed. The AGPL closes this so-called "ASP loophole."
The AGPL requires: anyone who runs the software as a network service and makes changes must also release those changes under the AGPL. That means Lieblings-Wunschliste cannot be turned into a proprietary service that processes your data behind closed doors.
Open Source as a Privacy Guarantee
A privacy policy is a promise. Open source is proof.
What you can verify directly in our code:
- No Google Analytics or other trackers: You will find no third-party analytics integrations in the code.
- No advertising cookies: The code contains no calls to ad networks or tracking pixels.
- No hidden data transmission: All server requests are traceable in the code. There is no hidden call sending data to external services.
- Real encryption: The encryption of wishlist data is implemented in the code and verifiable – not a marketing claim.
This transparency is not a bonus feature – it is the core of the project. Anyone can verify that what we say matches what the code actually does.
No Registration, No Profiles, No Data
Beyond the open-source approach, another privacy characteristic matters: Lieblings-Wunschliste requires no registration.
In practice this means:
- No email address stored (unless you voluntarily provide one for the link recovery service)
- No user profile created
- No connection to other services
- Minimal logging: We log only what is technically necessary
When you create a wishlist and share it, we do not know who you are. We do not know who views your list. We do not know what you buy.
Self-Hosting: The Ultimate Privacy Guarantee
For those for whom that is still not sufficient, open source offers the ultimate option: self-hosting.
The same Docker image that runs on our production servers is available to run Lieblings-Wunschliste on your own infrastructure. A single docker-compose.yml and a few environment variables are sufficient. The instructions are in the README on GitLab.
Anyone running their own instance has complete control: over the code, over the data, over everything.
Why Open Source Produces Better Software
Beyond privacy, open source has another advantage: it leads to better software.
- More eyes find more bugs: External developers and security researchers can review the code for vulnerabilities – and have already done so.
- Community contributions: Users can suggest features and implement them directly.
- No vendor lock-in: The platform cannot simply be shut down – anyone who wants to can fork the code and continue it.
Trust Has to Be Earned
The online market is full of services that promise privacy and deliver tracking. Wishlist services are no exception: some well-known platforms are advertising-funded, collect data, and sell user profiles.
Lieblings-Wunschliste is free and ad-free – because there is no business model based on your data. The only revenue comes from transparent affiliate links on product suggestions, clearly labelled as such.
Open source is the strongest instrument a digital service has to back up that promise. Not because it is perfect – but because it is verifiable.
Create a free wishlist now – anonymous, encrypted, open source.