philosophy design

Why I Built Apps That Track Your Most Private Data (And Why I'll Never Sell It)

January 19, 2026 • George

It's because I'd rather make a useful tool than make your life worse.

I track how often I pee. I know exactly how many cups of coffee I drink each week. I have a record of every anxiety attack I’ve had this year, including where I was when it happened.

This is deeply personal information - it’s information that I am interested in and no one else, especially not you, should care about. It’s the kind of data that could be weaponized against me by an insurance company, an employer, or a targeted advertiser. And yet, tracking these patterns has been incredibly valuable for understanding my own health and habits.

Here’s the problem: The companies best positioned to build these tools are exactly the companies you shouldn’t trust with this data.

The Apps Traditional Companies Won’t Build

Enumerator lets you track any recurring activity in your life - the mundane (cups of coffee), the medical (bathroom patterns that might signal health issues), the emotional (where anxiety strikes). It’s a simple counter for life’s patterns.

4KWks shows you your life in weeks. If you live to 80, you get about 4,000 weeks. The app shows you how many you’ve already spent and how many remain - not to depress you, but to help you decide what actually matters.

Both apps handle data that’s intensely personal. Both could easily be monetized through advertising (“Anxious about money? Here’s a targeted loan offer!”) or sold to data brokers (“Life insurance companies would LOVE to know your health patterns!”).

And that’s exactly why Google, Meta, or any VC-backed startup won’t build them properly.

The Commercial Trap

Traditional consumer tech operates on a simple model:

Offer a free or cheap product
Collect user data
Monetize that data through ads or sales
Scale to billions of users
Implement a subscription model or raise the rates
Worsen service or implement premium tiers
Introduce MORE ads and sales
Exit or IPO

This model destroys the very thing that makes apps like Enumerator and 4KWks valuable: your complete privacy and control over your data.

The moment your anxiety patterns become someone else’s revenue stream, the tool stops working. You’ll self-censor. You’ll track less honestly. You’ll abandon it entirely.

So What Makes sistnt Different?

We can’t monetize your data because we never have access to it.

Your Enumerator counts and 4KWks reflections live on your device. If you use iCloud, they sync through Apple’s encrypted system where even we can’t read them. When you export your data, you get everything in a simple format you can read, analyze, or move anywhere.

We make money the old-fashioned way: you pay a fair price for a tool that solves a real problem. No subscriptions that hold your data hostage. No ads. No “partnerships” with data brokers.

The catch? We’re tiny. We’ll never be on the cover of TechCrunch. We’re not disrupting industries (except perhaps for the disrupting industry) or scaling to a billion users. We’re building quiet, useful tools for people who value privacy and intentionality.

Can This Actually Work?

Honestly? We’re running an experiment.

Most companies need massive scale to survive. We’re betting that a smaller number of people willing to pay directly for privacy-first tools can sustain focused, quality development.

If you’re one of those people - someone who wants powerful tools for self-reflection without the surveillance - we built these for you.