If you’ve been watching the marketing automation scene, you know tracking is baked into almost every tool. It’s the foundation, not an optional add-on. So what would marketing automation look like if we tore out the surveillance layer completely? The Mautic community is answering that question—and it’s big news.
Thanks to a fresh grant of over €72,000 from NLnet’s NGI Zero Commons Fund, Mautic is gearing up to build the world’s first marketing automation platform that runs without any tracking or surveillance turned on by default. Starting this September and running for roughly eight months, the team will tackle three key things: making every part of Mautic work without setting cookies, introducing need-to-know access controls so users only see the contacts they should, and creating a privacy center where you can actually see, understand, and control every tracking setting from one place.
This project isn’t just about tech. It’s about real-life implications for marketers who want to respect privacy—and for organizations that operate in sensitive environments, like political parties, human rights groups, or government agencies. These users often need both powerful marketing tools and ironclad data sovereignty. Until now, that’s been tough to find, because most platforms just switch tracking on and never fully turn it off.
The team’s approach is thoughtful: if some features *really* need cookies, they’ll be upfront about it and clean things up afterward. They’re also adding granular data access permissions—meaning not everyone with contact access sees everything. Plus, a unified privacy dashboard will give marketers clear, well-documented choices, replacing config files nobody reads. And tracking off by default? That’s a game changer for how marketers think about data collection from day one.
Why does this matter? Beyond ticking regulatory boxes, it’s about ethical marketing. Surveillance-driven data collection hasn’t just commercial consequences; it can endanger vulnerable communities and stifle free expression. Mautic’s privacy-first angle is a statement that marketers can have power without prying.
Also, this work is laying the foundation for Mautic’s upcoming AI capabilities, ensuring those features respect data privacy and consent from the ground up—building trust rather than risking misuse.
If you run Mautic in a high-stakes context or simply care about privacy-respecting tech, the project team invites you to get involved. The entire process is open and transparent, with specs and designs going through community review before any code lands. This is a welcome shift from hesitation to proactive, community-driven privacy improvements.
For marketers who’ve never had a reason to question “track everything by default,” this project could completely change the way you think about your marketing stack—and your customers.
Follow the full community discussion here.
Prefer to avoid the DIY hassle? Mailertizer brings you the power of hosted Mautic with expert handling of privacy settings and updates, so you can focus on your campaigns, not cookies.
