Introducing Secure Self: Private, Personalized Ads and Content Without the Tracking

If you’ve ever felt like ads are following you around online, you’re not imagining it. 

The current digital advertising system is built on surveillance. Every time you visit a website, dozens of trackers may be collecting data about what you read, search, click, and buy. That information gets stitched into a detailed behavioral profile, which is shared across dozens of advertising companies to decide what ads to show you.

This process happens in milliseconds and you may not even realize that it is happening. It’s the reason ads feel eerily relevant and also deeply invasive.

At Pie, we believe people should not have to trade privacy for personalization. That’s why we created Secure Self, a new browser-native approach to targeting that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies, centralized tracking, or massive data collection. 

With Secure Self, your browsing data stays on your device. Your secure self data never leaves your computer, is never sent to Pie’s servers, and cannot be viewed by Pie or our partners.

Why Targeted Ads Today Feel So Invasive

Let’s break down how most personalized ads work. When you visit a website, typically:

• It communicates with third-party cookies from ad networks like Google or Meta.
• These cookies track your activity across other sites you visit.
• Adtech companies collect this data, combine it with other sources, and build a profile that includes your interests, habits, purchases, and more.
• That profile is then used to serve ads across the web. Often, multiple companies are involved in this process.

This model has helped advertisers reach the right people, but at the cost of user privacy. Your personal data is continuously collected, traded, and monetized without your visibility or control.

Many users tell us they actually prefer ads that are relevant to them. The issue isn’t targeting — it’s how that targeting happens.

Secure Self: A Better Way to Serve Relevant Ads and Content

Secure Self replaces the old system with what we see as a more respectful and intelligent process.

Here’s how it works:

• Your data is stored locally in your browser using secure, origin private storage such as IndexedDB and OPFS. Sensitive data is encrypted on disk.
• We don’t look at your data. Your extensions do. The Pie Adblock and Shopping extensions run privately on your browser. When there’s an opportunity to show you an ad or offer, your extension checks whether it makes sense for you based on what’s stored locally.
• You’re never identified. Your extension only sends back a simple “yes” or “no”. For example, “yes, this user is interested in electric bikes” without sharing why, or what else you've been doing.
• Only a simple yes or no is sent to Pie’s servers. If you match an audience, the ad is eligible to appear. If not, it is filtered out. Nothing more.
• No profiles. No tracking. We don’t build a profile about you, and no one else gets access to your activity. You get content that fits, without the creepiness.
• No data sales. Your personal data is never sold because we never collect it in the first place. 

You get relevant ads and offers, but your browsing history, preferences, and personal information stay private. No profile is created. No data is sold. No one sees your activity but you.

Why Secure Self Matters

The internet wasn’t meant to feel like it’s watching you. Secure Self helps reset the balance between user experience and business incentives by putting you, not third-party trackers, in charge. With Secure Self:

• Your data stays local and encrypted
• It's your choice to participate and you can change your mind at any time
• You remain anonymous — always
• You get relevance without surveillance

This isn’t about incremental privacy improvements. It’s a blueprint for a better web — one where ads earn their place, and users are treated like people, not products.

Why This Can’t Be Replicated by Traditional Adtech

Secure Self is possible because Pie is a browser extension. Unlike websites, which are limited to accessing data only from their own domain, Pie can (with your permission) access and store information across the full browsing experience—securely and privately in your browser.

Advertisers typically operate from third-party scripts embedded in web pages. These scripts are isolated from other tabs and cannot store or analyze data in the same way a browser extension can. Without that access, they rely on cookies, fingerprinting, and server-side data collection to infer who you are and what you like.

In short, traditional adtech can’t build a privacy-preserving system like Secure Self. We’ve built a system that delivers value and protects privacy by design.

You’re in Control

One of the most powerful aspects of Secure Self is that it puts control back in your hands.

• You can turn Secure Self on and off whenever you wish in Pie's account settings.
• You can delete your browsing data at any time.

There’s no silent tracking and no hidden decisions. Everything about Secure Self is designed to be transparent and user-driven.

Personalized Targeting, Proof-of-Concept Privacy

Right now, we're in a proof-of-concept phase, testing a new way to make ads and offers more useful without giving up your privacy. With your opt-in, Secure Self stores data privately on your device, so we can explore how local personalization might bring you more relevant, less annoying experiences.

Right now, we’re learning how local, user-controlled data might unlock better experiences across the entire Pie ecosystem.

Here’s where we’re headed:

• Fair Ads filtering in Pie Adblock: See better ads for products you actually care about—without giving up your privacy.
• Smarter shopping offers: Surface cashback deals in Pie Shopping from brands you’re likely to love.
• Relevant rewards: Show high-value offers in your Pie dashboard that match your real interests — not guesses from a data broker.

These are early days. But with your participation, you'll help us build a system where we believe that personalization and privacy don’t have to be at odds.

Try Secure Self

Want to see what a more respectful internet looks like?

Here’s how to start:

1. Install any Pie extension, either Pie Adblock or Pie Shopping.
2. Secure Self is on by default, but can be toggled off anytime in your account settings.
3. You’re in full control. We’ll never see your data, and you can delete it with a single click.

We’re building toward a future where your browsing experience works for you — not the ad networks. Secure Self is the foundation.

*Terms apply