Backend (and the importance of its absence)
It is the back face of an application that is not seen by the user, processes data, stores it, and runs on remote servers.
Most modern applications use a backend, meaning a centralized server architecture. In these systems, every click made on the screen, every text read is sent to a server over the internet, processed, and recorded there. The absence of a backend architecture means that the application can work entirely on its own smoothly without exchanging any data with the outside.
Example: A cloud-based note application constantly sending the written texts to the company’s servers is an example of backend usage.
Go deeper
The presence of a central server means that data is always hosted on others’ computers. This architecture gives companies the opportunity to analyze user behavior, perform profiling, and commercialize data. Designing an application without a backend (serverless structure) means that a receiving server to accumulate data never exists. This does not mean that no request goes out: the requests initiated by the user themselves — a search, a feedback — still go out. What is guaranteed is that there is no center collecting data behind those requests. This design preference ties privacy directly to the architecture of the code, not to contracts or laws.
1.3.2 M3: The Journey of Your Data
M3Where does your data travel when you read an item? Press the button and watch the packet in both architectures.
- Your device
- Server
- Database
- Ad partner
- Your device
- Publisher's server
- Search the web — only the word you searched for, straight to the search provider. No device id, account or location.
- Feedback form — only the text you write. No IP or browser information is stored.
Neither is automatic; nothing runs until you press a button.
This diagram simplifies. The only network request MagPunk makes while you read is fetching the feed and the image; both go straight to the publisher, with no MagPunk server in between. Apart from the two exceptions above, nothing else leaves the device.