diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 3fcff40..19000f3 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ checksum = "c980ee35e870bd1a4d2c8294d4c04d0499e67bca1e4b5cefcc693c2fa00caea9"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "heck",
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -636,7 +636,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "heck",
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -824,7 +824,7 @@ checksum = "87750cf4b7a4c0625b1529e4c543c2182106e4dedc60a2a6455e00d212c489ac"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -906,20 +906,18 @@ dependencies = [
  "html-escape",
  "mail-send",
  "md-5",
+ "rand",
  "sailfish",
  "serde",
  "serde-inline-default",
  "serde_default",
- "serde_json",
  "sqlx",
  "teloxide",
- "thiserror",
  "tokio",
  "tokio-rustls 0.25.0",
  "toml",
  "tracing",
  "tracing-subscriber",
- "uuid",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1729,7 +1727,7 @@ checksum = "a948666b637a0f465e8564c73e89d4dde00d72d4d473cc972f390fc3dcee7d9c"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1840,7 +1838,7 @@ checksum = "4359fd9c9171ec6e8c62926d6faaf553a8dc3f64e1507e76da7911b4f6a04405"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1920,9 +1918,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "proc-macro2"
-version = "1.0.74"
+version = "1.0.75"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "2de98502f212cfcea8d0bb305bd0f49d7ebdd75b64ba0a68f937d888f4e0d6db"
+checksum = "907a61bd0f64c2f29cd1cf1dc34d05176426a3f504a78010f08416ddb7b13708"
 dependencies = [
  "unicode-ident",
 ]
@@ -2235,7 +2233,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
  "serde",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
  "toml",
 ]
 
@@ -2343,7 +2341,7 @@ checksum = "a3385e45322e8f9931410f01b3031ec534c3947d0e94c18049af4d9f9907d4e0"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -2753,9 +2751,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "syn"
-version = "2.0.46"
+version = "2.0.47"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "89456b690ff72fddcecf231caedbe615c59480c93358a93dfae7fc29e3ebbf0e"
+checksum = "1726efe18f42ae774cc644f330953a5e7b3c3003d3edcecf18850fe9d4dd9afb"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
@@ -2900,7 +2898,7 @@ checksum = "fa0faa943b50f3db30a20aa7e265dbc66076993efed8463e8de414e5d06d3471"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -2972,7 +2970,7 @@ checksum = "5b8a1e28f2deaa14e508979454cb3a223b10b938b45af148bc0986de36f1923b"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3113,7 +3111,7 @@ checksum = "34704c8d6ebcbc939824180af020566b01a7c01f80641264eba0999f6c2b6be7"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3254,7 +3252,6 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "5e395fcf16a7a3d8127ec99782007af141946b4795001f876d54fb0d55978560"
 dependencies = [
  "getrandom",
- "rand",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3311,7 +3308,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "once_cell",
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
  "wasm-bindgen-shared",
 ]
 
@@ -3345,7 +3342,7 @@ checksum = "f0eb82fcb7930ae6219a7ecfd55b217f5f0893484b7a13022ebb2b2bf20b5283"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
  "wasm-bindgen-backend",
  "wasm-bindgen-shared",
 ]
@@ -3605,7 +3602,7 @@ checksum = "9ce1b18ccd8e73a9321186f97e46f9f04b778851177567b1975109d26a08d2a6"
 dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
  "quote",
- "syn 2.0.46",
+ "syn 2.0.47",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 5f6a745..f39aa18 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -15,14 +15,13 @@ edition = "2021"
 # core
 tracing = "0.1"
 tracing-subscriber = "0.3"
-thiserror = "1"
+rand = "0.8"
 md-5 = "0.10"
 toml = "0.8"
-uuid = { version = "1.6", features = ["v4", "fast-rng"] }
 chrono = { version = "0.4", features = ["serde"] }
 serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
-serde_json = "1"
 serde-inline-default = "0.1" # TODO this hopefully won't be needed anymore soon
+serde_default = "0.1"
 async-trait = "0.1"
 html-escape = "0.2"
 clap = { version = "4.4", features = ["derive", "cargo"] }
@@ -37,7 +36,6 @@ tokio-rustls = { version = "0.25", optional = true }
 # frontend
 sailfish = { version = "0.8", optional = true }
 axum-extra = { version = "0.9", optional = true }
-serde_default = "0.1.0"
 
 [features]
 default = ["mysql", "sqlite", "postgres", "telegram", "email", "web"] # all features by default
diff --git a/src/model.rs b/src/model.rs
index c72e401..462530b 100644
--- a/src/model.rs
+++ b/src/model.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 use md5::{Md5, Digest};
+use rand::{distributions::Alphanumeric, Rng};
 use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
 use chrono::{DateTime, Utc};
 use sqlx::Row;
-use uuid::Uuid;
 
 use crate::config::ConfigOverrides;
 
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ pub struct PageView {
 impl From<&Page> for PageView {
 	fn from(page: &Page) -> Self {
 		let mut hasher = Md5::new();
-		hasher.update(page.contact.as_deref().unwrap_or(&Uuid::new_v4().to_string()).as_bytes());
+		hasher.update(page.contact.as_deref().unwrap_or(&random_string(36)).as_bytes());
 		let avatar = format!("{:x}", hasher.finalize());
 
 		let url = match page.contact.as_deref() {
@@ -127,3 +127,11 @@ fn _non_empty_string(input: String) -> Option<String> {
 		false => Some(input),
 	}
 }
+
+fn random_string(len: usize) -> String {
+	rand::thread_rng()
+		.sample_iter(&Alphanumeric)
+		.take(len)
+		.map(char::from)
+		.collect()
+}