diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index de3cad8..c7c0e3b 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -612,6 +612,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "clap",
  "dotenvy",
  "env_logger",
+ "hex",
  "lazy_static",
  "log",
  "rand",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index c3c5168..eb2acb9 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ chrono = { version = "0.4", default-features = false, features = ["now"] }
 clap = { version = "4.5", default-features = false, features = ["std", "derive", "unicode", "help", "usage"] }
 dotenvy = { version = "0.15", default-features = false }
 env_logger = { version = "0.11", default-features = false, features = ["humantime"] }
+hex = "0.4"
 lazy_static = "1.4"
 log = { version = "0.4", default-features = false, features = ["std"] }
 rand = { version = "0.8", default-features = false, features = ["std", "std_rng"] }
diff --git a/migrations/20240317182405_hits.up.sql b/migrations/20240317182405_hits.up.sql
index a5853c2..2886a6d 100644
--- a/migrations/20240317182405_hits.up.sql
+++ b/migrations/20240317182405_hits.up.sql
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 create table if not exists hits (
   id integer primary key,
   page text not null, -- the slug from the page
-  hit_key blob not null unique,
+  hit_key text not null unique,
   accessed timestamp not null default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
 );
 
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 4c8ad56..f2d312a 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ use std::{
 use axum::{
     debug_handler,
     extract::{Path, State},
-    http::{header::REFERER, method::Method, HeaderMap, HeaderValue},
+    http::{method::Method, HeaderMap, HeaderValue},
     routing::get,
     Router,
 };
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ use ring::digest::{Context, SHA256};
 use sqlx::sqlite::{SqliteConnectOptions, SqlitePool, SqlitePoolOptions};
 use tokio::net::TcpListener;
 use tower_http::cors::{self, CorsLayer};
-use url::Url;
 
 lazy_static! {
     static ref HITMAN_ORIGIN: String =
@@ -72,7 +71,7 @@ async fn register_hit(
 
     let salt = *SESSION_SALT;
     let key = format!("{now}{host}{slug}{salt}").into_bytes();
-    let key = shasum(&key);
+    let key = hex::encode(shasum(&key));
 
     sqlx::query!("insert into hits (page, hit_key) values (?, ?)", slug, key,)
         .execute(&db)