The other day, I read an interesting article in Die Zeit about digital sovereignty and alternatives to Big Tech. It’s about switching to European services to reduce dependency on the U.S., thereby reducing support for tech billionaires and the risks of political changes. While I don’t agree with all the statements, such as the idea that installing Linux on a computer is difficult, I found the article to be thought-provoking. However, I was drawn to the article’s general idea.
I have always been careful about my privacy and have been cautious about sharing my data. For this reason, I don’t use social media, and I run many of the services I use on my own hardware. Let’s take a look at the other services I use and where it may be possible to switch to European, or even better, free, and open-source software (FOSS) solutions.
Current Services and Alternatives
| Category | Current | Alternative | Change Considered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browser | Firefox (FOSS / Mozilla; U.S.) | Librewolf (FOSS) | Not currently |
| Calendar | Apple Calendar (U.S.) | Proton Calendar (Proton; Switzerland) | Yes, especially to have a shareable calendar. |
| Cloud Storage | Hetzner Storage Box (Germany) | OVH (France) | No |
| E-Comerce | Amazon (U.S.) | Galaxus (Digitec Galaxus, Switzerland), reichelt (reichelt elektronik; Germany), Cyberport (Germany), or Alternate (Germany) | Yes, currently trying to reduce the usage of Amazon. |
| Proton Mail (Proton, Switzerland) | StartMail (Netherlands), Tutao (Tutao; Germany), or mailbox (Heinlein Hosting; Germany) | No | |
| Gaming | Steam (U.S.) | GOG.COM (Poland) | Not currently |
| Generative AI | ChatGPT (OpenAI; U.S.) | Le Chat (Mistral AI; France) | Yes, currently trying to figure out if the quality is similar. |
| Messaging | Signal (NPO; U.S.) | Matrix (for example via the Element chat client; FOSS) or Threema (Switzerland) | Tried Matrix in the past, but the acceptance of Signal is better (still bad tho). |
| Music | Apple Music (U.S.) | Spotify (Luxembourg/Sweden) or Qobuz (France) | Yes, but currently using Apple One, so only if I can miss on Apple TV. |
| Navigation | Apple Maps (U.S.) | OsmAnd (Netherlands) or Organic Maps (FOSS) | Yes, I will try both out over the next few weeks. |
| Notetaking | Obsidian (Dynalist; Canada) | Joplin (FOSS) | Not currently |
| Operating System (Desktop) | Fedora (FOSS / Red Hat; U.S.) | openSUSE Tumbleweed (FOSS / SUSE; Luxembourg/Germany) | Not currently |
| Operating System (Smartphone) | iOS (Apple; U.S.) | GrapheneOS (Google Pixel) or /e/OS (Fairphone) | Yes, but options seems to be mediocre. |
| Password Manager | Bitwarden (U.S.) | KeePassXC (FOSS; self-hosted) | Not currently |
| Payment | PayPal (U.S.) | Wero (EPI Company; Belgium) | Yes, but Wero is still poorly supported. |
| Streaming | Apple TV, YouTube Premium (Google), and Disney Plus (all U.S.) | ZDF (formerly ZDFmediathek; Germany), Arte-Mediathek (France), or Canal+ (France) | Yes, but not sure if I will actually cancel my subscriptions. |
| Translation/Writing | DeepL (Germany) | LibreTranslat (FOSS; self-hosted) | No |
| VPN | ProtonVPN (Proton, Switzerland) | Mullvad (Sweden) | No |
| Web Search | Google (U.S.) | Searx (FOSS; self-hosted), DuckDuckGo (U.S.), or Startpage (Netherlands) | Yes, will try the options over the next few weeks. |
Personal Outlook
Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the services I’ve chosen thus far. However, I’m currently exploring alternative solutions for e-commerce, navigation, payments, and web searches to reduce my dependency on major U.S. companies. One significant change would be replacing Apple One, which would require finding new streaming services for movies, TV shows, and music.
Lastly, my ultimate goal is to use a different operating system for my smartphone. I looked into it and found three solutions. Ideally, the best option would be a smartphone with Linux, but they are hardly usable for everyday tasks. I probably couldn’t even use my bank’s app.
The second option is to buy a Fairphone and use a “de-googled” operating system (OS), such as /e/OS, which is based on LineageOS. However, I read that security updates are made available later, which could affect my security. Furthermore, the Fairphone does not support wireless charging, which I have used for ten years.
The third option is GrapheneOS, which seems very secure and receives quick updates. Unfortunately, it is only supported on Google Pixel smartphones. Therefore, I would need to buy a used phone to avoid supporting Google. A more significant hurdle is that GrapheneOS does not support Google Pay because it is “de-googled.” The only other way to pay via NFC would be to use an alternative, such as Curve Pay. However, this would give another company access to my payment data. Considering all this, I feel that iOS is a similar, more user-friendly solution, so I will stick with it for now.