Digital life is very American. iPhone, Google Maps, Instagram, ChatGPT – many people’s devices and the software that runs on them often come from companies in the USA. Since the heads of the tech companies became US President Donald Trump behave somewhat submissively towards others, an old question arises again: Couldn’t it be done differently? For many people, the desire to gain more control over their digital lives – and send less data to the USA – is becoming more urgent.
Unfortunately, the way out of digital dependency sounds less like liberation than like project work. Sometimes that’s true, because not all services have a convenient replacement. But there are a few things that even laypeople can do. Here are practical tips for more personal digital sovereignty: step by step, from easy to difficult.
