Mastodawn

KarelGardas Feb 27

When Trump and his crime family comes for your data, American tech won't save you. They'll hand it over because they have no choice. European and Canadian alternatives aren't perfect, but at least they aren't under Trump's thumb.

Here's my post-Trump tech stack.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/american-tech-is-compromised-heres-my-replacement-stack-2/

How I’m Building a Trump-Proof Tech Stack Without Big Tech

The world can no longer trust American tech. If that sounds dramatic, take a step back and consider the facts. The United States is a nation in the thrall of authoritarianism, owned and operated almost completely by a far-right doomsday cult intent on betraying every alliance, every contract, every promise

westenberg.

yuhasz01 Feb 27

Scary but true. I have moved all my activity to non-US operations; not perfect but a start.

American tech corporations are just greedy collaborators and appeasers to current fascist regime.

Not trust worthy.....they are major part of problem.

fassil maispasque Mar 1

So, "in greed we trust" under god's watchful eye..! 😩

Everything is Public Health Feb 27

@Daojoan Thank you so much for this resource!

NeutronGrove Feb 27

@Daojoan excellent list. Going to be checking out a few of the apps in here.

MaxSidman Feb 27

@Daojoan This is great, thank you for sharing. I noticed that Signal isn’t in the messaging and communication section — any particular reason?

JA Westenberg Feb 27

@maxsidman Signal is a US-based non-profit organization. It’s operated by the Signal Foundation, which was founded in 2018 by Moxie Marlinspike (former CEO of Signal) and Brian Acton (co-founder of WhatsApp) based in Mountain View, California....I love Signal, and I use it but I don't know about including it just because...U.S.

There's some other options I haven't listed because I haven't tried or experienced. Threema for example. Will update as I go.

Kevin Vogel Feb 27

@Daojoan @maxsidman maybe Threema would be a good alternative. It’s an encrypted messenger from Switzerland and relatively well known in Europe.

Threema is the best messenger, I've installed. I can really recommend it.

Only problem is, that it's hard to get other people to use it too, since it costs some money to buy it. And the best messenger is useless, if your contacts don't use it.

@Daojoan @maxsidman

Kevin Vogel Feb 28

@xilebo @Daojoan @maxsidman

Unfortunately that's true. People don't see why they should pay for software because there is so much "free" (meaning with no direct financial cost) software in the app stores. 8€ for a lifetime license is a pretty good deal. Maybe one day people will see the actual cost of "free" software... The only thing we can do is inform people and talk with them. It takes time but it helps 😀

icaria36 🎶Feb 27

@Daojoan Excellent initiative! Please consider @delta #DeltaChat for your Messenger category. Not only it's a user-friendly piece of innovation that I'm successfully recommending to WhatsApp users, it is also a warm and a smart and well connected open source project and community.

About Signal, same feelings. I opened this discussion a few days ago and got very interesting feedback: https://sonomu.club/@icaria36/114052729392777153

icaria36 🎶 (@icaria36@sonomu.club)

Is there discussion about the @signalapp@mastodon.world open source project, foundation, and server infrastructure having enough redundancy outside of the US in case some sort of stormtroopers crash one day in legal, digital and/or physical ways? Serious question from someone in the EU using and contributing € to Signal but not following the project and community closely. #Signal

SoNoMu

@Daojoan nice! I recently also switched to Debian as an OS and it is fantastic, big recommend if you ever do the jump.

JA Westenberg Feb 27

@jectoons it's on my list! I'll be using my M1 Macbook until it burns itself to the ground lol but after that...

@Daojoan Fair! Check out the Reform NEXT laptops if you can, that will be my next laptop once the older Dell I have with Kubuntu on it dies xD https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/mnt-reform-next

MNT Reform Next

A new 12.5" open hardware laptop that is future-proof, modular, and highly performant

Crowd Supply

JA Westenberg Feb 27

@jectoons will do! I'm keen to check out fairphone for my next personal device too

@Daojoan oo i so want a fairphone. I switched to a teracube 2e with /e/OS two years ago and have no complaints so far, but i have my eye on a fairphone for when this one kaputs.

@jectoons @Daojoan I've been using the FP4 for over 3 years now, liking it a lot!

Eric Vitiello Feb 27

@jectoons @Daojoan ok so I saw “NEXT laptop” and thought you said “NeXT Laptop” and got real excited

@pixel @Daojoan i remembered there was a word with all caps and thought it was 'NEXT', but it was 'MNT'... Sorry for the confusion !

chick_sweatdrop

Eric Vitiello Feb 27

@jectoons @Daojoan no problem, you gave me a dream 😉

@jectoons @Daojoan check out frame.work

Ryan Lounsbury Feb 27

@Daojoan @jectoons You could flip to Asahi Linux and keep using the MacBook. I’ve considered doing this myself. But I’m probably going Framework for my next laptop.

Luke Ebersole Feb 27

@rlounsbury
Highly recommend framework. I have a 1st-gen 13 that I bought in 2022 and continue to enjoy it. Ive run Windows, Kubuntu and am currently on NixOS with no major issues to speak of.

Greg Wilson Feb 27

@Daojoan thanks so much for this list - I'm using https://plausible.io/ for analytics, and have been pleased with both their features and their data management practices.

Plausible Analytics

Plausible is a lightweight and open-source Google Analytics alternative. Your website data is 100% yours and the privacy of your visitors is respected.

Plausible Analytics

Paul McBride Feb 27

@gvwilson i came to recommend this too

Daedalean Feb 27

@Daojoan thank you for this.

okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin Feb 27

@Daojoan
There is zero reason to advocate corporate or government cloud services or hosting to ANYONE.

Chis-R 🐟Feb 27

@Daojoan Excellent - I have updated my "Degoogle" list of apps to migrate to. One tool at a time!

Whatever Who Cares 🐾♀️Feb 27

@Daojoan Awesome, thanks!

Alan Langford 🇨🇦🧤🧊摏 Feb 27

@Daojoan sync.com Canada based alternative to Dropbox.

I've self-hosted Matomo since it was Piwik. The only person with my analytics data is me.

But if you have to travel to, through, or over the US, leave Dropbox there with some fluff data and tuck Sync into a sub-folder. Border agents will sometimes take a peek to see if you're into bad things, so lots of kitten and puppy pics works.

@alan @Daojoan good choice and I used sync for many years. I did not renew it this year because they do not support linux operating systems. It is not part of their plan to support linux. I was happy with them but looked for an alternative.

Alan Langford 🇨🇦🧤🧊摏 Feb 27

@Chiquidrakula Yeah that's a problem alright.

mozziediver Feb 27

@Daojoan l'm using PasswordSafe (https://www.pwsafe.org/). Does it get a pass mark?

Password Safe

Password Safe allows you to safely and easily create a secured and encrypted user name/password list. With Password Safe all you have to do is create and remember a single Master Password of your choice in order to unlock and access your entire user name/password list.

@Daojoan this is such an excellent writeup, thank you for making it!! 🙌

@Daojoan I am more than a little uncomfortable with Yen's statements. It's a deal killer for me.

Arianne B Feb 27

@Daojoan I'd highly recommend Tresorit for EU-based encrypted storage. It's a very mature product, richly featured, can be set as a virtual drive directly accessible from all your apps. Includes auto-upload of photos + vids off your phone.

Erik Johnson Feb 27

@Daojoan Eyyyy Todoist! It's been my bread and butter for a decade. Its low friction and simplicity has helped me manage my ADHD pretty well.

Absolutely phenomenal product.

Most of these are great, the one exception here is Proton.

They've been doing some disappointing things lately. Integration of AI, weird political statements seemingly in support of the GOP, hand-wavy addressing of criticism of those statements, now movement off of Mastodon and opting for Reddit for communications, certainly not a neutral, decentralized open source platform. That move seems a bit too convenient time-wise with the criticism.

I hope they change their tune.

John G Fitzgerald Feb 27

@Daojoan USA - EU data protection & privacy agreement is broken. Here's a useful list of European & Canadian software suppliers, to bypass USA Trump tech.

@Daojoan Good write-up. Annoying trying to find alternatives as a Canadian because almost everything we use online has to be connected to or directly owned by US firms.

Really hope this ends up having a positive response and we can grow stronger ties with the rest of the world as well as grow what we can do as a country.

Mark Kristensson Feb 27

@Daojoan two other categories to possibly add to your list are mapping and fitness/mapping. For mapping Open Streets Map has come a lomg way in the last few years. Fitness is a big category and no one has a real competitor to big US tech devices, but fitness mapping Komoot (Germany) actually bests Strava in some ways.

JA Westenberg Feb 27

@mkristensson good note!! Will work on that

Alan McConchie Feb 27

@mkristensson @Daojoan one detail about #OpenStreetMap is that often you won’t use the openstreetmap.org website directly, but rather some 3rd party apps and services that use OSM data. Like use @organicmaps if you need an OpenStreetMap-based navigation app on your phone, or use @stadiamaps or similar if you need an OSM map embedded in a website.

espoir, she/her, immigrant 🇵🇸Feb 27

@mkristensson @Daojoan

What about Polar?

@mkristensson @Daojoan

I'm using Naviki, by beemo GmbH, spinoff from Münster University of Applied Sciences according to their TOS 🙂

It's not so much a social app like Strava though.

Nick Silkey🎙️N5ILK 🪓🪵 🪣💧Feb 27

@Daojoan thanks so much for putting this together. Friends and family have been asking and this is great. Appreciate you! ✌️💙

Laurent Bourgès Feb 27

@Daojoan I adopted proton mail, cal & drive to let my data be encrypted & confidential to me...

JWcph, Radicalized By Decency Feb 27

@Daojoan Or, they'll hand it over because they're getting paid & their business is selling your data, or rather, selling YOU - which, let's be real, is far & away more of a problem than anyone forcing them to.

It's important that we identify these risks as features of surveillance capitalism, not bugs.

- but yeah, European & Canadian alternatives, please - @pluralistic has some suggestions: https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/#

Pluralistic: With Great Power Came No Responsibility (26 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Findekunst Hammersbald Feb 27

@Daojoan this is GOOD

Invictvs Feb 27

@Daojoan Hi JA, I can only agree with your post. I'm a senior IT guy (rooted in Unix), during my life I built critical systems handling hundreds of millions of messages from different systems. I have long been concerned about how the place of Internet freedom became a fascist tool of control dreamed up by Stalin, Mao, Hitler and now in the hands of Trump's plutocracy. The only way to fix this is to be an activist. I'm building a platform to help take back control of our digital life.

@Daojoan There's also this 🇪🇺-dedicated overview page: https://www.buy-european-made.eu/

Buy European Made

A directory of EU-made alternatives. From software and electronics to everyday products - all made in Europe

Buy European Made

David Hund 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦Feb 27

@Daojoan thanks for this! Also, checkout: https://european-alternatives.eu/ and https://www.privacyguides.org/

European Alternatives

We help you find European alternatives for digital service and products, like cloud services and SaaS products.

European Alternatives

Lotte 🔜 #WHY2025 ☎️ DECT 3452 Feb 27

@Daojoan thank you so much for this resource! Recently changed to Todoist for a different reason (integration with HomeAssistent), like it a lot and happy to read it is not hosted in the US. Wondering if the Dutch provider freedom.nl should be on the list as well? @freedominternet

@Daojoan
If you need a good read-it-later (to replace pocket), there is @wallabag , made by french developer @nicosomb
@Emmaf_77

@Daojoan Android apps is yet another big category.

If you're not into rooting or custom ROM, then the best option would be disabling all Google apps/services using app like @appmanager (via ADB) and use @fdroidorg app-store.

F-Droid has a very limited number of apps compared to the PlayStore, but if you only use one app-for-one usecase, then there are enough to choose from :)

@kuketzblog 's list : https://www.kuketz-blog.de/empfehlungsecke/#android

Empfehlungsecke

Empfehlungsecke des Kuketz-Blogs: Tools, Dienste und Tipps für digitale Souveränität • IT-Sicherheit, Datenschutz und digitale Selbstverteidigung

@shuvashish76 @Daojoan @appmanager @fdroidorg @kuketzblog there's plenty to choose from, some time ago I've compiled a list of F-droid apps that I use all the time (and that encompass most of my phone use) https://masto.ai/@noodlejetski/111286317918572174

noodlejetski :verified_gay: (@noodlejetski@masto.ai)

okay, it's a slow part of my 24 h shift, so it's finally time to make a thread about the #FOSS apps that I use on my phone, most of them obtainable through @fdroidorg@floss.social . I've trawled through its repositories many times over years, and managed to find a bunch of great software fitting my needs, so hopefully someone finds this useful as well.

Mastodon

@shuvashish76 @Daojoan @appmanager @fdroidorg @kuketzblog If you've got F-Droid loaded you might want to look at Tracker Control to weed out some/lots of the data collection dross embedded in almost every app you download.

https://trackercontrol.org/

TrackerControl for Android

TrackerControl allows you to monitor and control the widespread, ongoing, hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behaviour (tracking).

TrackerControl for Android

Dmitry Mantis Feb 27

Relying on any state is a mistake. Any state is about power and ruled by psychopaths; Trump is just not that good at lying.

The only way to peace and decency is to promote e2e encryption, p2p technologies, working and paying in crypto (preferably the anonymous ones) and horizontal connections. Otherwise, it will always be repressions and espionage. Right wingers will try to spy on and destroy left wingers, left wingers will try to spy on and destroy right wingers. That's just who is in power at the moment, as we see by history over and over again.

Solal Nathan Feb 27

@Daojoan Can you cite any source saying that Qwant uses their own index? To the best of my knowledge it's not true. They have said that they wanted to do it, but it's still a meta search engine relying entirely on Bing and Google at the time.

icaria36 🎶Feb 27

@Daojoan I wonder whether a similar effort exists to list decent European hosting providers. Important, that don't rely on American server infrastructure (AWS and equivalents) under the surface.

Adrien Gévaudan Feb 27

@Daojoan Great, thank you ! A hardware part would be (exrremely) useful too ! ;)

Christian Waidner Feb 27

@Daojoan Thanks for sharing this - and I like that I'm already using a lot of those also.