’Denmark Switches.’ A national campaign to collectively move off Big Tech. March 20th is Big Switch Day. I’ve named my goal now. I’m already almost deMicrosofted, except for my photo archive. I moved to Libre & Tuta mail and have been purging photos as I await the release of Tuta drive. Now I’m committing myself to just get the photos off OneDrive and on to my computer, that I own, in my house, by March 20th. Then I’ll delete Microsoft. Then I’ll boast about it on the Fediverse.
”42% of Danes want to try alternatives to Big Tech. 68% would like to reduce their screen time. But far fewer act on it.
Habits hold us back. Network effects bind us to the same platforms as everyone else. This only changes if we shift collectively. When we shift together, new habits become easier to maintain.
When enough of us shift simultaneously, alternative platforms gain the critical mass they need. When we act collectively, change is possible.”
42% of Danes want to try new alternatives to Big Tech. 68% would like to reduce their screen time. But far fewer act on it. Together, we can change that. What is Danmark Skifter? Danmark Skifter is a national campaign where thousands of Danes take back control of their digital
Before I could pick my 2026 goal for #DanmarkSkifter, I did a digital status. I was mildly surprised when I saw my 2025 digital changes together. I looked at the list and thought: ’Tell me you hang out in the Fediverse without telling me you hang out in the Fediverse.’
From Outlook to Tuta
From Office to Libre
From MS Authenticator to Ente Authenticator
From Google Play to F-Droid
From Spotify to AntennaPod
From Firefox to Vivaldi
From DuckDuckGo to NoAIDuckDuckGo
And I bought a back-up drive.
I've added a new 2026 Digital Resolution to my 'Denmark switches from Big Tech' goals.
I had already switched from Patreon to Steady. Thanks to @JohanEmpa for making that possible after he added Steady as a Mastodon.green payment option.
Now my Microsoft subscription is the only thing left on PayPal and I'm almost deMicrosofted. So I'll be cancelling, not renewing, that. So now I commit to deleting my PayPal account. Today. Inspired by @oldrup, who just did this.
I'm enjoying the results of disenshittifying my digital life so much that I need a more celebratory word for it than 'disenshittifying'. So far, every solution I’ve switched to is better than the Big Tech one I left. Not ’better’ as in ’not enshittified’, but better designed. LibreOffice: does what I need and only does what I tell it to do. AntennaPod: much better features than Spotify. Tuta: functional and calm and 10 months later, I still haven’t received a single spam mail.
Organic Maps. Another example of an app I found in F-Droid that turns out to be nicer than the BigTech one I switched from. Not disenshittification, but enhancification. It's great for walking & cycling. Nice to use. Works offline. Feels 'human-sized'. First time I used it was to find a bus stop. It showed me the right one & noted 'shelter + bench'. To compare, I looked the same up on Google Maps (web). The actual map was barely visible behind ads for local businesses.
I told local friends who know the area that I would get the bus from the bus stop near the Squirrel In A Top Hat.
What are you babbling about, what squirrel, there's no squirrel, they said.
The map says there’s a squirrel in a top hat, I said.
No it doesn’t, they said, showing me squirrel-less Google Maps.
Yes it does, I said, showing them the Squirrel In A Top Hat annotation in Organic Maps.
I sent back this picture from the bus stop.
While making the final preparations before cancelling my Microsoft subscription in time for Denmark's Big Switch From Big Tech Day (March 20th), I discovered I still have a Dropbox account. If I'd forgotten I had it, then I was just digitally hoarding and don't need it. So this was an easy one to walk away from. Took me less than 20 minutes to delete the files and delete the account. So easy that I should be embarrassed to name it as A Goal and boast about it, but I'm not.
From their OneDrive to my one drive
Getting my photos off OneDrive was the last & longest thing I needed to do before shutting down Microsoft. It turned out to be an enjoyable process. I cleansed my digital hoard. I curated & kept what mattered. Now my photos are on my laptop, in my house, backed up on an external drive. I'd forgotten how streamlined & speedy it is to work locally, not in the cloud. Yet again, the process of disenshittification turned out to be enhancification.
It feels like, once you start diverting your eyes from the big five (or so), multiple options start to pop up.
JottaCloud for backup and synchronisation between devices is also an option and powered by clean energy even! 😅
https://jottacloud.com/en/why-jottacloud
And there are obviously so many more.
Just trying to decide on a service almost becomes a burden by itself.
(And yes, support for Linux is lacking too many places unfortunately 🫤)
"Best that they get it right rather than rush it out."
That is a most excellent point.
I would like to become Danish please. What a great idea to have a 'Big Switch From Big Tech Day'.
(Sad to no longer be legally part of the EU-family.)
@CiaraNi Ah, you're giving me the push I need. I started deleting everything from my Dropbox account quite a while ago, but then didn't finish the job. (I think I have all the files elsewhere, but I need to be sure.)
I haven't used Dropbox in ages and don't pay for it, but I still should get rid of it. Goal for March 20, even though I don't live on Denmark.
@jeridansky I hadn't paid for it either, it was just the free version. Which made it easy to forget about when I hadn't used it for years. It also made it easy to delete. I like the idea that you are the international branch of #DanmarkSkifter. I don't think the nice people at the campaign would mind anyone, anywhere, filling out one of their Digital Resolution goal cards even :-)
Hvad kunne du tænke dig at ændre ved dit digitale liv i 2026? For nogle er det motiverende at lave et nytårsforsæt, der sætter ord på intentionen. Andre vil bare gerne tilmelde sig kampagnen, være en del af fællesskabet og se, hvad der sker. Det er helt okay. Hvis du
@CiaraNi Happy to be the international branch of #DanmarkSkifter!
And I (mostly) did it, before the deadline! I had to look at all the files I had in my Dropbox and decide if I could just trash them or if I wanted to save them (or their contents) elsewhere, so it took a bit of time. But it's done: removed the Dropbox folder from my Mac, removed the app from my iPhone.
Deleting my account may be a problem, though, since the email associated with my account is no longer valid, so I can't get the 6-character code they send after I enter my password. No easy way to contact Dropbox about this, but I did send off a request using the one form I could find.
@CiaraNi And Dropbox support was surprisingly helpful, temporarily removing the need for the 6-digit verification code on login (after I answered a bunch of security questions) so I could get in, change my email to my current one, and delete my account.
So it is totally gone as of a few minutes ago! Before the 20th!
@CiaraNi I have 231 entries in my password manager! Lots of those have an old email and I may try cleaning them up, but they aren't doing any harm, either.
Adobe (whose products I haven't used in years). Newspapers I used to subscribe to. Sites where I made a single purchase, years ago. My old website hosting company.
@jeridansky I've never used a password manager - that hadn't struck me, that it would be a way to see how many single services you had access to.
"I may try cleaning them up, but they aren't doing any harm, either."
That's my thought too, about any that I might belatedly remember and no longer have easy access to. Some harmless loose threads must be allowed or else the whole process will feel too overwhelming to manage, I think.
They are required by GDPR to receive and process takedown requests.
But of course they will hide how to do that.
A legal letter to their physical address should do the trick though. They will have an office somewhere in Europe at least.
@androcat But I'm in the USA, so the GDPR doesn't apply, sadly. But I've already gotten an email response (not a resolution, but a note that my request has been passed off to the appropriate team) so maybe they'll take care of this just fine.
Not that keeping the account open causes any real problems — they have very little info on me — but I'd still like to clean this up.
Ah, I was thrown off by your graphic saying "Danmark skifter"
Ciara
Kenneth Karlsson 🇩🇰
Vicomte Folmer af Helvede
John
Eye
Da_Gut
Grey Pilgrim
engedal
Bettina Hartmann
Jeri Dansky
Ruth Mottram
Toke Riis Ebbesen
JWcph, Radicalized By Decency
David Whelan
Mathzy
Androcat
Sely Friday
Orewoet
Nick
Dr Helen Wilson
James Gilbert