I mentioned that there is a growing grassroots movement in Denmark to boycott the US and to switch away from BigTech. And that it therefore seems like an outdated strategy for them to say: 'If they want to use all our services, the Danish customers of our company here in Denmark must also be a customer of Google or Apple in the USA.'

To support my reference to a growing tendency to move away from Big Tech, I linked to the #DanmarkSkifter website.

https://danmarkskifter.dk/en/

To my pleasant surprise, I got a nice and considered response. Paraphrased: They appreciated my feedback as a customer and user of their digital solutions. And they have passed my point about ’a growing focus on alternatives to profit-driven IT solutions’ further up the line internally so that the right department is aware of the trend and requests like mine from customers.

Fair play to Norlys for not just sending a standard or dismissive response.

#DanmarkSkifter

I don’t think I would have got that response if I hadn’t been able to link to the DanmarkSkifter campaign site. That showed there really is a grassroots movement and that people are actually making the switch away from BigTech.

Tak and thank you to everyone at #DanmarkSkifter for giving us a way to talk about the need for change and the tools to actually make the changes.

I don't know if other countries have an equivalent to the 'Denmark Switches' campaign. I hope so. It's a great initiative.

@agturcz @CiaraNi that's awesome, I hope the electricity company does something with your request.

We don't have a similar campaign in the Netherlands, but we do have a similar problem. I'd love to get a Fairphone or any linux based phone with an alternative app store like @fdroidorg , but then my banking apps wouldn't work anymore. Same with DigiD (gov auth).

It would be great if gov and companies offered their apps in non-proprietary app stores. Maybe we need a campaign too @bo

@Gina

For DigiD specifically the app can now be used without Google, though distribution still only happens through the Google Play Store.

If trust is the issue here it would seemingly make sense for, in time, a government like the European Commission to provide a trusted alternative to these app stores. That might be worth setting up a campaign for.

@agturcz @CiaraNi @fdroidorg