Digital Sovereignty and I

I want to start by saying that I hate using the word sovereignty because I think it has right wing baggage. Having said this it is the term often used by Infomaniak and others and it helps shorten the explanation. Infomaniak, like Proton, and many other European solutions provide us with the opportunity to keep our data off of US servers, in Europe, where GDPR rules protect our data from being mined without our prior consent.

Kdrive and Google One

Everyone is familiar with Google Drive, and to some lesser degree with Google One, One Drive, iCloud and other solutions. Kdrive offers the same amount as data’s two terabyte plan but at a lower cost, and with servers in Switzerland rather than the US.Kdrive makes it easy to migrate data from the US giants, back to Europe, with the ability to cancel US based plans.

The Fediverse

Although the Fediverse only has a few million users, compared to the billions on Facebook and other Facebook controlled sites it does give us the choice to control and migrate our data, and even to self host. With the WordPress ActivityPub plugin we can even use our blog as a two way fediverse host for sharing photos, videos and comments. In theory Bluesky would be an option but because it has VC funding I do not expect it to remain idealistic once it reaches critical mass.

Instagram, Google Photos, I Cloud, Immich, Photoprism

When Facebook bought Instagram I migrated away from the site because the community that I wanted to share with was supplanted by influencers and adverts, rather than photos by friends.

Although I think that Google Photos is a great service, ever since Picasa I feel that with Kdrive and easy mobile phone synching it might be time to migrate from US centric services, given recent events.

iCloud, in my opinion is too expensive for what it offers, and tends to try to trap us on their service. It’s more expensive than Google Drive and Kdrive.

When it comes to Immich and Photoprism I find that both are great, but I find that when I update Immich I sometimes lose and have to resync my library whereas Photoprism seems more stable. The advantage of both of these solutions is that with 120 CHF you could by a five terabyte drive and back up your phone photos as well as those from other devices. You can self-host these services on a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, depending on budget, and for a little extra you can get an NVME drive and hat for on-board storage if you need 512 gigabytes or less.

That’s what I do, and I backup to Kdrive, for good measure. I like to have two local backups and one offsite backup.

NextCloud, Google WorkSpace and Infomaniak KSuite

Google Workspace and Infomaniak KSuite are similar in what they offer, at a premium. It makes team collaboration within a closed group of people easy. It’s similar to the “free” offering. Nextcloud, on the other hand is an app that is available to be hosted either on the main domain for your site or a sub-domain. It is similar to Ksuite and Google Workspace but it is open source and self-hosting is simplified via Infomaniak or other web hosts.

Fitness and Sports Tracking

We are all familiar with Suunto, Garmin, Polar, Fitbit and other apps that are connected to wrist worn devices and bike computers. Suunto is based in Finland but has ties to China at this moment in time. In the realm of European alternatives to Strava we find Komoot.It is easy to sync the top fitness trackers to this service.

AudioBookShelf

I was frustrated, when I heard that Amazon was buying Audiobookshelf years ago. I didn’t want it to become part of a monopolistic company. I am keeping my membership but it is tempting to dump it. My shift towards using Audiobookshelf for audiobooks and podcasts is that it provides me with a backup of my files, should Amazon go bankrupt or get rid of Audible.

Signal, Whatsapp and Threema

One of my greatest frustrations, for years, is that since Whatsapp was bought by Facebook I have wanted to dump it for Signal. The reason for this is simple. After reading Mindf*ck and various articles I want nothing to do with Facebook and the apps that it bought. Too many social groups want to use Whatsapp despite the baggage associated with Facebook over the years.

I would like to encourage people to create groups on Signal, rather than Whatsapp but that will take time. If I start an activities group I will ensure that it is on Signal, and I would consider using an open source self-hosted photo sharing solution.

Threema just gets a mention because it is a Swiss based open source messaging app that only one of my contacts seems to use.

And Finally

My desire to dump Facebook and Instagram is based around the sense of community being lost. It used to be an app for friends, and friends of friends to talk, but now it is an app where we waste more time and our return on investment is low. That’s why I resumed blogging during the pandemic. I felt it was a better use of my time to be mindful, and creative.

My exploration of iCloud, Google Drive and Kdrive is based on curiousity, as well as finding the most affordable option. Recently Kdrive has become a very interesting option because it allows you to get your data from iCloud, Google Drive and other services by logging in and transferring data, before deleting it. In so doing you can consolidate your files to a single service. This includes getting data from FB and other services too.

With Audiobookshelf, Immich, Photoprism and other solutions my desire was to practice with self-hosting solutions and familiarise myself with what they offer.

It’s good to have some diversity, and not to depend entirely on US based apps.