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“The mentality is shifting. Now let’s hope reality follows,” a colleague sighed. Can you guess what this conversation was about? It could have been quite a few things, I realise – healthy eating, smoking, exercise, you name it. But hey, this is the Security (b)log, after all.
The
conversation was about ICT in relation to the geopolitical situation. That is a
polite way of saying: we no longer find the Americans as endearing as we once
did (because they are bullying us). Fair enough, it’s not just about the
unpredictable behaviour of the US. Countries like China are not making things
easy for us either: we can’t do without them, yet we would rather have nothing
to do with them. In the ICT world, though, it is mainly American products that
are visible (the Chinese products are hidden in the hardware).
The
entire debate around digital sovereignty centres on the desire to be less
dependent on American ICT. The sentiment in our part of the world is that
‘they’ can switch things off at any moment or snoop through our data. That does
not feel particularly comfortable. Europe is becoming increasingly aware of the
necessity – and the possibility – of becoming more self-sufficient. That is
what my colleague meant by: “The mentality is shifting.”
And
reality? We have long convinced ourselves that we cannot compete with the
American tech giants and their economies of scale. But they too started from
nothing. And maybe it is a little more expensive at first to store your data in
a European cloud – if you have decided that things need to change, you have to
be willing to pay a price for that. But it does not have to be more expensive
at all. It can even be cheaper. Microsoft’s Office applications cost money,
whereas LibreOffice and FreeOffice (both legally based in Germany), for
example, are completely free to use.
There
are many more non-American alternatives to American software. I was tipped off
that an OSINT specialist collegue had put together a fine overview (OSINT =
open source intelligence: gathering intelligence from publicly available
sources). This colleague lists alternatives for no fewer than 21 software
categories. A few examples: email, VPN, browser, search engine, AI assistant,
cloud & storage, maps & navigation. For each category, he names the de
facto standard, followed by various European alternatives. And he explains why
his number one is his preference. It is not just a list – he actually did his
research: read reviews and discussions, gathered information from websites,
tried things out himself. With the help of AI, this resulted in a fine
document.
The bad
news is that the overview is not available online. So here are a few examples.
For email, Proton Mail (from Switserland) comes in at number one as an
alternative to Gmail and Outlook, “because it combines the strongest encryption
with independent audits, a broad ecosystem and the widest reach”. The favourite
VPN provider is Swedish Mullvad, “because it offers the strictest take on
privacy: no identity required, can be paid for in cash, and repeatedly
audited”. Mullvad also tops the browser category, “because it combines the
fingerprint protection of Tor with the speed of a regular browser”.
For a
search engine, French Qwant is your best bet: “no profiling, and usable results
for everyday use”. That category also mentions Mojeek, with the advantage that
it uses its own index (and therefore does not rely on Google or Bing results).
For artificial intelligence, you can turn to French Mistral Le Chat/Vibe, or,
if confidentiality matters, Swiss Proton Lumo. That same Proton also comes up
for cloud storage, “because it combines encryption, ease of use and integration
with the rest of your Proton account”. And if you want to move away from Google
Maps, take a look at Organic Maps: “fast, free, offline and without any
tracking”.
When I
visited New York City for the first time at the end of the last century, a
drunk Irishman gave a speech on the subway. His lament concerned the
disappearance of a direct connection between New York and Shannon Airport, and
his endlessly repeated refrain always ended with: “It’s all a matter of
economics.” And so it is with our digital sovereignty: it is all economically
driven. The difference is that you yourself, if you want to, can do something
to become master of your own data again.
And in the big bad world…
- the European Commission wants the two largest American cloud providers to play fair.
- the topic of digital inheritance has made it onto the political agenda. [DUTCH]
- you could have hacked the TV broadcast of the FIFA World Cup.
- dangerous AI is coming, no matter what.
- we are facing an AI shift in cyber risk.
- you can also receive malware-infected files via WhatsApp.
- Claude may soon want to see your passport.
- the White House feels the quantum computer breathing down its neck (and yet they are working to a more generous timeline than we are).
- you no longer have to go all the way to China for facial recognition in public spaces.
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