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DataEthics' Tools For Digital Sovereignty

This is not a certification from DataEthics, and we cannot take responsibility for any use of the tools. It is a list of  tools, we believe are trying to handle data ethically, many are European and/or open source-based.

Two quick ways to find tools and where they are based:
Hosting checker
European Tech Alternatives

Search Engines Not Tracking You

Browsers and AdBlockers

Generative AI/Chatbots

Note Taker & Doodle

Chat Apps

  • Signal (US)
  • Wire (CH)
  • Oase.app (Danish)
  • Element.io (UK)
  • Siilo.com (Dutch) for health professionals

Alternative Maps

Translation

  • libretranslate.com –  Free and open source tool
  • deepl.com (German – but using Amazon Web Service)

Alternative Collaborative tools (incl file sharing)

Video and webinar platforms

Audio & Video Recording

Phones

Computers & Tablets

Alternative Site Search

Alternative Webstatistic Tools

Cool feedback tool

Alternative Newsletter Tools

Secure VPN

Secure Social Networks

  • Mastodon (Germany)
  •  Xing
  • Diaspora is a good alternative
  • meningspunktet.dk (Danish)
  • Hudd.no (Norwegia)
  • socii.dk (Danish)
  • boblberg.dk (Danish)
  • EGmember Care (former Groupcare – Danish – for associations)

Secure Cloud Solutions

Here is a Guide to European Cloud Solutions (June 2021).

Captcha

Basic questions to ask yourself on handling customers data

  • Why do we collect these customer data?
  • Who has access (staff, sales persons, sub-contractors)?
  • How are they handled (access, use, deletion)?
  • How are they stored?
  • How do we protect them?
  • Are we living up to our promises of transparency and privacy?

Do’s & Dont’s

  • Drop automatic renewal of a service. Most people want to actively chose if they want to renew, and doing it automatically destroys trust among those who did not want to continue. Differentiate yourself from all others and tell why you do not use automatic renewal, but, of course, make it very easy to actively renew
  • Drop ‘Sneak into basket’-tactic meaning sneaking stuff into a shopping basket and making it hard to remove it again
  • Make it easy to leave you – it really enhances trust.
  • Use opt-in instead of opt-out, for instance when people sign up for newsletters. Don’t sign up people automatically.
  • Be honest in your offers: ‘Only two rooms left’ should only be used, when there are two rooms left.
  • Don’t make your customers compromise the privacy of their friends. LinkedIn insists that you should get your friends to sign up for LinkedIn by asking for all your contacts and then automatically send the offer for all your friends. Very unethical and LinkedIn also had to pay a huge compensation in a class action suit.
  • Make it very clear and easy to find who is behind your website, where is your headquarter and how to get in contact with you.
  • Avoid designing human-like chatbots – it is manipulative
  • Avoid designing psychofantic chatbots – it is manipulative
  • Remember most humans don’t want to talk to chatbots but to humans.

How to Distinguish Between Tools’ Trustworthiness

  • Where is the company’s legal headquarter? (In the EU, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, Japan, India and South Korea, for example, laws are made to protect humans)
  • What does the company live from? Selling product or services you have to pay for with money or data in disguise of ‘free services’?
  • How about the privacy policy. Do you understand it or is it so long and complicated that you cannot even understand it yourself?
  • Does it sell data to third-parties? 
  • Is it honest about the data it collects? Compare it with the data they will have to need for their service?
  • Does the company have a privacy-seal like the German Europrise or American Trustee? (not widespread yet but will be in the wake of the new EU data regulation i 2018)
  • How does the company stand at different ranking services on privacy like Ranking Digital Rights, TOSDR, TermsOfConditions and Electronic Frontier Foundation’s various rankings.
  • Can you see who is behind a website, and how to get in contact with them?
  • Can the users interact with each other? What do they say about the product or service? Also check out social media.