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true gaia true Digital Independence Day - Reclaiming Our Digital Autonomy Michał Czechowski Digital Independence Day - Reclaiming Our Digital Autonomy

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Digital Independence Day

Part 1: Reclaiming Our Digital Autonomy

Michał Czechowski University Lecturer & Hacktivist Stuttgart, Germany

Science in the City Festival Malta — September 17, 2025

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Notes (1/2)

This presentation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Allows others to share and adapt your work with proper attribution
  • Requires adaptations to be shared under the same license

For the full license text, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Notes (2/2)

  • Feel free to ask questions at any time
  • Interruptions and discussions are welcome and encouraged
  • This is an interactive session
  • Your input and participation are valuable

About Me

Michał Czechowski

  • University Lecturer at DHBW Stuttgart & LFH Hannover
  • Employed at a dictionary publisher (PONS Langenscheidt GmbH)
  • 20+ years software engineering experience
  • FOSS transformation specialist
  • Polish-German background: generational experience with authoritarian control
  • Passionate about empowering digital independence through democratic technology
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What is Digital Independence?

Digital Independence

Democratic Control Over Information Systems

Digital Autonomy: The capacity for individuals and societies to make informed, voluntary decisions about their digital tools and data

  • Individual Level: You control what software runs on your devices
  • Societal Level: Communities govern their digital infrastructure
  • Democratic Level: Transparent, accountable technology governance
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Why Does Digital Autonomy Matter?

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The Fourth Revolution (2014)

Luciano Floridi's Core Thesis: We now inhabit a "hyper-historical" world where the distinction between online and offline life has collapsed.

The infosphere - our combined digital and physical reality - means:

  • Information systems ARE the infrastructure of modern society
  • Digital dependencies create systemic vulnerabilities
  • Control over information systems equals control over society itself

Critical Infrastructure Dependencies

When information systems control …

  • Healthcare: Electronic records, diagnostic systems, life support
  • Logistics: Supply chains, transportation networks, food distribution
  • Finance: Payment systems, banking infrastructure, economic stability
  • Democracy: Media platforms, electoral systems, public discourse
  • Education: Learning platforms, research access, knowledge distribution

When Digital Systems Fail, Society Fails

Recent Systemic Failures:

  • Hospital ransomware attacks → patients die from delayed care
  • Social media manipulation → electoral interference, democratic erosion
  • Supply chain attacks → economic disruption, infrastructure breakdown
  • Platform censorship → suppression of legitimate discourse
  • Algorithmic bias → systemic discrimination at scale
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Who Opposes Digital Autonomy?

The Opposition Alliance

Surveillance Capitalism Model:

  • Extract behavioral data at unprecedented scale
  • Manipulate user behavior through algorithmic control
  • Create dependencies to maintain market dominance

Authoritarian State Interests:

  • Monitor and control population behavior
  • Suppress dissent through platform manipulation
  • Weaponize civilian technology infrastructure

Real-World Effects

  • Cambridge Analytica (2018): 87 million Facebook profiles harvested for election manipulation

  • Meta's Teen Depression Experiments (2021): Deliberately harmful algorithms tested on adolescents

  • Israel-Lebanon Pager Attack (2024): Consumer communication devices remotely weaponized at Hezbollah (Operation Grim Beeper)

  • Palantir Surveillance Infrastructure: Military-grade population monitoring sold to corporations and governments

  • TikTok Algorithmic Influence: Foreign state influence over domestic youth culture and political discourse

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Oracle's BlueKai

  • 2014: Oracle aquires a marketing tech start-up BlueKai based in Cupertino, California, for around $400 million.

  • 2016: Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison bragged about profiling 5 billion people worldwide, creating detailed cohorts from sensitive web browsing activity, names, home addresses, email addresses, and cross-device tracking data.

  • $42.4 billion annual revenue from their BlueKai data brokerage operations, selling personal profiles to advertisers and third parties without consent

  • 2024: Oracle forced to pay $115 million settlement after class action lawsuit led by privacy researchers Michael Katz-Lacabe (USA), Jennifer Golbeck (USA), and Johnny Ryan (Ireland).

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Who's Fighting Back?

Digital Independence Success Stories

  • 🇩🇪 Schleswig-Holstein: Complete state migration to Linux and LibreOffice, ending Microsoft dependency

  • 🇫🇷 Lyon: 17,000 government computers migrated to Ubuntu, saving €2M annually in licensing costs

  • 🇪🇸 Extremadura: 200,000 students educated on Linux-based systems, creating digital literacy without vendor lock-in

  • 🇮🇹 South Tyrol: Government-wide OpenOffice deployment, demonstrating scalable alternatives

  • 🇧🇷 Brazil: Constitutional requirement for open standards in government systems

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Who Controls Your Software?

FOSS vs. "Open Source" vs. Proprietary

Three Types of Software Explained

  • Proprietary Software:

    • Black box code, vendor control, only licenses
    • Surveillance capabilities built-in

  • "Open Source" (Silicon Valley):

    • Source visible but corporate-controlled
    • "Open washing" marketing tactics

  • Free & Open Source Software (FOSS):

    • Community governance, transparent code
    • Privacy by default, no surveillance by design
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How to Gain Digital Autonomy

Your Liberation Toolkit

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Category Proprietary Tool FOSS Alternative Implementation Notes
Communication WhatsApp Signal End-to-end encrypted, normie-friendly
Element (Matrix) Decentralized protocol, tech-savvy users
Twitter/X Mastodon ActivityPub federation, choose instance wisely
Discord Element/Matrix Bridges available for Discord migration
Web Browsing Chrome/Chromium Firefox Mozilla Foundation, privacy-focused
LibreWolf Firefox without telemetry, hardened
Ladybird Complete rebuild browser from scratch (summer 2026)
Plugins uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger etc. Useful firefox/chromium extension for increased security
Productivity Microsoft Office LibreOffice Full office suite, document compatibility
Notion Logseq Local-first knowledge graphs
Slack Mattermost Self-hosted team communication
Video Conferencing MS Teams, Zoom Jitsi Meet Self-hostable, browser-based meetings

Your Liberation Toolkit (continued)

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Category Proprietary Tool FOSS Alternative Implementation Notes
Cloud & Storage Google Drive Nextcloud Complete cloud replacement
Google Photos Immich Self-hosted photo management
Dropbox Syncthing P2P file synchronization
Media YouTube PeerTube Federated video hosting
NewPipe Android app, no Google Services needed
Email Gmail Proton Mail Swiss privacy laws protection
Mobile OS Android (Google) GrapheneOS Pixel devices only, maximum security
LineageOS Wider device support
Desktop OS MS Windows GNU/Linux Hundreds of different distributions like Ubuntu, Arch etc.
macOS Asahi Linux Apple Silicon Macs, experimental support

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Trade-offs of Using FOSS

Everything Comes with a Price:

  • Binary Limitations: Proprietary formats like .docx not easily editable or human-readable in simple text editors
  • Self-Responsibility: No one to blame except yourself when things go sideways
  • Accessibility Over Polish: "Not so smooth" interfaces, therefore highly accessible
  • Modular Solutions: Rarely "All-in-One"-Solutions, mostly a potpourri of multiple solutions to meet your needs
  • Social Isolation: Missing info/discrimination when avoiding mainstream platforms like WhatsApp/Instagram

Your Roadmap to (Digital) Independence

  • 1. Kyū (yellow belt 🟡):

    • Communication tools
    • Web Browser & Search
    • Office suite

  • 2. Kyū (orange belt 🟠):

    • Operating system
    • FOSS App Stores
    • Publishing Systems

  • 3. Kyū (green belt 🟢):

    • Cloud storage & Self-hosting

Workshop Guide

  • Today's Focus:

    • Install FOSS onto your private device (PC/Smartphone)
    • GNU/Linux (Operating System) hands-on exploration
    • First terminal commands (optional)

  • Take Home:

    • Curated software recommendations
    • Community connection for ongoing support
    • Courage to break out from learned helplessness

Conclusions

Digital Independence is Democratic Necessity

In Floridi's infosphere, our digital choices are political choices.

  • Today's Workshop: Hands-on GNU/Linux exploration
  • Your Mission: Begin your liberation journey
  • Our Goal: Build digitally sovereign communities
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References (1/3)

Core Theory:

  • Floridi, L. (2014). The Fourth Revolution: How the infosphere is reshaping human reality. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199606726

Digital Attacks & Surveillance:

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References (2/3)

Government FOSS Success Stories:

  • The Document Foundation (2024, April 4). German state moving 30,000 PCs to LibreOffice. https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2024/04/04/german-state-moving-30000-pcs-to-libreoffice/

  • Gascó, M. (2003). New technologies and institutional change in public administration. Social Science Computer Review, 21(1), 6-14. [Extremadura case study]

  • Camara, G. & Fonseca, F. (2007). Information policies and open source software in developing countries. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(1), 121-132. [Brazil open standards]

  • OECD (2022), Open Government Review of Brazil: Towards an Integrated Open Government Agenda, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3f9009d4-en.

Digital Democracy Platforms:

  • Aragón, P., et al. (2017). Deliberative Platform Design: The Case Study of the Online Discussions in Decidim Barcelona. Social Science Computer Review, 39(6), 1139-1162. https://decidim.barcelona/

  • vTaiwan Project Documentation. (2023). Digital Minister of Taiwan. https://vtaiwan.tw/

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References (3/3)

Infrastructure & Surveillance Systems:

  • Kotka, T., Vargas, C.A. & Korjus, K. (2015). Estonia's blockchain-based e-Residency program. Computer, 48(9), 106-108. [X-Road infrastructure]

  • Greenwald, G. (2014). No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Metropolitan Books. [PRISM program]

  • Liang, F., et al. (2018). Constructing a data‐driven society: China's social credit system as a state surveillance infrastructure. Policy & Internet, 10(4), 415-453.

Questions & Discussion

Additional Resources:

Digital Independence Day - Workshop

Part 2: Hands-On Exploration

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1. Kyū

yellow belt 🟡

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2. Kyū

orange belt 🟠

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3. Kyū

green belt 🟢

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