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Clear glass chess pieces (Wim van 't Einde / Unsplash) Clear glass chess pieces (Wim van 't Einde / Unsplash)

What is digital sovereignty and why is it important?

To put it very simply, digital sovereignty means:

Your Data Belongs to You

An example from the last few weeks: The United States have sanctioned several judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) because their judgements did not please the USA. See for example articles from France 24, Irish Times or SRF

The sanctions include the withdrawal of many US services to which we have become accustomed in daily life, such as Amazon (no more Alexa or Prime Video), Airbnb, Paypal, Google (search engine, Google Maps, Gmail), Microsoft (no more access to documents in OneDrive or emails in Outlook) etc.

Even more strict sanctions have been reported: some European banks block access to the accounts simply because the bank card is a Mastercard or Visa card (both are US companies). This means: no more withdrawing money from an ATM, purchases in webshops blocked, in some cases even blocked e‑banking.

If a company, like in this case, can take away your data (or your access to it), then you are not digitally sovereign.

Sovereignty

In general, sovereignty means: self-determination, autonomy, independence

In the context of a digital life: I decide for myself which services I use and to whom I entrust my data. If, for example, I don't like Google or Microsoft anymore, I'll switch to another provider. This does not mean that I should not use Google or Microsoft anymore, but that it is my own decision.

However, many of the current internet services are designed to be very difficult to leave and to move elsewhere. For example, the new versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. are deeply entangled with OneDrive that sooner or later all documents must be stored “in the cloud”.

Sovereignty is between the extremes heteronomy und autarky (Table from bitkom Positionspapier Digitale Souveränität (2015)):

Heteronomy Sovereignty Autarky
Others decide what we do We are able to act and decide for ourselves what we do! We do everything ourselves!
No competence in technology High competence in selected technologies In-house developments
Safety not evaluable for us We are able to evaluate different alternatives Prefer your own technologies, even if less powerful

Sovereignty for Private Individuals

The above table of Bitkom can be simplified for private individuals, because autarky for an individual is only possible without current technologies.

The most important topics for private sovereignty are on one hand smartphone and computer (although this cannot be strictly separated, since there are universes like that of Apple, where telephone and computer are very strongly intertwined), and on the other hand services, apps and social media.

Unfortunately, gaining sovereignty requires some effort, as many habits of how we operate our devices and the internet need to be changed.

Smartphone

With the two largest telephone universes (Apple and Google/Android) it is similar: without an account (iCloud or Google) little to nothing works, regardless of which apps you use. And woe if the account doesn't work anymore! Recently, an author of Apple books had no access to his “digital life” for days.

So there is no real sovereignty in the Google and Apple universes. For more freedom and self-determination, a different operating system is needed. With Apple phones, there is no official way to install an Apple-free operating system; with some Android phones, there is at least the possibility of using an alternative Android without Google gears, for example GrapheneOS, /e/OS or iodéOS

I am planning a follow-up article with my own practical experience with a Google-free phone.

Computer

Sovereignty is often easier for computers than for telephones, since the supplied operating system can usually be replaced by Linux, an open source operating system that gives you all the freedom. Especially recently in 2025, Linux had received a lot of attention, as support for Windows 10 ended and many older computers cannot be updated to Windows 11. Linux enthusiasts often conduct workshops to install Linux on computers that would otherwise become electronic waste, such as recently at the Chaostreff Bern.

The site End of 10 is a good starting point for a switch to Linux.

Also with the computer, replacing Windows (or macOS) often means a learning effort, since Linux does not work 100% like Windows or macOS do.

Services and Social Media

As the above-mentioned example of the judges of the International Criminal Court shows, it can be very unpleasant to suddenly have to do without services such as Amazon Prime, Google, Microsoft, ChatGPT or Whatsapp. It would be better to switch to other services.

For example, the book author Marc-Uwe Kling called for a monthly Digital Independence Day at the annual congress of the Chaos Computer Club (#39C3) in order to gradually replace the services of the “Big Tech” with independent alternatives.

The five-part newsletter of the online magazine Republik, Bye Bye Big Tech: Away from Whatsapp, Google, Chrome, ChatGPT and Gmail, shows how this could work.

Digital Sovereignty for Companies and Authorities

Companies and authorities have to consider additional aspects than just data (documents, databases, emails, recorded meetings, etc.).

Sovereignty is also about business processes, compliance with regulations, prevention of espionage or minimisation of risks and costs.

  • Existing digitised processes are often adapted to exactly one cloud system (such as Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure), and a migration consumes time and money.
  • The use of clouds such as AWS often makes it possible to do without own data centres and to employ fewer staff in IT. However, the terms and conditions can change without warning, such as unilateral price increases for Microsoft 365
  • According to Swiss data protection officers, it is in most cases inadmissible to use clouds such as Microsoft 365 to work with personal data, since the provider's access to the data cannot be excluded (such as “sensitive personal data”); most of the existing solutions use insufficient data encryption.
  • The use of clouds per se can be data protection compliant if the data is correctly encrypted. For example, the messenger Signal, known for good privacy and encryption, uses AWS, because it would simply not be possible to economically operate its own cloud with comparable availability and latency.
  • As the example of the International Court of Justice mentioned at the beginning shows, it is possible for the USA to block cloud services. What if, in the current world situation, the USA decides on sanctions against European countries or companies?

In summary, digital sovereignty is complex and it is not realistic for companies and authorities to become digitally sovereign overnight.

But: Digital Sovereignty is Possible!