#digitalindependence — Public Fediverse posts

Degoogled smartphones

https://friendica.world/display/84b6ef2b-116a-895c-242e-d53123920841

Centralized platforms will never be the solution, it's crazy but all that multi-million-dollar backed apps can't bring you as far in terms of #autonomy, #resilience and #freedom as #ArcaneChat does

#decentralization #digitalindependence #european #europe #openSource #privacy

lil #French flyer promoting #DeltaChat

#eu #europeanUnion #europe #european #france #Français #privacy #android #linux #ios #macos #windows #autonomy #digitalindependence

I need to go out and stare at moss in the forest before getting back to your message

#ArcaneChat #privacy #security #encryption #anonymity #family #digitalindependence #Europe #European #android #openSource

**Personal Vault #013 – Growing Pains**

Today Personal Vault reached another milestone.

It can now **add a new storage drive**.

That might not sound very exciting, but it represents a big shift in the project.

Until now, expanding storage meant dropping back to Linux, editing configuration files, mounting disks and hoping I'd remembered every step correctly.

Now the Vault is starting to understand its own infrastructure.

One click.

Select the drive.

Commission it.

The first version is intentionally simple, but it lays the foundation for something much bigger. One day, adding storage to Personal Vault should feel no more complicated than plugging in a new drive and letting the Vault take care of the rest.

It's another small step towards my original goal:

Building software that lets ordinary people own their digital lives without needing to become Linux administrators.

#PersonalVault #DigitalIndependence #SelfHosting #BuildInPublic

@pixelunion So yes… who could possibly have foreseen that centralizing your entire digital existence behind accounts you do not control might have consequences? 😄

This is one of the reasons I'm building Personal Vault.

Not to avoid cloud services altogether—they're incredibly useful—but to make sure they are a choice, not a dependency.

If one provider disappears tomorrow, I don't want my digital life disappearing with it. And it makes no difference if it's American, European or Chinese provider. My data - my choice.

#PersonalVault #DigitalIndependence

Vor 20 Jahren mieden "Normalsterbliche" weitgehend neueste Technologien, während Techies pionierhaft vorpreschten.
Heute gibt es Smart Toaster in gefühlt jedem Haushalt, während Techies bewusst Abstand halten, um ihren Datenschutz zu wahren.
Die Weisen erkennen, wann genug genug ist. ✨ 🛡️

#DigitalMinimalism #Privacy #digitalindependence

A guide to red flags 🟥

if an app takes all your chats and data captive and force you to update

🚨 maybe you are in the wrong place ❗

with #ArcaneChat your data is always with you, in your pocket 💜

#digitalindependence #decentralization #privacy #autonomy #whatsApp

I recently noticed that Meta is rolling out premium tiers across its platforms. I saw it on WhatsApp, and I am genuinely excited.

I sincerely hope they start putting even basic features behind a paywall. Maybe then people of my country will finally start taking the alternatives seriously.

#fediverse #whatsapp #meta #digitalindependence #socialmedia

Meet #PixelSocial: a private social network you can host without any server just in your chats! for example in the family chat to have a private social network that only the family can access to! or for a group of friends

if you want to test it, there is also a public anonymous instance where you can actually interact with strangers thanks to a bot that works as bridge:

https://i.delta.chat/#C753A22A447DE8CA18653B9C7668BC822C0561CA&a=pixsocial%40arcanechat.me&n=PixelSocial&i=sz7HYOnPmjG1WWOclOFlGLFv&s=XJFfgZRHwvTVAvBAQKJxFL2F

#ArcaneChat #DeltaChat #chatmail #webxdc #bot #socialmedia #socialnetwork #miniapp #europe #european #privacy #anonymity #autonomy #digitalindependence #sovereignty

this is really super cool:

https://likebutter.app/blog/butterbox-deltachat

quite some other projects try to solve "offline communications" by using Bluetooth but I think this is very unpractical for anything that is not looking like an IRC or SMS app

but if people setup local interconnected wifi hotspots and build a mesh network in the cities/towns then you can have a something much more interesting while not draining everyone's battery

enabling people to do things like this and becoming truly resilient and autonomous

things like this you can never do with centralized messengers like #WhatsApp, #Telegram, #Signal, etc. if you really care about digital independence, centralized alternatives are just NOT an option at all

#mesh_network #mesh #offlinefirst #deltachat #autonomy #privacy #security #freedom #resilience #decentralization #opensource #europe #european #digitalindependence #diday #butterbox

**Personal Vault #012**

Software development has given me a whole new appreciation for the tools I use every day.

It took about a week to design the shell of Personal Vault.

Then we spent the next **five days** building... a **Filter** button for the Gallery.

Not because drawing a button is difficult. Because making it *work* is.

That one button touched the front end, the back end, the database, the API, state management, search logic, metadata and more bugs than I'd care to admit.

To get there, I've had AI helping me at almost every step. ChatGPT for architecture and design, Codex for implementation, Florence for image understanding, RAM++ for visual tagging, and Vault Master is about to join them all together.

The biggest surprise, though, came while working on photo types, people and face recognition.

It's incredibly easy to complain about paying **£8.99 a month** for iCloud.

It's much harder after you've spent days trying to recreate even a tiny part of what it does.

There is an astonishing amount of engineering hiding behind a simple Photos app.

I still want to own my data.

But I now have a much greater appreciation for the people who built the software I'm trying to replace.

#PersonalVault #DigitalIndependence #BuildInPublic #SoftwareDevelopment #AI #SelfHosting

Personal Vault #011

I came across an interesting BBC article today about the return of digital cameras, iPods and wired earphones.

At first glance, it looks like a nostalgia piece.

But the part that caught my attention was much deeper.

One of the people quoted in the article, Professor Andrew Przybylski from Oxford, talks about people wanting more control over their experiences. He contrasts modern digital services, where content is constantly pushed at us, with older devices where you deliberately choose what goes onto them.

And then comes the point that really matters:

People want more than simply renting the things they are passionate about.

That is very close to the reason I started building Personal Vault.

I am not trying to go backwards technologically. Quite the opposite. Personal Vault uses modern web technology, automation, AI-assisted tools and eventually its own authentication system.

But all of that technology is supposed to work for me.

My films should be mine.
My photos should be mine.
My documents should be mine.
My memories should not depend on whether a company changes its subscription, closes a service, removes a feature or decides I am no longer allowed access.

Maybe the renewed interest in old technology is not really about old technology at all.

Maybe it is about control, ownership and intentionality.

And if that is the case, then perhaps the idea behind Personal Vault is not quite as unusual as I thought.

BBC article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly599xlllyo

#PersonalVault #SelfHosting #DigitalOwnership #DigitalIndependence

@justbob

Exactly.

The excuses are usually understandable.

But if we keep treating them as permanent, nothing changes.

At some point, “I can’t leave” has to become “what would make leaving possible?”

That’s the conversation I’m interested in now.

#Meta #Facebook #OpenWeb #Fediverse #DigitalIndependence

@WeirdWriter

Exactly.

We’ve somehow confused communication with the corporations that mediate it.

Email still works.

SMS still works.

The open web still works.

The Fediverse works.

But people now ask, “How will I contact you?” when what they really mean is, “Which closed platform are you still trapped inside?”

That dependency is the problem.

#Facebook #Meta #SocialMedia #OpenWeb #Fediverse #Mastodon #SMS #Email #DigitalIndependence #BigTech

Back running Sailfish OS on a Jolla phone 😍 Left is the original Jolla for comparison.

#linux #sailfishos #digitalindependence

Jolla 1 and Jolla 2026 😍

#linux #sailfish #DigitalIndependence

Eine Handvoll Tech-Konzerne kontrolliert unser digitales Leben – mit fatalen Folgen für Demokratie, Privatsphäre und Klima. Wir holen uns das Internet zurück. Machen Sie mit?
https://act.gp/4w0RMuz
#fckbigtch #dday #dut #demokratie #privacy #digitalindependence #climatecrisis

Meet ArcaneChat: a secure and #decentralized private messenger

Anonymous: No SIM card needed! No phone numbers required for registration, just set a name and start chatting!

Private: All your conversations are end-to-end encrypted

Discreet: No one can discover you or know that you are using the app! only people you share your invitation link or QR with can contact you

#digitalindependence #privacy #security #family #encryption #autonomy #european #openSource #europe #diday #decentralization

Walking casually to work and listening to music from my own Personal Vault. Two big upsides - lossless quality and no volume restriction!! #PersonalVault #selfhosting #digitalindependence

we are happy to hear reports from parents that say the small ones of the family like a lot ArcaneChat and the in-chat mini-apps

#ArcaneChat #family #kids #privacy #security #encryption #android #Europe #European #OpenSource #decentralization #digitalindependence

Personal Vault #010

I've been spending a bit of time browsing the self-hosting community recently, and one thing struck me.
It seems that most people think of self-hosting very differently from the way I do.
They self-host Jellyfin for movies, Nextcloud for documents, Immich for photos, Paperless for PDFs... and that's perfectly reasonable. They've moved the services they use from someone else's server onto their own.
But I've realised that's not what I'm trying to build.
When I want to watch a film, I don't want to think, "I need to open Jellyfin." When I'm looking for a document, I don't want to think, "That's in Nextcloud." I don't want my digital life spread across different applications, even if they're all running on my own hardware.
I want one place.
I open Personal Vault, and everything is there. Movies, photos, documents, books, projects... whatever I'm looking for, I never have to leave the Vault to find it.
Maybe that's the real difference.
Most people want to self-host their applications.
I want to self-serve my digital life.
The applications underneath can change as often as they like. They are just tools. The Vault is the product.
#PersonalVault #DigitalIndependence #SelfHosting

Meet ArcaneChat: a secure and #decentralized private messenger

Anonymous: No SIM card needed! No phone numbers required for registration, just set a name and start chatting!

Private: All your conversations are end-to-end encrypted

Discreet: No one can discover you or know that you are using the app! only people you share your invitation link or QR with can contact you

#digitalindependence #privacy #security #family #encryption #autonomy #european #openSource #europe #diday #decentralization

Sonntag ist Digitaler Unabhängigkeitstag!

Kommt, wie ihr seid, und bringt gern eure Geräte mit! Ab 14 Uhr helfen wir euch in den @acmelabs wie immer kostenlos, unabhängiger von #BigTech und anderen kommerziellen Softwaren und Diensten zu werden, und die Kontrolle über eure Daten zu behalten oder zurückzugewinnen.

https://datenpunks.de/event/digitaler-unabhaengigkeitstag-in-den-acme-labs-bielefeld-kommt-wie-ihr-seid/

• Wann? So., 2. August 2026, 14:00–17:00 Uhr

• Wo? Acme Labs e.V., Mühlenstraße 5, 33607 Bielefeld

• Karte: https://events.diday.org/events/71bf81fc-441f-4bd1-a3f0-b75e53038969

#DUT #DUTgemacht #didit #DigitalIndependenceDay #DigitalIndependence #DigitaleUnabhängigkeit #DigitaleSelbstbestimmung #Bielefeld #OWL #Ostwestfalen

“Goodbye Windows, welcome Linux”
Linux Installation Workshop

To mark Digital Independence Day (DI-Day), Computertruhe Munich is hosting a hands-on workshop where volunteers help you install Linux Mint on your laptop.

Date: August 2, 2026
Time: 14:00 – 18:00
Location: Munich Maker Lab, Dachauer Str. 112h, 80636 Munich
More details: @muenchen

#hackerspace #makerspace #openworkshop #MunichMakerLab #MuMaLab #Kreativquartier #Kreativlabor #DIYMunich #linux #digitalindependence #foss

#wedium : Eine neue europäische Social-Media Plattform.

🔹Ziel: Wieder stärker verbinden, statt zu polarisieren. Unabhängig von den Tech-Riesen. Mit Transparenz, Datenschutz, fairem Wettbewerb und demokratischer Kontrolle.

Mich findet ihr, wie hier, unter: PlantandCulture.

Wer probiert es auch aus?

#digitalindependence #socialmedia #europe #networking

Join our next Digital Independence Day: on Sunday 2nd August, 2 pm

When: Sunday, 2. August 2026, from 2pm
Where at @WillyFredHaus, Gassenlokal, Graben 3, 4020 Linz

It is becoming increasingly clear that our dependence on US Big Tech is not only harmful to us personally, but also to our society and the environment. To reduce this dependence, we celebrate Digital Independence Day every month: https://di.day/

#digitalindependence #linz #diday #august #austria #self-hosted #privacy