Have a hold on your passwords

30 min Average

Illustration eines gedeckten Tisches mit drei hellen Kochtöpfen, die jeweils ein schlossförmiges Symbol auf der Vorderseite tragen. Die Töpfe sind mit einer goldgelben Suppe gefüllt, die leicht über den Rand quillt. Vor dem mittleren Topf liegen zwei Scheiben Brot auf einem Teller. Auf dem Tisch befinden sich außerdem Löffel und blaue Servietten mit einem Schlüsselmotiv. Warmes Licht fällt von links auf die Szene und erzeugt eine gemütliche, märchenhafte Atmosphäre.

Let's talk about the most secret ingredients in many dishes: your passwords! Instead of entrusting your most sensitive digital keys to Big Tech platforms or even unsecured corners of the World Wide Web, you take back full control. This gives you true digital sovereignty, uncompromising data protection and the wonderful feeling of being completely independent.

Different ways to cook

Our digital switch recipes provide an easy, simple way to give Big Tech the push, but there are other options available. We have tried to make it easy by focusing on a single approach and a small number of options, but there are other alternatives that are just as good. After all, what we mean by ‘good’, ‘not so good’ and ‘bad’ is open to debate: DI.DAY is about easy ways to give Big Tech the push (without getting into purism or being preachy). Our decisions are based on advice from our advisory panel.

An overview of the alternatives is available on the next page:

Alternatives to Big Tech

Ingredients

Your passwords…

… wherever they are currently stored

Your mobile phone…

… but you can also start on your desktop computer

A new home for your passwords…

… from our list below

Preparation

1 Why you shouldn’t save passwords in your browser

It’s so tempting: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge constantly offer to save your passwords directly in your web browser with just one click. But be careful with this quick side dish! Firstly, browsers often lock you into their own ecosystem. Secondly, passwords are often much easier to extract than those stored in a specialised password vault, for example with malware or through unauthorised access to the device. And thirdly: browser providers don’t need to know which services you have an account with. A standalone password manager is more secure, platform-independent and respects your privacy

2 Activate the app

Grab your smartphone, download the app of your choice from the app store (see below) and open it. (On a desktop computer, go to the password manager’s website.)

The KeePass family

The local ingredient - KeePassDX for Android and KeePassium for iOS – there‘s KeePassXC for the desktop.

Advantage: 100% open source, free of charge and completely free to use without any cloud-based restrictions. Your passwords remain in an encrypted file, safely stored on your mobile phone. Maximum control!

Disadvantage: By default, it’s only available on your smartphone. Setting up automatic synchronisation with your computer requires a bit of work (see Topping below for instructions on how to do this!).

User-friendly cloud alternatives with powerful (European) data protection:

Proton Pass (Switzerland)

Strict Swiss data protection standards, fully open source, modern apps for iOS and Android, as well as cloud synchronisation with your desktop. Your data is, however, stored on the provider’s servers (though encrypted with the highest level of security), not on your own device.

Sticky Password (Czechia)

European provider. A brilliant bonus: it allows you to sync your mobile phone and PC using only your local home Wi-Fi – no cloud necessary! However, the software is not open source (proprietary).

1Password (Canada)

Technically refined, with good mobile apps that are useful for family sharing. However: cloud storage is mandatory, it is not open source, and the company is based outside the EU (in Canada). 1Password allows users to choose the region where their data is stored (Europe, the US, Canada).

Dashlane (France / USA)

Originally from France, it now also has a US location. According to the company, EU data is stored on EU servers in accordance with EU law. Dashlane offers a user-friendly mobile experience. However, it is a purely cloud-based model and is not open source either – it uses proprietary code.

Good to know: We mention popular providers such as Bitwarden and Lastpass only briefly here, as they have their headquarters or key infrastructure in the US and are therefore our second choice when it comes to digital independence. As far as we know, Nordpass operates from Lithuania and is based in Panama – a corporate structure that is not particularly transparent, at least for users.

3 The key to a digital life

Choose a strong, long master password (ideally a “pass phrase” composed of several words) that you can easily remember (and write down on a piece of paper, keeping it in a safe place accessible only to you). From now on, this is the master key to your digital life!

4 Get ready for the move (import)

Because exporting data from old systems often runs more smoothly on the computer: Export your old passwords once from your browser or old password manager as a CSV file. You’ll usually find these options under “Account” or “Settings”; in your browser under “Security”. Import this file into your new password manager (either directly on your desktop or via file import on your mobile). Delete the CSV file immediately and securely afterwards, as it contains your passwords in plain text!

Dessert

Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for your important accounts (such as email or social media). Your new app can usually generate these time-based one-time passwords (TOTP) directly on your smartphone and automatically serve them with autofill when you log in. This doubles the protection in no time at all!

Enjoy your meal! You have just taken a big step towards a more independent digital existence.

Once you #DIDit – share our post about the digital switch and inspire others to take control of their own digital lives!

Topping

The expert tip on sovereignty is: “Host KeePass yourself!” If you’ve decided to go with the local freedom of KeePassDX or KeePassium, you can keep your passwords synchronised across all your devices without relying on any third-party cloud service. Simply save your encrypted database file (.kdbx) to your own Nextcloud, or use the brilliant open-source tool Syncthing. Syncthing mirrors the file directly from your mobile phone to your PC or Mac in a decentralised and completely independent way – encrypted and without any intermediate steps.

Nextcloud offers its own tool for managing your digital keys: the Passwort-Manager.

The emergency pantry: make sure you backup your data! If you own your own data, you are also responsible for it. Make sure you regularly back up your password database or recovery keys to an external USB stick or external hard drive. So you're fully covered if your smartphone happens to end up in the water.

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