Set Your Calendars and Contacts Free
Independent Data Clouds
Illustration von Florian Biege
Imagine this: For years you’ve entrusted your most important files, photos, and documents (and maybe even sensitive passwords) to big corporations such as Apple, Google, Microsoft or Dropbox – without knowing whether these companies may share your data with U.S. authorities. Sounds like a bad movie? Well, it’s the reality. With the Cloud Act, U.S. companies can be forced to share your data with government agencies – even if this data is stored in European data centres. And they do this without informing or warning you beforehand. A real nightmare for anyone who takes their privacy seriously.
But you have several options to get back control: With the right alternatives, you can put your data in safe hands – protected by European regulations (GDPR) and independent. No longer dependent on giants, no more worries about unauthorized access – the result: digital freedom. If you no longer want to park your data on servers of U.S. corporations, where it is often only accessible through a subscription or mandatory cloud usage, choose a free alternative.
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:
Ingredients
Your data
Photos, texts, spreadsheets, books – whatever you saved digitally.
Your access to your current provider
Google, Apple or Microsoft, for example
Your new provider
We recommend, for example, Proton Drive, Mailbox.org, pCloud or ionos Cloud.
Preparation
1 Store your data in the pantry (Download)
Log in to your current provider’s platform.
Google Drive
- Go to takeout.google.com, choose “Drive”, and download your data as a ZIP-file.
OneDrive by Microsoft
- Open onedrive.live.com, click on “Settings”, then on “Options”, and finally on “Download data“.
Apple
The quickest way is via privacy.apple.com – here you can request a copy of all your Apple-data with a couple of clicks. You’ll then get it via a download link.
If you want to decide for yourself which data you take with you, you can also do that manually:
- Go to “Settings” (iPhone, iPad) or “System settings” (Mac) and tap the profile of your Apple ID at the top. Choose “iCloud” and then “Manage storage”. Here, you can also see an overview of your stored data, including your backups.
- Choose the files you would like to copy. In the “Edit” menu, click “Copy [elements]”. Move the files to the new location. This also works in your browser if you’ve granted access to your data: Sign in to icloud.com with your Apple ID. Click iCloud Drive (documents) and photos (photos/videos).
- Select the relevant files/folders.
- Click the download icon (downward arrow) to download them to your computer.
- Alternatively, use the app “iCloud for Windows” to back up your data locally.
- Important note: When you use this method, Apple doesn’t allow to download all the data at once – you have to export the data category by category.
Dropbox
- Go to dropbox.com, click your profile picture, select “Settings” and then “Export data”. If your data exceeds 10 GB, use the “Share” function, and download it in larger batches.
2 Unpack
If you’ve downloaded a file that ends in “.zip”, extract it on your computer (right-click and select “extract here”).
3 Declutter your pantry (Pre-sort your data)
Reorganize your data, you may delete duplicate backups, for example (to save storage space). Clean up – with new folders such as “Work”, “Private”, “Creative” or “Photos” – whatever your heart desires.
4 Choose your new cloud (GDPR-compliant and easy)
These alternatives are not only GDPR-compliant, but also user-friendly (there are many other providers – here are more Alternatives):
- Proton Drive – a Suisse cloud service with end-to-end encryption that is as easy to use as Dropbox but more secure. Prices start at € 3.99, and you can upload your data using drag & drop.
- Drive by Mailbox.org – a German cloud provider that not only offers storage space but also email, calendar, and contacts. Perfect for anyone who is looking for a one-stop solution. Monthly costs are at € 3.00.
- pCloud – another Suisse cloud provider. You pay a one-time or a monthly fee and you get up to 2 terabytes “lifetime” storage space – with servers in Germany or Europe. Perfect for anyone who wants to avoid subscription traps.
- ionos Cloud – a German cloud provider that, however, requires technical knowledge and is – in our view – not exactly straightforward to set-up.
5 Stock your new pantry
Upload your photos and other documents and files to the cloud of your new provider (make sure to keep a backup on an external drive). The providers often offer their own tips and tricks. There are several ways.
Browser upload – for smaller amounts of data or if you want to quickly back up individual folders:
- Sign in: Log in to your account on Proton Drive, mailbox.org, or elsewhere.
- Drag & drop: You can usually simply drag your files or entire folders from the Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (macOS) into the browser window.
- Confirm: Wait until the upload progress bar is complete. Done!
Desktop synchronisation – often more reliable than uploading via browser, especially for large files:
If you have a lot of data or if you would like your local computer to always be up to date with your cloud, you should install a program that handles the synchronisation for you (“Client”):
- Installation: Download the desktop clients from your provider (e.g. the Proton Drive app).
- Setup: Enter your login information in the app.
- Transfer: Simply copy your downloaded data into the new cloud folder on your PC. The software will upload everything in the background.
Dessert
Did you sign up for additional storage space with Big Tech? You can cancel that now.
In the future, when transferring your documents (texts, spreadsheets), make sure to use the OpenDocument format (.odt, .ods) (see our Libre-Office recipe).
Programs such as LibreOffice can read Microsoft formats (.docx, .xlsx) – however, saving files in an open standard is the best way to avoid “format chaos” and dependence on large corporations in the long run.
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
Instead of renting a cloud, you could also let your own data cloud fly: If you asked us, the simplest way to do that is Nextcloud – an open-source collaboration platform that can do (almost) anything: files, office programs, chat, videocalls, and more. You can rent a Nextcloud or host one yourself (e.g., on a Raspberry Pi or a rented server). Our recipe explains how to prepare Nextcloud.
