---
title: Digital Self-Determination
date: 2025-07-06
summary: What becomes possible when you control your own digital life? Digital self-determination means having genuine authority over your data, your tools, and the spaces where you connect with others.
featureImageCaption: "Photo by <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/@lemonvlad?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash\">Vladislav Klapin</a> on <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/photos/assorted-flag-YeO44yVTl20?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash</a>"
aliases:
- /articles/why-digital-sovereignty-matters/
updated: 2025-07-06
draft: True
---

## What does it mean to own your digital life?

Imagine a neighborhood where the community center, the bulletin board, and the mailboxes all belonged to the neighbors themselves. Where the rules were set by the people who lived there. Where no distant landlord could suddenly change the terms, raise the rent, or read everyone's mail.

That's what digital self-determination looks like.

Digital self-determination is the ability to exercise meaningful control over your digital life—your data, your tools, and the spaces where you connect with others. It means:

- **Your data is yours.** You decide what to share, with whom, and under what conditions.
- **Your tools work for you.** The software you use can be examined, modified, and shared.
- **Your space belongs to you.** You can run your own services on infrastructure you control.
- **You understand how things work.** You have the knowledge to make informed choices.
- **You have a voice.** You participate in decisions about the technology that affects your life.

This isn't all-or-nothing. Digital self-determination exists on a spectrum, and every step toward greater ownership is worthwhile.

## What becomes possible

When individuals and communities take ownership of their digital lives, wonderful things happen.

### For individuals

**You get to be yourself.** When you control your own digital space, you're not performing for algorithms or being nudged toward behaviors that benefit someone else. You can use technology intentionally, in ways that actually serve your life.

**Your privacy is real.** Your browsing history, your location, your private conversations—these stay private because you control the infrastructure. There's no business model built on surveilling you.

**You build lasting skills.** Understanding how your technology works is empowering. People who start maintaining their own email server often discover they can learn far more than they imagined. Technical literacy is a gift you give yourself.

**You're not dependent.** When you run your own services, no company can suddenly change the terms, shut down a product you rely on, or lock you out of your own data.

### For communities

**Neighbors meet each other.** Something magical happens when communities build technology together. In Detroit, people setting up community wireless networks report meeting more neighbors in a few months than in years of living there. The technology becomes an excuse for connection.

**Local needs get met.** When a community builds its own tools, those tools can reflect local values, languages, and priorities. Indigenous communities are using self-hosted platforms to preserve languages and cultural practices on their own terms. Neighborhood groups can design spaces that work for their specific context.

**Resources stay local.** Instead of subscription fees flowing to distant corporations, communities invest in their own infrastructure and each other. The money and skills stay in the community.

**Resilience grows.** Communities that control their own technology can't be cut off by a platform's policy change or a company's business decision. Their communication channels, their archives, their shared spaces persist because they own them.

**Trust deepens.** When community members can see how their tools work and participate in decisions about them, trust grows. There's no black box, no hidden algorithm, no mysterious moderation decisions from afar.

### For organizations

**Your mission stays intact.** Organizations working on sensitive issues—human rights, public health, political reform—can operate without contradicting their values by depending on surveillance-based platforms.

**Your security improves.** When you control your infrastructure, you control your security. Sensitive communications and confidential data stay on systems you manage, not on platforms designed for other purposes.

**Your costs become predictable.** Self-hosted infrastructure often costs less over time than endless subscriptions, and you're not subject to sudden price increases or service changes.

**Your work continues.** Organizations that run their own infrastructure can't be silenced by a platform deciding they violate terms of service. Your ability to communicate and organize doesn't depend on anyone else's permission.

## How to begin

Taking ownership of your digital life is a journey, not a destination. Here are some ways to start.

### Small steps for individuals

**Get curious.** Start noticing which services you depend on and who controls them. What would happen if they disappeared tomorrow?

**Try one thing.** Pick a single service—maybe a password manager, maybe a note-taking app—and try an open-source, self-hosted alternative. See how it feels.

**Find your people.** Connect with others on similar journeys. Communities of practice make everything easier and more fun.

**Learn as you go.** You don't need to become an expert before you start. Every bit of understanding you gain is valuable.

### Steps for organizations

**Start with what matters most.** What communications or data would be most damaging if compromised? That's where to focus first.

**Build capacity gradually.** Invest in technical skills within your organization. Even a little expertise goes a long way.

**Partner with others.** Share infrastructure and knowledge with similar organizations. You don't have to do everything alone.

**Make it part of your strategy.** Digital self-determination isn't just an IT decision—it's about organizational resilience and values alignment.

### For communities

**Start a conversation.** Talk with neighbors about what you could build together. The technology is often less important than the relationships.

**Learn from others.** Communities around the world are already doing this. Their stories and lessons are freely shared.

**Begin with something visible.** A community wireless network, a shared file server, a local chat space—something tangible that people can see and use.

**Celebrate small wins.** Every step forward is worth celebrating. Building community technology is as much about the building as the technology.

## The invitation

Digital self-determination isn't about rejecting technology or going back to some imagined simpler time. It's about technology that actually serves us—tools we understand, spaces we own, connections we control.

Communities around the world are already building this. Rural cooperatives in Minnesota are running their own broadband. Neighborhoods in Detroit are building wireless networks that bring neighbors together. Artist cooperatives are creating platforms where creators keep what they earn. Indigenous communities are preserving languages and cultures on their own terms.

The tools exist. The knowledge is shared freely. The communities are welcoming.

The question isn't whether this is possible—it's already happening. The question is what you and your community might build together.

We're here to help. That's what the [Civil Society Technology Foundation](/about/) is for, and it's why we're building [Wild Cloud](/projects/wild-cloud/)—to make community-owned technology accessible to everyone.

Come see what becomes possible when communities own their digital homes.
