Digital Independence Day

Part 1: Reclaiming Our Digital Autonomy

Michał Czechowski
University Lecturer & Hacktivist
Stuttgart, Germany

Science in the City Festival Malta — September 17, 2025

Notes (1/2)

This presentation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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For the full license text, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Notes (2/2)

• Feel free to ask questions at any time
• Interruptions and discussions are welcome and encouraged
• This is an interactive session
• Your input and participation are valuable

About Me

Michał Czechowski

• University Lecturer at DHBW Stuttgart & LFH Hannover
• Employed at a dictionary publisher (PONS Langenscheidt GmbH)
• 20+ years software engineering experience
• FOSS transformation specialist
• Polish-German background: generational experience with authoritarian control
• Passionate about empowering digital independence through democratic technology

What is Digital Independence?

Digital Independence

Democratic Control Over Information Systems

Digital Autonomy: The capacity for individuals and societies to make informed, voluntary decisions about their digital tools and data

• Individual Level: You control what software runs on your devices
• Societal Level: Communities govern their digital infrastructure
• Democratic Level: Transparent, accountable technology governance

Why Does Digital Autonomy Matter?

The Fourth Revolution (2014)

Luciano Floridi's Core Thesis: We now inhabit a "hyper-historical" world where the distinction between online and offline life has collapsed.

The infosphere - our combined digital and physical reality - means:

• Information systems ARE the infrastructure of modern society
• Digital dependencies create systemic vulnerabilities
• Control over information systems equals control over society itself

Critical Infrastructure Dependencies

When information systems control …

• Healthcare: Electronic records, diagnostic systems, life support
• Logistics: Supply chains, transportation networks, food distribution
• Finance: Payment systems, banking infrastructure, economic stability
• Democracy: Media platforms, electoral systems, public discourse
• Education: Learning platforms, research access, knowledge distribution

When Digital Systems Fail, Society Fails

Recent Systemic Failures:

• Hospital ransomware attacks → patients die from delayed care
• Social media manipulation → electoral interference, democratic erosion
• Supply chain attacks → economic disruption, infrastructure breakdown
• Platform censorship → suppression of legitimate discourse
• Algorithmic bias → systemic discrimination at scale

Who Opposes Digital Autonomy?

The Opposition Alliance

Surveillance Capitalism Model:

• Extract behavioral data at unprecedented scale
• Manipulate user behavior through algorithmic control
• Create dependencies to maintain market dominance

Authoritarian State Interests:

• Monitor and control population behavior
• Suppress dissent through platform manipulation
• Weaponize civilian technology infrastructure

Real-World Effects

• Cambridge Analytica (2018): 87 million Facebook profiles harvested for election manipulation

• Meta's Teen Depression Experiments (2021): Deliberately harmful algorithms tested on adolescents

• Israel-Lebanon Pager Attack (2024): Consumer communication devices remotely weaponized at Hezbollah (Operation Grim Beeper)

• Palantir Surveillance Infrastructure: Military-grade population monitoring sold to corporations and governments

• TikTok Algorithmic Influence: Foreign state influence over domestic youth culture and political discourse

Oracle's BlueKai

• 2014: Oracle aquires a marketing tech start-up BlueKai based in Cupertino, California, for around $400 million.

• 2016: Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison bragged about profiling 5 billion people worldwide, creating detailed cohorts from sensitive web browsing activity, names, home addresses, email addresses, and cross-device tracking data.

• $42.4 billion annual revenue from their BlueKai data brokerage operations, selling personal profiles to advertisers and third parties without consent

• 2024: Oracle forced to pay $115 million settlement after class action lawsuit led by privacy researchers Michael Katz-Lacabe (USA), Jennifer Golbeck (USA), and Johnny Ryan (Ireland).

Who's Fighting Back?

Digital Independence Success Stories

• Schleswig-Holstein: Complete state migration to Linux and LibreOffice, ending Microsoft dependency

• Lyon: 17,000 government computers migrated to Ubuntu, saving €2M annually in licensing costs

• Extremadura: 200,000 students educated on Linux-based systems, creating digital literacy without vendor lock-in

• South Tyrol: Government-wide OpenOffice deployment, demonstrating scalable alternatives

• Brazil: Constitutional requirement for open standards in government systems

Who Controls Your Software?

FOSS vs. "Open Source" vs. Proprietary

Three Types of Software Explained

• Proprietary Software:

  • Black box code, vendor control, only licenses
  • Surveillance capabilities built-in

• "Open Source" (Silicon Valley):

  • Source visible but corporate-controlled
  • "Open washing" marketing tactics

• Free & Open Source Software (FOSS):

  • Community governance, transparent code
  • Privacy by default, no surveillance by design

How to Gain Digital Autonomy

Your Liberation Toolkit

Your Liberation Toolkit (continued)

Trade-offs of Using FOSS

Everything Comes with a Price:

• Binary Limitations: Proprietary formats like .docx not easily editable or human-readable in simple text editors
• Self-Responsibility: No one to blame except yourself when things go sideways
• Accessibility Over Polish: "Not so smooth" interfaces, therefore highly accessible
• Modular Solutions: Rarely "All-in-One"-Solutions, mostly a potpourri of multiple solutions to meet your needs
• Social Isolation: Missing info/discrimination when avoiding mainstream platforms like WhatsApp/Instagram

Your Roadmap to (Digital) Independence

• 1. Kyū (yellow belt ):

  • Communication tools
  • Web Browser & Search
  • Office suite

• 2. Kyū (orange belt ):

  • Operating system
  • FOSS App Stores
  • Publishing Systems

• 3. Kyū (green belt ):

  • Cloud storage & Self-hosting

Workshop Guide

• Today's Focus:

  • Install FOSS onto your private device (PC/Smartphone)
  • GNU/Linux (Operating System) hands-on exploration
  • First terminal commands (optional)

• Take Home:

  • Curated software recommendations
  • Community connection for ongoing support
  • Courage to break out from learned helplessness

Conclusions

Digital Independence is Democratic Necessity

In Floridi's infosphere, our digital choices are political choices.

• Today's Workshop: Hands-on GNU/Linux exploration
• Your Mission: Begin your liberation journey
• Our Goal: Build digitally sovereign communities

References (1/3)

Core Theory:

• Floridi, L. (2014). The Fourth Revolution: How the infosphere is reshaping human reality. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199606726

Digital Attacks & Surveillance:

• Cadwalladr, C. & Graham-Harrison, E. (2018, March 17). Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election

• Wells, G., Horwitz, J., & Seetharaman, D. (2021, September 14). Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739

• Frenkel, S., Bergman, R. & Saad, H. (2024, September 18). How Israel Built a Modern-Day Trojan Horse: Exploding Pagers. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html

References (2/3)

Government FOSS Success Stories:

• The Document Foundation (2024, April 4). German state moving 30,000 PCs to LibreOffice. https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2024/04/04/german-state-moving-30000-pcs-to-libreoffice/

• Gascó, M. (2003). New technologies and institutional change in public administration. Social Science Computer Review, 21(1), 6-14. [Extremadura case study]

• Camara, G. & Fonseca, F. (2007). Information policies and open source software in developing countries. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(1), 121-132. [Brazil open standards]

• OECD (2022), Open Government Review of Brazil: Towards an Integrated Open Government Agenda, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3f9009d4-en.

Digital Democracy Platforms:

• Aragón, P., et al. (2017). Deliberative Platform Design: The Case Study of the Online Discussions in Decidim Barcelona. Social Science Computer Review, 39(6), 1139-1162. https://decidim.barcelona/

• vTaiwan Project Documentation. (2023). Digital Minister of Taiwan. https://vtaiwan.tw/

References (3/3)

Infrastructure & Surveillance Systems:

• Kotka, T., Vargas, C.A. & Korjus, K. (2015). Estonia's blockchain-based e-Residency program. Computer, 48(9), 106-108. [X-Road infrastructure]

• Greenwald, G. (2014). No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Metropolitan Books. [PRISM program]

• Liang, F., et al. (2018). Constructing a data‐driven society: China's social credit system as a state surveillance infrastructure. Policy & Internet, 10(4), 415-453.

Questions & Discussion

Additional Resources:

• Open Source Alternative Directory: https://www.opensourcealternative.to/
• OSS Malta Community: https://ossmalta.eu/
• Presentation Materials: https://dailysh.it/malta
• Contact: malta@dailysh.it

Digital Independence Day - Workshop

Part 2: Hands-On Exploration

1. Kyū

yellow belt

2. Kyū

orange belt

3. Kyū

green belt