Most people in the Netherlands are well familiar with the software applications and services of Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft and other big-tech companies, among others.

You collaborate with your colleagues through Microsoft Teams. You app with Whatsapp from Meta via a Google Android phone or Apple’s iPhone with family & friends and you use Google Chrome, Apple Safari or Microsoft Edge to order something from a webshop. We have become hugely dependent on bigtech companies from countries outside Europe and that’s not okay.

But it can be done differently!

In this presentation, Björn Wijers discusses why bigtech is a problem and what options you already (still?) have to become less dependent on these companies.