Getting off US tech: a guide

Last edited on 5 August, 2026

All very good suggestions indeed. But there are more. Most of them are North(west) European, but this is because most of those countries got their own systems set up already, and got relatively robust privacy laws. Not sure about other ones, but please do inform!

Weather
Windy 🇨🇿 - expansive, worldwide. Pretty.
Yr 🇳🇴 - Norwegian-focused but has good coverage for Europe.
Meteonet 🇫🇷 - old interface, but no-nonsense.

Whatever your country has, also works.

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Payment processors

National/regional ones exist, they're more independent and should be preferred.
But also, Wero 🇪🇺 is there. Check if your bank already has it. Though I think it must address tech reliance concerns.

Some forms of crypto also are independent and even peer-to-peer, but beware of how much electricity they use.

GNU Taler may also be considered, it's independent and decentralised!

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Banks

For small-scale stuff, Community Exchange System and time banking are great.

That said, within monetary-based banking are two categories: traditional and cooperative/credit unions. If you wish to stick with a 'traditional' bank, then these following would be best:

ASN Bank 🇳🇱 - government-safeguarded. Came best out of the Dutch Ethical Banking Guide (Dutch).
Triodos 🇳🇱 - independent (second-best in that guide), Europe-wide.
Ekobanken 🇸🇪 - ecological.

Or check Febea and GABV, those two have lists of European ethical&pro-labour banks (the latter also has lists for other areas).

(Local) cooperatives and credit unions are great, if you've the choice. Then you can decide along where the money goes, and hold the bank more responsible. They don't have stocks, instead having different financing methods.

I checked them through Bank for Good EU - I put some selections in there already, selecting for cooperatives + Febea and GABV criteria, alongside with functions for everyday needs such as savings, mortgages, business, retail, online banking, and a current. According to those criteria, the following two banks would be good:

Banca Etica 🇮🇹 - Italian cooperative and ethical bank. Focuses on transparency, supported the Sumud Flotilla(!).
Merkur Andelskasse 🇩🇰 - Danish cooperative and ethical bank. I personally would support this as the best bank of all the above listed, since you get both a vote AND an ethical bank. Barring thrift stores and time banks, this is as close you can get to ethical buying while benefitting you.

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Phones

Jolla 🇫🇮 - has Sailfish OS, a Linux distribution, independent from Android.
FairPhone 🇳🇱 - is a very good option (best balance between ethics, repairability, and privacy). Recommend e/OS, iodéOS, or CalyxOS. Murena 🇫🇷 - has the iPhone look and feel. Pretty easy to use.
Nothing 🇬🇧 - a bit riskier in my opinion, since they share demographic and fiscal data, and share data outside of the EU/EEZ+UK. However, it allows bootloader unlocking.
Shiftphone 🇩🇪 - has 3rd party support.

None of these support GrapheneOS (which would be the most ideal) due to their own hardware being lacking, but they really ought to. GrapheneOS will soon be available on Motorola (Chinese-owned, US-based, though). Currently, if you want one, get a used Pixel, 'clean' thoroughly, and then put GrapheneOS on it. Alternatively, there's Purism, but that's also US-based.

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Tablets

Archos 🇫🇷
Juno Tab 🇬🇧 (runs Linux)
Murena 🇫🇷
Nokia 🇫🇮 (also has phones, TVs and laptops)
reMarkable 🇳🇴

The Purism one is good too and has some killswitches, though it's US-based (California, at least, which has a sort of GDPR-like law).

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Laptops

Do you want to game -> Tuxedo 🇩🇪
It just works & supports FOSS devs -> Slimbook 🇪🇸
Privacy-focused Macbook-like? -> Star Labs 🇬🇧
More customisable -> Novacustom 🇳🇱

The site of StarLabs has a shitty privacy policy, though - the best one is Novacustom in that regard. Nokia supposedly sells some too, but I couldn't find a place to buy them.

You can also get an Asus or Acer 🇹🇼 (🇼🇸), or if you don't mind Chinese products, Lenovo (a ThinkPad is great).

Clevo is also a good one, it's Taiwanese.

Regarding hardware, if you've a laptop with an Intel chip, disable the Intel Management Engine, it's likely backdoor spyware. VIA Technologies 🇹🇼 (🇼🇸) is the only non-American one that makes graphic cards supporting x86, like Intel and AMD.

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What OS to pick (an OS is a software like Windows or Macintosh)

Anything Linux, really. Some of them are headed or backed by the Red Hat project (like Fedora, a very good distro), which is good, but it's American, so keep that in mind. Nevertheless, depending on your tasks:

New to Linux -> Linux Mint (it just works)
Privacy -> openSUSE Tumbleweed
Security -> QubesOS (multiple computers on one)
For servers, stable updates -> Debian
I use -> Arch Linux (btw)
Resembles Macbook -> elementaryOS

With most Linux distributions you can make them look like Windows or Mac either way, but I'd like to throw that in. KDE Plasma is what I'd recommend for customisation, GNOME for minimalism.

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Smartwatch

PineTime 🇪🇺 - FOSS, more privacy friendly than the big players.
WatchMark 🇬🇧🇩🇪 - has the Apple Watch look, manufactured in Europe.
Montblanc 🇩🇪 - Manufactured in Germany.
Polar Electro 🇫🇮 - Owned by Finns, made in China and Malaysia. For outdoors.
MyKronoz 🇨🇭- Swiss, pretty affordable.

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And for printers;

Epson 🇯🇵 EcoTank especially, all-around.
Canon 🇯🇵 Pixelma.
Novaware 🇳🇱 - they got a good thermal printer.
Nuvance 🇳🇱 also thermal.

I like the Fairphone hardware but can not recommend e/OS - Murena is making false privacy claims about their software and are not interested in fixing them. Sadly Graphene has stated that Fairphone will likely not be supported in the future as their current models are lacking necessary hardware.

I ended up with a used Pixel and installed Graphene, I'm happy with it as a daily driver and am doing my online banking in the browser on my PC.

These guides are getting a little repetitive on this community. They always say and recommend the same things. What new is being said here? What are the 80 upvotes for?

We should have a buyfromeu circlejerk community and just post "Bro did you hear about Fritz Kola" and "Bro I switched to Tutanota" continuously (I am not kidding)