Do they work for you, or you for them?
In the 90s there was usually just one landline phone per household. Today we all have our very own smartphone that we keep close to our body at all times. Some research suggests that we spend around five hours a day scrolling our phones, spending more time than ever before looking at a screen.
35% of adolescents communicate with their friends online almost all the time throughout the day
If you can think of it, there’s an app for it. Taxi’s, dating, fitness, baby names, organising work: it seems like apps provide a ‘solution’ for everything in our life. Have you thought about who runs the apps you use, and what motive they have to keep their app in your smartphone?
Technology is not neutral
Most of the phones we use, and most of the apps we use on those phones, are not designed with public and our health and wellbeing in mind. Instead, they are designed based on economic values, pursuing profits from selling us services, or selling your data.
The health and fitness app industry generated $4.45 billion in 2023
The goal of app developers is to keep users hooked, through infinite scrolling mechanisms, or through dopamine-inducing social features such as like-counts.
When it comes to your personal data, you should be the one who decides if and how it can be used - not the owner of an app you used or the advertising company your data was sold to.
Do you use apps to monitor your health? Pregnancy apps and other health apps can share sensitive data like location or the health of your baby with others, including law enforcement, advertisers, or other companies.
Let's fix it!
There are apps that don't spy on you. These apps work just as well as those made by Big Tech, but they guard your health and guarantee your privacy. Let’s get started!
Install these apps for all your day-to-day needs:
- Social media: Mastodon to stay connected, follow updates by interesting sources and join online public debate
- Messaging: Signal for private (group) messagingVideo call: Jitsi for online video meetings
- Menstrual apps: The Drip App or Fertility Friend to track your menstrual / fertility cycle
- Navigation: Open Street Map & Wikiloc for navigation
- Podcast: Pocket Casts or AntennaPod to subscribe and listen to podcasts
- Free OTP or Aegis for extra two-factor authentication security on your phone
- Element as a large chat server with seperate rooms for your workplace or friend group
- FairMail or K-9 Mail as an open-source e-mail app
- PixelDroid for sharing photos and video reels in a decentralized way
- HappyCow to look for nearby vegan and vegetarian places
- FitoTrack to track your running, cycling or hiking workouts
- Immich or EntePhotos as private photo and video cloud storage
- DuckDuckGo as a privacy-oriented search engine
- Firefox to privately and securely browse the internet
- StoryGraph to track your reading, review books and join book clubs
This publication is a part of the Fix Your Phone Shop, which was presented at the Dutch Design Week 2024. You can download the Apps book here (pdf).
