Users Want European Alternatives to American Tech, Here's Why

Most people use tech services without giving much thought to where the companies behind them are based. If the service is fast, free, and effortless to use, then why would you? Here’s the thing: it absolutely matters where your tech comes from. Tech companies are bound by different laws, depending on where they are based and what countries they operate in. That fact has a lot of users looking for European alternatives to American tech services.

The Problem with U.S. Based Companies

You probably know that the United States is home to a majority of the biggest names in tech. It’s home to companies that have shaped the Internet as we know it: Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft. But lately, people are starting to get sick of these companies and their constant privacy violations and worsening products. These trends didn’t just emerge out of nowhere. Have you ever stopped to wonder how they became so massive? Weak or practically non-existent U.S. privacy laws have given them room to monopolize the market and exploit the data of millions in a variety of ways. When a company has unlimited access to your data, they have an endless supply of fuel for hyper targeted advertising and behavioral algorithms. After all, the U.S. currently lacks a federal comprehensive privacy law, and the more specific laws that do protect consumer data haven’t kept up with the times. HIPAA, for example, doesn’t protect the data that health websites, apps, or wearables like FitBits collect about us.

In other words, American privacy laws tend to be inconsistent and contain glaring loopholes for Big Tech to jump through. This allows them to take the approach of “collect data first, figure out how to monetize it later”. Take it directly from the data brokers who are literally teaching businesses how to profit from the data they collect. These companies and their lobbyists are also helping write the bills that govern them. Just look at Virginia, which became the second state to pass a “comprehensive” privacy law in 2021. The catch is: the legislation had actually been handed to the bill sponsor by an Amazon lobbyist. The law allowed companies to keep collecting data as long as it was disclosed somewhere deep in a 10,000-word privacy policy and offered no clear path to hold violators responsible for their actions. This is why Virginia’s law ended up becoming the blueprint state legislators that lobbyists pushed legislators to match, spreading weak privacy protections across the country.

But fear not…there are plenty of decent European alternatives to these American tech companies. But what makes Europe so different?

Europe: The Place for Privacy Conscious Users

The European Union has been a leader in digital privacy rights since 2018, and that’s because of a fundamental difference in the way they approach the policing of data collection. It begins with one of the toughest privacy and security laws in the world: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This law gives users substantial control over their data. Companies cannot snatch up your personal information and sell it to the highest bidder just because they want to. They need a legitimate reason to collect it, your clear permission, and are only allowed to take what’s truly necessary. What happens if they break the rules? Those who choose not to comply are severely punished with fines reaching into the tens of millions of euros.

This law doesn’t just apply to companies inside the EU, either. Any organization that handles the data of EU residents must comply with the GDPR. And when users’ rights are violated, independent oversight bodies across Europe will step in and take action. This is exactly why services like StartMail, based in the Netherlands, offer a level of protection American companies simply don’t match. American laws, on the other hand, don’t always apply to European companies. This is why StartMail, for example, is not subject to U.S laws like the CLOUD Act, which allow U.S. authorities to demand access to data from US-based companies. And the GDPR isn’t the only law that’s keeping American companies in check, since Europe also offers more robust antitrust and competition laws that are much more stringent than American ones. Companies like Apple and Meta still need to be reminded of this regularly.

This legal foundation gives you complete data sovereignty and autonomy–something a lot of people in other parts of the world are still fighting for. In the EU, you have the right to know what data companies have on you, to say no, and to demand that your data be deleted. Informed consent is valued and actually taken seriously. And when European companies have to obey these regulations by default, they have the capacity to benefit users from around the world.

European Alternatives to American Products

Ready to swap out some of those data-hungry American services and tools for European alternatives that guarantee privacy? You have got a wealth of good options.

📧 Email Alternatives (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook alternative)

StartMail – Secure, ad-free email without tracking. Individual and business plans with unlimited disposable aliases 🇳🇱

🌐 Online Browsers (Edge, Chrome, Safari alternative)

Vivaldi – Highly customizable browser with built-in ad/tracker blocking and privacy tools 🇳🇴
Mullvad Browser – Developed with the Tor Project, designed for anonymity and fingerprinting resistance 🇸🇪

🔒 VPN Providers

NordVPN – While NordVPN's parent company, Nord Security, is based in the Netherlands, a European country, NordVPN itself operates under the jurisdiction of Panama. 🇳🇱/🇵🇦
Surfshark – Affordable VPN based in the Netherlands with unlimited device support and strong encryption 🇳🇱

☁️ Cloud Storage Providers (Google Drive, Dropbox alternative)

Internxt Drive – Zero knowledge, open source, and post quantum encrypted cloud storage based in Spain 🇪🇸
Nextcloud – Self-hosted and open source file hosting service based out of Germany…although self hosting means that you don’t need to store documents in a cloud at all 🇩🇪

💳 Banking & Digital Payments

Revolut – Modern digital banking and budgeting app with global features 🇬🇧
Adyen – Enterprise-grade global payments platform for businesses 🇳🇱

You can find a more comprehensive list of European alternatives here.

Take Your Data and Power Back!

When it comes to choosing which companies to trust your data with, choosing wisely isn’t just about your own privacy and well being. Supporting privacy-minded companies, whether they are EU based or not, sends a message to the entire tech industry that you value and prioritize your privacy. When enough users make it a point to vote with their dollars, everyone takes notice. And with more and more users switching away from American tech companies, the fight for privacy is gaining momentum!