Sovereignty Wiki
The Sovereignty Wiki
Plain-English definitions of the concepts behind digital sovereignty — each one a citable reference, linked to the guides that put it into practice.
Digital Sovereignty
The practical ability to own and control your data, identity, and tools rather than renting them from platforms that can change the rules.
Data Broker
A company that collects, aggregates, and sells personal data about you, usually without your direct knowledge or consent.
End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)
Encryption where only the people communicating can read the messages — not the service carrying them.
Zero-Knowledge
A design where the service provider cannot access your data because it never holds the keys to decrypt it.
Metadata
Data about your data — who, when, where, and how — which can reveal as much as the content itself.
Risk signal Model
A clear picture of what you are protecting, from whom, and what happens if you fail — used to choose proportionate defenses.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Requiring a second proof of identity beyond your password, so a stolen password alone is not enough to log in.
Password Manager
A tool that generates and stores strong, unique passwords so you never reuse or memorise them.
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A tool that encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a remote server, hiding it from your network but not from the VPN provider.
Data Minimization
The principle of sharing and storing the least personal data necessary — the data you never give out cannot be leaked, sold, or stolen.
Impersonation scam (Impersonation Scams)
Messages that impersonate a trusted party to trick you into revealing credentials or money.
De-Googling
Gradually replacing Google services with privacy-respecting alternatives to reduce dependence on a single data-driven ecosystem.
Data Portability
Your ability to export your data from one service and move it to another in a usable format.
Right to Be Forgotten
The legal right, in some regions, to have personal data about you erased from a service or search results.
Digital Footprint
The total trail of data you leave online — deliberately posted or passively collected — that others can find and use.
Self-Custody
Holding the private keys to your own digital assets yourself, instead of trusting a third-party custodian.
Financial Privacy
Keeping your transactions, balances, and financial behaviour from being needlessly exposed, profiled, or sold.
Attention Economy
The business model in which products compete to capture and monetise your attention, often at the cost of your wellbeing.
Digital Minimalism
Deliberately reducing your digital tools and inputs to the few that deliver real value, and cutting the rest.
Social Engineering
Manipulating people, rather than technology, into giving up information, access, or money.
Privacy Audit
A systematic review of what accounts, apps, and services hold your data, so you can close, minimise, or secure each one deliberately.
Encrypted Messaging
Messaging apps built around end-to-end encryption by default, so message content is unreadable to the provider and to anyone intercepting it in transit.
Passkey
A cryptographic login credential tied to your device that replaces passwords entirely, resistant to impersonation scam because there is no secret to type or steal.
Open-Source Software
Software whose source code is publicly viewable, so independent parties can verify what it actually does rather than trusting the vendor's claims.
Data Data incident
An incident where an organisation's systems are compromised and personal data held on its users is exposed, stolen, or published.
Data Retention Policy
The rules a service follows for how long it keeps your data after you stop using it or explicitly ask for deletion.
Digital Identity
The collection of accounts, credentials, and data points that represent you online, often more fragmented and less controllable than your identity in the physical world.
Biometric Data
Data derived from physical characteristics such as fingerprints, face geometry, or voice, used to verify identity but impossible to change if compromised.
Cookie Consent
The prompt asking permission to track your browsing via cookies, often designed to make accepting easier than declining.
Alias / Disposable Email
A forwarding email address used in place of your real one for signups, so it can be disabled the moment it starts receiving spam or appears in a data incident.
Budgeting System
A deliberate method for allocating income across spending, saving, and debt, replacing guesswork with a repeatable process.
Emergency Fund
Cash reserved specifically to cover unplanned expenses or income loss, sized independently of your investments so it is never at risk of market timing.
Compound Interest
Growth calculated on both the original amount and on interest already earned, so returns accelerate over time rather than staying linear.
Custodial vs. Non-Custodial
Whether a third party (custodial) or you alone (non-custodial) holds the keys or account controls to your money or assets.
KYC (Know Your Customer)
The identity-verification process financial and crypto platforms are legally required to run before letting you transact, tying your real identity to your activity.
Subscription Creep
The gradual, often unnoticed accumulation of recurring charges from forgotten or underused subscriptions.
Burnout
A state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caused by sustained, unmanaged work stress, distinct from ordinary tiredness because rest alone does not resolve it.
Boundary Setting
Deliberately defining and communicating the limits of your availability, workload, or responsibilities, and holding to them consistently.
Asynchronous Work
A way of working where collaborators respond on their own schedule rather than requiring real-time availability, reducing interruption-driven stress.
Remote-Work Security
The practice of securing devices, networks, and accounts used for work outside a traditional, IT-managed office environment.
Sleep Hygiene
The set of habits and environmental conditions that support consistent, restorative sleep, most of which are within an individual's direct control.
Circadian Rhythm
Your body's roughly 24-hour internal clock, which regulates sleep, alertness, and many metabolic processes based largely on light exposure.
Functional Medicine
An approach that investigates the underlying, often multiple causes of a health issue rather than treating symptoms in isolation.
Hormesis
The principle that a small, controlled dose of a stressor, such as exercise, heat, or cold, triggers an adaptive response that leaves the body more resilient.
Dopamine Regulation
Deliberately reducing exposure to high-stimulation, instant-reward activities so ordinary, lower-intensity activities feel satisfying again.
Cognitive Load
The total amount of mental effort being used by your working memory at a given time, which has a hard practical ceiling.
Deep Work
Extended, uninterrupted, focused effort on a cognitively demanding task, as distinct from shallow, easily-replicated busywork.
Community Resilience
The strength of local, real-world relationships and mutual-aid networks that provide support independent of any single institution or platform.
Parasocial Relationship
A one-sided sense of connection a person feels toward a media figure, influencer, or creator who does not know they exist.