Growing up as a child with a pioneer scarf in East Germany, I couldn’t imagine ever going further than Prague. In 1997 I was the manager of an eCommerce start-up in San Francisco, then suddenly on the Pacific and literally in another world. The people of Silicon Valley were a smart, gorgeous mix from all over the world. Their enthusiasm and the innovative power of the internet allowed new business models to emerge almost every week.

My company, which I founded with a friend in 2003, also grew at this speed thanks to our enthusiasm for the Internet and cloud computing. Even then, I realized how difficult it could one day be to protect new technologies and digital opportunities from misuse.

Early companies (now giants) such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft have “contracted and controlled” billions of users worldwide through the success of their products and services and through network effects. They monetize user data and create a version of the digital world in which privacy and anonymity will soon no longer play a role.

Our governments and most politicians do not yet count it among their duties to protect our privacy and our fundamental rights on the Internet. Laws on data retention, the use of state trojan software (surveillance – why are they allowed to do that), and efforts to break secure end-to-end encryption (chat control) are the wrong way and must be reversed.

As a CloudPirat I fight against these developments and for the digital freedom rights of people and companies. I am committed to a future that guarantees us security and privacy. Everyone should have the freedom to use technology and content cleanly and with little risk.

The view of the blue ocean has given me distance and freedom in thinking for years. We cannot change the wind and weather out at sea, but we can set the right course and sail to find our way to our destination.

You can find a few details about my career in my LinkedIn profile.