In 2040, Europeans have achieved digital sovereignity - all important digital services like search, cloud storage, messengers, social networks, video conferencing, etc. are offered from European data centers, adhering European privacy laws. This has happened after the EU decided to create a European foundation to fund free and open source software (FOSS). The foundation reached out to the European open source community, offering to host the two most-used FOSS packages in each category, plus supporting key members of the open source community (but participation in the development of this software was limited to European citizens). As a reaction to this offer, FOSS has taken a great leap and the European software has taken the lead in the world of FOSS. In addition to the services itself, supporting infrastructure such as encryption and authentication and auditing, is available as European FOSS to every citizen.

For example, every citizen receives European-verified certificates for encryption of emails, messages, or storage, for free. It's European infrastructure, paid by general taxes, like streets and education. Non-European citizens may buy access to this infrastructure.

In this future, Europeans may reap the benefits of computers and internet without being tracked and their data being sold by companies for company profits. Instead, the privacy of the individual person takes priority over profits.