Santi van den Toorn
For more than 12 years, Santi has been guiding mission-driven organizations through the digital world with knowledge, speed, and a strong moral compass. She is at home in every corner of the digital domain, knows how to code and migrate systems, but also how to advise complex organizations and stakeholders toward more conscious choices.
In recent years, she has specialized in digital security and sovereignty. She currently works as a freelance Project Lead for Digital Autonomy at De Correspondent, where she is guiding the process of becoming more independent from American big tech.
Santi studied civil engineering at TU Delft and built her career through a mix of roles: front-end developer, product owner, and project lead. She worked on the merger of OnePlanetCrowd and Invesdor, led a strategic project at VluchtelingenWerk, and was Head of Tech at De Goede Zaak, where activism and technology come together. That combination of activism and technical depth is the common thread throughout her work. Feminist activism has permanently sharpened her perspective on power, systems, and who controls them.
Santi speaks about inclusive technology and becoming more independent from big tech, among other topics.
Becoming More Digitally Independent from Big Tech
Everyone wants to break free from it: our dependence on Google, Meta, and Microsoft. But what does digital independence actually mean, and is it realistically achievable? In this talk, Santi unpacks the concept: independence in terms of infrastructure, data, attention, and market power, and why complete independence may actually be a myth. From this analysis, she derives concrete, achievable steps to make more conscious choices about which dependencies you are willing to accept, along with practical tips and tools for organizations that are serious about working toward digital sovereignty.