Unplugged has reached another major milestone in its global expansion: In addition to Canada and the UK, UP Phone is now available across four of Europe’s largest markets: Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
The timing couldn’t be more significant. As debates over privacy, digital rights, and free expression intensify, Europe has become one of the most important battlegrounds for the future of personal freedoms in the digital age. While each country is navigating its own mix of political pressures and technological overreach, a single truth is clear: People want more control, more transparency, and more say in the technologies that are intimately woven into their everyday lives.
UP Phone is designed for this moment.
Digital Privacy as a Frontline Civil-Liberties Issue
The push and pull between surveillance and citizen rights has reached a new pitch—not only in the courts and regulation, but also in how children and personal expression are managed online. Europe is in a delicate balancing act between safeguarding minors and public interest while avoiding curtailing free expression or imposing vague censorship.
The German government has refused to back the controversial Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR)—often called “Chat Control”—which would force messaging platforms to scan encrypted chats for illegal content. The fundamental problem is that Chat Control breaks end-to-end encryption.
France, Spain and other EU countries have also joined the call for stricter age-verification systems for social-media access, signaling a legislative willingness to regulate access in the name of child protection and digital well-being.
We understand the protective intentions of the lawmakers; however, major pro-privacy and civil liberties groups like the European Digital Rights network (EDRi), Amnesty International, Signal Technology Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have all warned against these technological intrusions as it opens the door to Orwellian surveillance and obliterates privacy.
Italy has become a case study in how a country can turn digital-rights rhetoric into concrete legislation. With the passage of a law on Artificial Intelligence in September, Italy became the first EU country to adopt a national AI law that spans transparency, human-oversight, child-access, and privacy protections. This is one to watch to see how it develops.
Spain has passed a broad Digital Law implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and adding new rights—such as the right to be de-listed from searches and net-neutrality protections.
All of this underscores the breadth of the issues and how debates about encryption, surveillance and free speech are no longer theoretical—they’re policy battlegrounds.
Tech That Protects—Not Watches
For European citizens, the arrival of UP Phone doesn’t just mark a new mobile phone option—it’s part of a larger movement where rights-centered tech and digital autonomy can be strengthened not just by law, but by the hardware, the operating system and the tech stack itself. It’s a tool for navigating an ecosystem where digital rights and state control are meeting head-on. Regardless of the actions of the State, we must actively defend the right to privacy with every tool we have.
Unplugged brings its unique brand of digital freedom to Europe with UP Phone, filling a crucial void when it comes to the absence of product choice outside the Apple-Google duopoly. Our proprietary technology includes protections the big companies simply can’t offer with business models where customers are the product.
UP Phone features include:
- A powerful on-device Firewall that blocks third-party tracking and data harvesting attempts—and exposes the apps behind them—so customers can see their privacy protections in action.
- UnpluggedOS, an open-source operating system purpose-built for privacy. By using open-source Android without Google Mobile Services, it blocks backdoor data collection and puts control back in users’ hands.
- The uncensored, unbiased, and untracked App Center gives customers the freedom to access the apps they want without restrictions imposed by major app store ecosystems.
- Built-in, no-logs, VPN protection running in the background hides the IP address while traffic is being blocked.
- Location data that’s erased every 24 hours when paired with the global Renegade SIM™.
Privacy Is Freedom. And Freedom Is Personal.
Unplugged’s entry into Europe is more than a product release—it’s part of a growing movement. Europe’s history has taught the world what happens when surveillance goes unchallenged, and the right to digital freedom today requires the same vigilance.
We’re proud to expand our mission to support citizens across Europe who believe in a future where technology serves humanity—not the other way around.
Make today the day you take back control of your digital freedom—visit unplugged.com to order your UP Phone today.
