Good Tech Index
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Good Tech Index

The GTI Label — this product's ethical and social footprint.

Weighting: Balanced Climate first Labour first
A 84.5
84.5 / 100 high

Weighted under the Labour first profile. 7 declared components across 5 layers.

The product itself

How this product scores on its own merits — its licence, ownership and openness — separate from the stack it's built on.

Own score high 95.8

By layer

Hardware medium 82.1

Refurbished server

Energy high 52.1

Eskom grid (ZA), On-site solar

Hosting & network medium 82.5

Self-hosted rack, deSEC.io

Services high 97.5

No third-party trackers

Software supply chain high 96.9

Elixir / Phoenix OSS

By axis

The score is the vector — each axis is scored on its own, then weighted into the number above. Open an axis to see the reasoning behind it.

Data sovereignty & surveillance high 100.0
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Where data lives and the surveillance capacity it grants. 5 = fully sovereign.

The product itself high 5 / 5

Self-hosted on 8by3 infrastructure; data stays put.

Self-hosted rack high 5 / 5
Refurbished server medium 4 / 5
Eskom grid (ZA) high 4 / 5
On-site solar high 5 / 5
deSEC.io medium 5 / 5
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 5 / 5
No third-party trackers high 5 / 5
Environmental footprint high 69.0
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Energy source, hardware lifecycle, water/cooling. Follows provenance.

Self-hosted rack high 3 / 5
Refurbished server medium 5 / 5
Eskom grid (ZA) high 1 / 5
On-site solar high 5 / 5
deSEC.io medium 4 / 5
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 4 / 5
No third-party trackers high 5 / 5
Local economic benefit high 75.0
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Does the spend stay in-region (5) or leave (1)?

The product itself high 4 / 5

Built and run in-region.

Self-hosted rack high 5 / 5
Refurbished server medium 4 / 5
Eskom grid (ZA) high 4 / 5
On-site solar high 4 / 5
deSEC.io medium 3 / 5
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 4 / 5
No third-party trackers high 4 / 5
Market concentration high 94.3
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Does using this reinforce a chokepoint or monopoly? 5 = no lock-in / many alternatives.

The product itself high 5 / 5

Open, forkable methodology — no lock-in.

Self-hosted rack high 5 / 5
Refurbished server medium 5 / 5
Eskom grid (ZA) high 3 / 5
On-site solar high 5 / 5
deSEC.io medium 5 / 5
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 5 / 5
No third-party trackers high 5 / 5
Openness & lock-in high 100.0
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Can you leave, and can others reach it? 5 = open access with no account required and easy data export; 1 = a walled garden — account-gated, proprietary, hard to export.

The product itself high 5 / 5

Public labels; no account needed to view a score.

Self-hosted rack high 5 / 5
Refurbished server medium 5 / 5
Eskom grid (ZA) high 3 / 5
On-site solar high 5 / 5
deSEC.io medium 5 / 5
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 5 / 5
No third-party trackers high 5 / 5
Ownership model high 90.7
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Who benefits from ownership? Shareholder / private-equity extraction (1) vs worker-owned / nonprofit / state or public-good (5).

The product itself high 5 / 5

Independently built — not shareholder-owned.

Self-hosted rack high 5 / 5
Refurbished server medium 4 / 5
Eskom grid (ZA) high 3 / 5
On-site solar high 5 / 5
deSEC.io medium 5 / 5
desec.io
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 5 / 5
No third-party trackers high 5 / 5
Software freedom (FOSS) high 100.0
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Is the software free & open-source, and under what licence? 5 = fully FOSS under an OSI-approved licence; 1 = proprietary / closed source.

The product itself high 5 / 5

The Good Tech Index is itself open-source.

Self-hosted rack high 5 / 5

An open-source OS and stack (BSD or Linux) on hardware you own.

Refurbished server medium 3 / 5

Open OS/software, but firmware/microcode largely proprietary.

Eskom grid (ZA) high 3 / 5

Not software — neutral.

On-site solar high 3 / 5

Not software — neutral.

deSEC.io medium 5 / 5
github.com
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 5 / 5

Elixir & Phoenix are FOSS (Apache-2.0 / MIT).

github.com
No third-party trackers high 5 / 5

No proprietary third-party trackers; self-hosted OSS analytics.

Upstream labour high 75.0
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Chip fabrication, warehouse, data-labelling conditions. Follows provenance.

Self-hosted rack high 3 / 5
Refurbished server medium 4 / 5
Eskom grid (ZA) high 3 / 5
On-site solar high 3 / 5
deSEC.io medium 4 / 5
Elixir / Phoenix OSS high 5 / 5
No third-party trackers high 5 / 5