Own Your Data
Over the last decade, we've grown comfortable with handing off our data to online services.
I think this shift from local-first to online-first data storage went mainstream with Google's launch of Gmail, in 2004. It offered gigabytes of storage for free -- in a time where more than a few dozen of gigabytes of hard disk was considerably expensive.
Over the next two decades, things changed considerably: SSDs became mainstream and reliable. A 1 TB SSD from a reputable brand is now very affordable and costs less than 100 USD (deals can be found for considerably cheaper).
Still, the strategy paid of for Google. I'd bet the percentage of people who keep their email locally on their devices must not make even into the single digits. I, for one, don't. After all, having it available online, anywhere, over a browser, is so much more convenient.
Over time this practice expanded to other areas, such as photo galleries. Since the digital age, we don't keep physical photo albums anymore, which is fine... but I'd argue not keeping the files for our digital photos under the custody of our own devices is a step too far.
Businesses come an go. Interests and incentive change over time. A service that was once a good deal can be pressured into turning more profit, becoming more user-hostile after it reaches wide adoption so as to extract more value from each customer.
What doesn't change is that the computer, the PC, is an open platform built on industry standards. Motherboards, processors, hard drives and SSDs are commodities and there are multiple businesses that manufacture them. Every piece of hardware -- within technical compatibility -- is interchangeable and interoperable.
Linux is open, a “common good”, but even then there are alternative in the BSD systems. JPEG and other open formats are royalty-free and long established.
We have all the tools to keep our digital photos available offline ourselves, without the “help” of mega corporations, but... we don't.