You left out safari 

this likely exposes my massive ignorance 

On 4/27/2026 at 9:45 PM, Verdance said:

You left out safari 

this likely exposes my massive ignorance 

Sorry for the late answer.

Safari is alright if you use iphone(though I highly recommend Brave over all other mobile browsers).

On a computer I recommend using one of the browsers listed in my last blog over Safari

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Ok lets say I want to write a story

I want to be able to write it on my phone and my computer

and I don't want it to be fed to Gemini

Perferably, it would be free.

Would Proton or LibreOffice Writer work better? Or would, like, a note-taking app like Obsidian work better?

Proton docs might be better for that, as it is stored in the cloud(Proton Drive) by default, so you already have a privacy focused cloud storage with it, whereas if you wanted to do something similar with Libreoffice you would need to set up an additional cloud service for that, be it Proton Drive, self hosted or something else.

Obsidian would work, and if you find that better go for it, but it would make it hard to export the story in a document file.

Proton docs has a free version which will cap your storage at 5GB, but that's way more than you should ever need.

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Also: I can't get SafeNotes to work

What OS are you using? Because it only works on Android

5 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Proton docs might be better for that, as it is stored in the cloud(Proton Drive) by default, so you already have a privacy focused cloud storage with it, whereas if you wanted to do something similar with Libreoffice you would need to set up an additional cloud service for that, be it Proton Drive, self hosted or something else.

Obsidian would work, and if you find that better go for it, but it would make it hard to export the story in a document file.

Proton docs has a free version which will cap your storage at 5GB, but that's way more than you should ever need.

What OS are you using? Because it only works on Android

I'm using Windows

3 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I'm using Windows

Ah, I don't think there's a desktop app, just a website you can use once you have a note on the app already.

https://www.protectedtext.com/

But I can keep looking

@CoderDrag0n8 I found it

https://www.bluestacks.com/apps/productivity/safe-notes-official-app-on-pc.html

5 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Ah, I don't think there's a desktop app, just a website you can use once you have a note on the app already.

https://www.protectedtext.com/

But I can keep looking

Mmmm I see

That's very helpful, thanks!

Honstley i think I'm gonna cave and write my story on a google doc and just keep the sharing to a minimum so Gemini doesn't steal my soul

Just now, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Mmmm I see

That's very helpful, thanks!

Whoops, I just edited that I had found one. XD

1 minute ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Honstley i think I'm gonna cave and write my story on a google doc and just keep the sharing to a minimum so Gemini doesn't steal my soul

Up to you.

7 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Ah, I don't think there's a desktop app, just a website you can use once you have a note on the app already.

https://www.protectedtext.com/

But I can keep looking

@CoderDrag0n8 I found it

https://www.bluestacks.com/apps/productivity/safe-notes-official-app-on-pc.html

Just now, Frustration said:

Whoops, I just edited that I had found one. XD

Up to you.

Mmmm i see

Yeah I'll figure it out later

btw @Verdance reccomended stoat.chat to me as an alternative to discord, and since you are the privacy wizard, i thought you would be intrigued.

2 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

btw @Verdance reccomended stoat.chat to me as an alternative to discord, and since you are the privacy wizard, i thought you would be intrigued.

I barely use Discord, but if I can get time I'll give it a look.

I doubt its much safer, its still being developed

Do you have any proof whatsoever that Google accesses Google Drive, Photos, Docs, etc., to take that info and feed it to Gemini?

Because I find that highly unlikely and it stinks to high heaven of misinformation.

From what I see is that Google can only access your docs if you enable Gemini. If they could do this they'd violate PIPEDA in Canada.

"We do not use your Workspace data to train or improve the underlying generative AI and large language models ... outside of Workspace without permission."

https://workspace.google.com/blog/identity-and-security/protecting-your-data-era-generative-ai

Yeah. What you say is either EXTREMELY exaggerated or Google is setting itself up for the biggest class action lawsuit in Canadian history. This would violate the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. 

If you wish to read PIPEDA (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-8.6/index.html)

Ya know, i used to think AI was stupid. It still is. But it’s also really annoying how it exists everywhere, and how it ruins schools because 50% of high school students use ChatGPT for 100% of their work, and scary how it lies to people and has no morality, and frustrating that big companies use it to get even more money from you

Indeed. I generally dislike AI. I see it as a tool, not a wheelchair. If you use it as a wheelchair for long enough, you will start to forget how to walk.

Just now, Shatter said:

Indeed. I generally dislike AI. I see it as a tool, not a wheelchair. If you use it as a wheelchair for long enough, you will start to forget how to walk.

Exactly 

im a minimalist, i have used it many times, its generally a better search engine actually, as long as you fact check 

i have used it to study, its good at making study guides and explaining topics

but one you start asking it answers you lose all credibility and mental ability 

its stupid how stupid public high schoolers can be (i was public high school student for two years it sucked)

3 minutes ago, Verdance said:

Exactly 

im a minimalist, i have used it many times, its generally a better search engine actually, as long as you fact check 

i have used it to study, its good at making study guides and explaining topics

but one you start asking it answers you lose all credibility and mental ability 

its stupid how stupid public high schoolers can be (i was public high school student for two years it sucked)

eyyyy. same here on all counts

1 hour ago, Shatter said:

Do you have any proof whatsoever that Google accesses Google Drive, Photos, Docs, etc., to take that info and feed it to Gemini?

Because I find that highly unlikely and it stinks to high heaven of misinformation.

From what I see is that Google can only access your docs if you enable Gemini. If they could do this they'd violate PIPEDA in Canada.

"We do not use your Workspace data to train or improve the underlying generative AI and large language models ... outside of Workspace without permission."

https://workspace.google.com/blog/identity-and-security/protecting-your-data-era-generative-ai

I'm pretty sure it's only when you activate the 'everyone with a link' sharing option

44 minutes ago, Verdance said:

Ya know, i used to think AI was stupid. It still is. But it’s also really annoying how it exists everywhere, and how it ruins schools because 50% of high school students use ChatGPT for 100% of their work, and scary how it lies to people and has no morality, and frustrating that big companies use it to get even more money from you

39 minutes ago, Shatter said:

Indeed. I generally dislike AI. I see it as a tool, not a wheelchair. If you use it as a wheelchair for long enough, you will start to forget how to walk.

Mmmm I hate AI with a burning passion

I very rarely allow myself to use it, because of all of the ethical issues coming out of it, and a few personal ones

like how it feeds off of and steals art from creators everywhere

like how it steals creators jobs

like how it lowers the intellectual quality of humans

I'll use it as the AI my teacher trained to grade practice FRQs in human Geo, but will resent people using it to supplement things. I understand not having time to run through a google search (especially for niche things), but I personally prefer to try and find the sources myself and learn the skill of how to do it

my main arguements are The Environment, Not The Future, and Unreproducability

Basically (if you want me to rant more I can), It harms the environment INCREDIBLY (The impact of a single question is enough to make consistent use questionable), people say it is the future, but it really isn't (cause we wont have one if we keep on using it, it probably wont get much better, and it is loosing new data to train off of), and with almost every other innovation, an individual can recreate it (like coding things, building computers) but a non-excessively funded (this means no big companies or governments) will never be able to make a data center big enough to successfully recreate something like ChatGPT, or any other LLM (which means any AI that can process words through output or input)

As an artist, i dont care at all about AI learning from my art. While what AI generates is not art, because its not coming from a being with a soul, humans steal from art all the time when creating art. If an AI directly copies one specific piece of art and passes it off as its own, that’s theft. If it’s copying several art styles at once while trying to fulfill the requests of a user- well, other artists can get mad about that, it’s their prerogative, but i wont. Stealing is inherent to art, and lying is inherent to storytelling.

15 hours ago, Shatter said:

Do you have any proof whatsoever that Google accesses Google Drive, Photos, Docs, etc., to take that info and feed it to Gemini?

Because I find that highly unlikely and it stinks to high heaven of misinformation.

You know there are more polite ways to ask me for sources.

I suppose I should start by saying this is starting in the US, and not all of these features are necessarily available(or available for users) everywhere.

1. Photos has an "Opt-in" that has Gemini scan all photos in your album and generate images of you and your friends/family: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/04/20/google-starts-scanning-all-your-photos-as-new-update-goes-live/
2. Photos employs AI moderators that scan your photos and remove anything they deem violates their policies
3. Photos has an AI search feature

So they have an open admission that you can opt-in to having AI train on your photos, as well as two features that are passively looking at them. Of those two the search feature in particular is open about the fact that they do train on your prompts. In order to do that they also need to train off of the photos that you get the results from, which they don't say. Photos is next to inarguable.

Docs is a bit less clear

Google claims that it isn't training its models on them, but I have several reasons to doubt them.

1. They added AI reading of documents, so you can listen to them. 
2. Multiple people have reported that google has locked them out of their documents, with the only explanation that we can find being the content of the documents. https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/google-docs-locks-out-writer/
3. Google has already added content filters to docs in the past.

Google has show a pattern of behavior, that ignores user will and privacy, a short look at their history of fines over privacy law violations will show this. Hundreds of millions of dollars in individual fines, and yet despite this, they haven't stopped.

These two things stand

1. Google used to have a slogan, "Don't be evil"
2. Statement number one is only true in the past tense.

Even assuming they aren't actively training their models on everything right now, they have already begun implementing training on user data, and all signs indicate this will only increase. It takes a single update for an "opt-in" feature to become "opt-out" or even non-optional, assuming Google even honors the "opt-in" which they have proven before they are willing to violate(see below). The largest AI models already have everything easily available, and they are beginning to look for new material. Google is sitting on top of one of the largest sources of human writing, including material that no other AI model has access to.

Do you really trust them not to?

14 hours ago, Shatter said:

Yeah. What you say is either EXTREMELY exaggerated or Google is setting itself up for the biggest class action lawsuit in Canadian history. This would violate the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. 

If you wish to read PIPEDA (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-8.6/index.html)

 

I wish you luck, but I don't think Google is too concerned about the law, or the potential penalties they would face.

That's over a billion dollars just from ignoring privacy laws in the last couple of years. I didn't even list all of them, or their other legal fines for violating laws unrelated to privacy. In total Google was fined almost 4 Billion dollars in legal penalties in 2025 alone. https://proton.me/tech-fines-tracker

6 hours ago, Frustration said:

You know there are more polite ways to ask me for sources.

 

 

I suppose I should start by saying this is starting in the US, and not all of these features are necessarily available(or available for users) everywhere.

1. Photos has an "Opt-in" that has Gemini scan all photos in your album and generate images of you and your friends/family: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/04/20/google-starts-scanning-all-your-photos-as-new-update-goes-live/
2. Photos employs AI moderators that scan your photos and remove anything they deem violates their policies
3. Photos has an AI search feature

So they have an open admission that you can opt-in to having AI train on your photos, as well as two features that are passively looking at them. Of those two the search feature in particular is open about the fact that they do train on your prompts. In order to do that they also need to train off of the photos that you get the results from, which they don't say. Photos is next to inarguable.

Docs is a bit less clear

Google claims that it isn't training its models on them, but I have several reasons to doubt them.

1. They added AI reading of documents, so you can listen to them. 
2. Multiple people have reported that google has locked them out of their documents, with the only explanation that we can find being the content of the documents. https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/google-docs-locks-out-writer/
3. Google has already added content filters to docs in the past.

Google has show a pattern of behavior, that ignores user will and privacy, a short look at their history of fines over privacy law violations will show this. Hundreds of millions of dollars in individual fines, and yet despite this, they haven't stopped.

These two things stand

1. Google used to have a slogan, "Don't be evil"
2. Statement number one is only true in the past tense.

Even assuming they aren't actively training their models on everything right now, they have already begun implementing training on user data, and all signs indicate this will only increase. It takes a single update for an "opt-in" feature to become "opt-out" or even non-optional, assuming Google even honors the "opt-in" which they have proven before they are willing to violate(see below). The largest AI models already have everything easily available, and they are beginning to look for new material. Google is sitting on top of one of the largest sources of human writing, including material that no other AI model has access to.

Do you really trust them not to?

I wish you luck, but I don't think Google is too concerned about the law, or the potential penalties they would face.

  Reveal hidden contents

In 2022 Google was fined $391 million dollars by 40 US states for continuing to track users locations after they had opted out of location sharing

In 2025 France fined Google 325 million Euros for displaying ads without consent and collecting invalid consent from users during account creation, this follows after another 50 million euro fine in 2019 for the same reason

In 2020 Google was fined 100 million euros for placing cookies without consent

In 2025 Google was fined $425 Million dollars for violating California's privacy laws and recording user activity even after users had opted out of data sharing

That's over a billion dollars just from ignoring privacy laws in the last couple of years. I didn't even list all of them, or their other legal fines for violating laws unrelated to privacy. In total Google was fined almost 4 Billion dollars in legal penalties in 2025 alone. https://proton.me/tech-fines-tracker

Sorry about the impoliteness. I tend to get a bit annoyed and grumpy when I see information I believe is incorrect, and especially so for what I believe is misinformation. You have my deepest apologies.

There is a difference between content processing, policy moderation, and training foundation models on private user data. For example, an AI search feature does require analysis and indexing (which are not the same as training), and moderation systems do exist for TOS reasons (For that writer, it depends on what she was writing. I'd love a screenshot of her screen to see the message.). Also, text-to-speech has been a thing since 1968. None of this leads me to believe that Google is training Gemini on my Grade 7 school projects, though.

Given Google's past history with aggressive data collection and privacy violations, some people (such as you) do not trust their assurances that they keep this limited to user-based consent.

I will concede that you do have some points, but some of your conclusions go beyond what I think is happening.

Also, when I look at the fines, it seems most of the 4.24 billion dollar fines from 2025 is a 3.5 billion dollar fine from the European Union for illegally favouring its own digital advertising services.

Do I think Google is all noble? Hell no. But do I think they are harvesting my info? No. Not really.

20 hours ago, Shatter said:

Sorry about the impoliteness. I tend to get a bit annoyed and grumpy when I see information I believe is incorrect, and especially so for what I believe is misinformation. You have my deepest apologies.

You're good, goodness knows I've said things I regret.

20 hours ago, Shatter said:

Also, when I look at the fines, it seems most of the 4.24 billion dollar fines from 2025 is a 3.5 billion dollar fine from the European Union for illegally favouring its own digital advertising services.

The 4 Billion was more to demonstrate that Google is more than willing to violate the law on a massive scale.

20 hours ago, Shatter said:

Given Google's past history with aggressive data collection and privacy violations, some people (such as you) do not trust their assurances that they keep this limited to user-based consent.

I will concede that you do have some points, but some of your conclusions go beyond what I think is happening.

Do I think Google is all noble? Hell no. But do I think they are harvesting my info? No. Not really.

If you're not worried then more power to you. I hope this didn't come off as "Google is bad and you must switch to one of my recommended alternatives." I was more detailing reasons why I personally don't like them and decided to switch, and to offer some of the information I found to others who might also be interested.