Times have been wild in the tech space and due to the privacy issues and issues around data ownership, I’m doing my best to say goodbye to the major offenders.

It’s important to me that my creative writing and personal data are secure and not being used to train AI. Previously, I had been vocal about using Google Docs and then the news broke about how they were using private docs and emails, among other things, to train their AI. I knew I had to make a change, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to use.

Now I do have Scrivener, but it’s not always feasible to use while I’m on the go. So here are the apps I have been using as I move my data away from Google.

1. Notion. I have moved away from Google Keep and started organizing my notes in Notion. Not only is it easier to sort through, I can connect my notes like my own personal wiki. While Notion does offer AI, it is a feature that does not have to be used and isn’t baked into every action. And best of all, it can be used from anywhere. I use it on my desktop and the mobile app on my phone.
2. Ellipsus. Instead of Google Docs, I’m moving my writing and drafting to Ellipsus which I learned about from my co-author Veronica King. And Kate Cavanaugh has a video about it on YouTube. I have been using it since the beginning of the year and they have already added a bunch of features that they promised and they make it easy to request new features as well. Of course it’s available in the web browser so I use it on my desktop and iPad, they also just released an app for Android and they are working on one for iOS.
3. DuckDuckGo. I’ve moved my primary browser to DuckDuckGo. This has been a change for muscle memory. I’ve been using Google for such a long time it felt weird to let go of my standard browser. What finally broke me was using Google and being prompted to prove I wasn’t a robot because my google searches didn’t make sense to the machines. As a writer, my searches are all over the place and it was really frustrating to keep being prompted just because I googled egg salad recopies in one search and how to disarticulate a joint in another. Mind your business google. So I switched to DuckDuckGo and I haven’t been asked to prove I’m human since. Also the audacity, a machine asking ME to prove that I am human.

These are my top three tech changes, but I have more in the works. If you would like to see what other changes I’m making, be sure to follow. And if you’d like to see the creators I follow who have more tips and tricks leave a comment and I’ll share more of their content. We’re all just out here learning how to keep ourselves safe so join me as I say goodbye to the tech bros!

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