I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it with ever-rising, never-ending subscription costs by digital monopolies, invasion of personal privacy, and now hijacking of my content for AI training.
So I started making changes. I moved from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice (FREE). From OneNote to Joplin (FREE). From OneDrive, Google Docs, and Dropbox to pCloud Drive (FREE, with an option for a lifetime purchase if you need more storage). And, last but not least, I moved from Gmail and Outlook to Proton Mail (FREE with option to upgrade).
And once I got over the mild inconvenience of learning something new (all of these are super easy and intuitive to use), I felt something I didn’t expect.
Relief.
The Quiet Cost of Convenience
We’ve all been trained to value convenience above everything else. Easy to use. Auto-sync. Everything available everywhere, all the time.
It works. That’s why we use it. But there’s a trade-off we don’t think about much. Control.
When your documents live inside Microsoft or Google’s ecosystem, you don’t fully own the environment they exist in. Your access depends on accounts, policies, pricing changes, and systems you don’t see.
That may sound abstract until something goes wrong. Accounts get locked. Files disappear. Permissions change. Pricing creeps up.
And you realize you’re renting your own life back from someone else.
Why I Made the Switch
This came down to three things. Security, money, and something newer that most people haven’t fully thought through yet. How our data is being used to train AI.
1. Security that actually means something
I’m not talking about whether Microsoft or Google have strong security. They do. The issue is exposure.
The more centralized your data is, the bigger the target it becomes. One account breach can open the door to everything. I wanted to reduce that risk.
LibreOffice stores files locally. Joplin can be set up with end-to-end encryption. pCloud offers client-side encryption if you want it, which means even they can’t read your files. Proton Mail adds the same idea to email, with end-to-end encryption built in.
That shifts control back where it belongs. With me.
2. The long-term cost we ignore
Subscriptions are easy to justify in the moment. Ten dollars here. A few dollars there. Over time, it adds up.
LibreOffice is free. Joplin is free. pCloud offers a lifetime plan. Proton Mail has a usable free tier and paid options that stay predictable compared to the constant expansion of bundled ecosystems.
If there is a cost, you pay once, or you pay transparently. Either way, you’re not trapped inside a system that keeps expanding the bill over time just to access your own work.
That changes the relationship. You’re not tied to a monthly bill just to access your own files.
3. Your data is more valuable than you think
This is the part that tipped me over.
We’re in a moment where large tech companies are building and refining AI systems at an incredible pace. To do that, they need enormous amounts of data.
Some of that data comes from public sources. Some comes from licensed datasets. And some comes from user interactions and content, depending on the product and the terms you’ve agreed to.
And those terms can change.
Both Google and Microsoft are continually updating their privacy policies to clarify that they may use publicly available information to train their AI models. And Microsoft expanded its AI features across products like Word and Outlook, raising new questions about how user content is processed inside those systems. And just forget about Google Docs…
It’s time to pay attention to how quickly the landscape is shifting and how much of it happens without most people noticing.
That was enough for me.
I didn’t want my content sitting inside those environments if I had another option. Using tools like LibreOffice, Joplin, pCloud, and Proton Mail keeps more of that content local or encrypted in transit and at rest. Using tools like LibreOffice, Joplin, pCloud, and Proton Mail keeps more of that content either local or encrypted in transit and at rest. It also reduces how many systems your personal data has to pass through in the first place.
It doesn’t make you invisible, but it does make you less exposed. And it does save you a LOT of money.
What I Gained (and What I Didn’t Lose)
You might assume switching means giving something up.
In reality, I lost very little.
LibreOffice handles documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs without issue for everyday use. Unless you’re doing highly specialized work, it’s more than enough.
Joplin is simple and focused. It does exactly what I need a note system to do.
pCloud (a Swiss-owned company) works like any other cloud drive, with the added benefit that I’m not wondering how my data might be used down the line.
Proton Mail replaces Gmail and Outlook without changing how email functions day to day, but it changes what is exposed and what is readable by default.
Was there a learning curve? A small one.
Was it worth it? Absolutely.
This Isn’t About Being Extreme.
You don’t have to delete every account and go live off the grid. That’s not the point.
The point is to be more intentional about where your information lives, who controls access to it, and how it might be used.
Maybe you start small. Move your notes. Try LibreOffice for a few documents. Set up a different cloud storage option and see how it feels.
You don’t have to do everything at once. Although it took me only a weekend to complete all this.
The Bigger Picture
For me, this was about stepping out of a system that quietly normalizes dependency.
When everything you create, write, and store lives inside a few corporate ecosystems, you give up more control than you realize.
Convenience makes that easy to ignore.
Until you stop and look at it.
Taking back even a small piece of control shifts something. You become more aware. More deliberate. A little less on autopilot.
And in a world that’s increasingly built on our data, that awareness matters.
More than ever.
Related Posts: