I once stored everything on Google Drive. I'm guessing you do, too. Its mass convenience in being accessible from anywhere, linked directly to Gmail, free, and deep-pocketed in terms of storage space means that millions if not billions of people worldwide have happily handed all their data over to Google Drive.
I haven't gotten away from Google Drive entirely, but I limit my use of it to clients who need me to use it for their overall workflows. Everywhere else, I have alternatives. There are also a lot of alternatives out there I have never tried; I'll add some links so you can explore them for yourself.
The Bottom Line: The cloud is just someone else's computer. The best way to protect your privacy and security is to avoid storing your stuff on someone else's computer. Full stop.
To this end, my preferred document storage device is now a 256GB thumb drive that lives in my pencil case. Even this is temporary, however; it carries the files I'm currently using. Once a week (plus anytime I'll be traveling), I dump its contents to my at-home external hard drives - the ones that live in the safe. If my files aren't connected to the Internet, no one can read them, steal them, or scrape them to train generative AI.
Sometimes, however, I just need to keep a few things in the cloud - usually so someone else can collaborate on them with me.
I have two primary tools for online document collaboration:
Proton Drive recently opened up collaboration to anyone, not just those who also have Proton accounts. I don't yet know what the effect of this will be on document privacy and security. Currently, I only use Proton Drive when someone wants to collaborate on a file with me. (This is rare outside my work life.)
CryptPad. I love CryptPad. It's based in France, and it has both the vibes and the robustness of pre-2000 Microsoft Word. (Y'all have no idea how many functionalities got stripped out of Microsoft Word between 2000 and 2007. It was great software long enough to kill WordPerfect and then it lost 2/3 of its mojo so it could be prettier.) I will die mad about it.
CryptPad does load a bit slowly, and the interface feels unfinished to people who are used to the slick, "minimial tools only" feel of Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Also, if you lose your password, you are completely out of luck - CryptPad doesn't store your password, so it has no means to let you back in.
That said, CryptPad has more document type options than Google Docs, and it also supports real-time collaborative chat while working on documents. And it's free.
Some other options out there I have not tried:
I haven't tried everything out there, so I can't make universal recommendations. I'll repeat, though: the cloud is always "someone else's computer." Usually, that "someone else" is a complete stranger to you. If you wouldn't leave a document in the hands of a random stranger, don't leave it on someone else's computer.
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