Privacy, AI, and Digital Journaling

Are you 18 years or older?

Have you ever used a digital tool to journal or write personal reflections?

Yes, I currently do

Part 1 — Digital Journaling & Privacy

1. How often do you currently write personal reflections digitally?

Daily or almost daily

A few times a week

A few times a month

I no longer journal digitally

2. Are there things you would feel comfortable writing in a paper journal but would hesitate to put in a digital journal?

3. What, if anything, would make you hesitate to write something deeply personal in a digital journal?

Someone gaining unauthorized access

A data breach or hack

Employees of the company being able to access my entries

My entries being used to train AI models

My data being stored in the cloud

Not knowing exactly where my data is stored

Not being able to permanently delete my data

The company changing its privacy policy later

The service shutting down or losing my data

I generally would not hesitate

4. Which of these would make you trust a digital journaling service more?

End-to-end encryption

Data stored only on my own device

Clear information about where my data is stored

A clear policy that my entries are never used to train AI models

The ability to permanently delete all of my data

The ability to easily export all of my data

No employee or human access to journal entries

Independent security or privacy audits

Open-source software

None of these would significantly change my trust

Part 2 — AI & Long-Term Personal Patterns

5. Imagine an AI could analyze months or years of your private journal entries and point out recurring patterns you may not have noticed yourself. How comfortable would you be allowing an AI to do this?

Somewhat comfortable

Somewhat uncomfortable

Very uncomfortable

I would never allow AI access to my private journal

6. What conditions, if any, would make you more comfortable allowing AI to analyze your journal over time?

The AI analysis happens entirely on my own device

My journal entries are end-to-end encrypted

I can choose exactly which entries the AI can access

My entries are never used to train AI models

No employee or other human can access my entries

I can permanently delete both my entries and AI-generated insights

I can turn the AI analysis on or off at any time

The system clearly explains how it reached an insight

Nothing would make me comfortable with this

7. If an AI noticed a recurring pattern in your own history and suggested one small next step, how likely would you be to actually try it?

It would depend on the suggestion

I would not want AI giving me personal suggestions

8. What would make you more likely to act on a personal suggestion from AI?

It explains why the suggestion is relevant to me

It refers to patterns from my own past experiences

The suggested step is small and low-risk

I can verify the suggestion with another person or source

The suggestion connects to a goal I already care about

I remain fully in control of whether to ignore, change, or accept it

I have successfully followed useful suggestions from the AI before

Nothing would make me likely to act on personal AI suggestions

Part 3 — Private Context & Human Connections

9. Imagine an AI knows from your private journal that you are struggling with something. It never reveals your journal entry to anyone. However, it notices that another person may have relevant experience, a similar challenge, or complementary skills. The AI asks you privately whether you would like to be introduced to that person. How would you feel about this?

I would find this useful

I might consider it, but only with my explicit approval every time

I might consider it if strong privacy protections were in place

I would feel uncomfortable with it

I would never want private journal context used to suggest people

10. Which part of that scenario, if any, would concern you most?

The AI analyzing my private journal in the first place

My private information somehow being revealed

Not knowing exactly why I was matched with someone

The other person being able to infer something private about me

Losing control over who I am introduced to

The system making incorrect or inappropriate matches

I would not be particularly concerned