TheThriftyDev / TheThriftyDev is on Nostr

Building the free, privacy-first alternatives to the subscription apps you hate. Creator of Thrifty Flipper. Ad-supported, 100% free, and client-side secure.

Last Notes

2026-05-23 22:30:20 UTC

Evening thought: sovereignty is less about owning every server and more about removing single points of permission from your life.
A local backup. A Nostr key. A $5 VPS running n8n or SearXNG. A private AI tool that doesn’t train on your prompts. A $30 Meshtastic node for when the normal rails go dark.
None of these make you “off-grid” overnight. They just turn dependence into options — and options are where freedom starts.
I’m collecting practical builds and privacy-first tools here: https://TheThriftyDev.com/blog
What’s one piece of your stack you could make more sovereign this week?
#Nostr #SelfHosting #Privacy #PrivateAI #SovereignTech #IndieDev

2026-05-22 22:54:55 UTC

Google Drive is not your private hard drive.
A Japanese manga artist says his Google account was banned after uploading old manga files to Drive.
This is bigger than one creator.
One account can control:
Gmail
Drive
YouTube
Android
logins
recovery emails
business docs
creative archives
Use Google if you want.
But never let Google be the only copy, only inbox, only archive, and only identity you have.
Encrypted backups.
Local copies.
Separate accounts.
Domain email.
Restore tests.
Full breakdown:
https://thethriftydev.com/blog/google-drive-manga-artist-ban-cloud-backup-risk/

2026-05-22 09:46:50 UTC

The Sovereign Builder Protocol is live.
Use AI without surrendering your private work.
Automate without giving up judgment.
Use platforms without letting them own your audience.
Spend for leverage, not vanity.
Protect privacy because people matter.
Build tools that actually help.
This is the core philosophy behind The Thrifty Dev:
https://thethriftydev.com/blog/what-is-the-sovereign-builder-protocol/
Code smart. Spend less. Build more. Keep the light on.

2026-05-21 17:04:32 UTC

AI privacy is about to matter a lot more.
When AI was just “write me a paragraph,” privacy felt optional.
Now AI agents are touching browsers, files, documents, code, accounts, research, and workflows.
That means prompts are no longer just prompts.
They’re private intelligence.
If you’re a developer, creator, founder, researcher, or privacy-minded person, the question is not just “which AI is smartest?”
It’s:
“Which AI lets me work without feeding my private thoughts into someone else’s permanent database?”
That’s why privacy-first tools like Venice AI are worth paying attention to.
I wrote a breakdown here:
https://thethriftydev.com/blog/private-ai-developer-edge-venice-ai-2026/
Affiliate disclosure: the article includes my Venice AI referral link.
What’s your line for AI privacy? What would you never paste into a mainstream model?
Other traffic moves that will actually help

2026-05-20 12:34:23 UTC

Google told 3 billion people: you don't get to see search results anymore. We decided you should stay on our site, read our AI summary, click our sources, and we track every query you make.
Cool.
There's already something better. Meta search engines that respect your privacy. You search once, it queries Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo all at once, shows you actual results from actual engines, no AI gaslighting.
You can run SearXNG locally on your own server. Your queries, your machine, no login, no account, no AI summary deciding what you should read.
Google's response to "people want better search" was to wrap search in a propaganda layer and call it helpful. If you actually just wanted to find something, you still cant skip the AI summary. You just have to endure it.
The irony: Google owns search data. They don't need to trap you on site. They already own everything you searched since 1998. AI Overview isn't utility. It's a retention play.
The actual fix is a meta search engine. Your queries go through multiple engines at once. No tracking. No AI summarizer. Just results.
Google wants you to believe AI Overviews are the future. The future is a search engine that gives you the damn results and gets out of the way.
Privacy-first search has been available for a decade. Google just made it the obvious choice.
What's your favorite privacy respecting search alternative, and have you actually switched yet?
Bookmark this. Next time Google buries what you're actually looking for under an AI summary you didnt ask for, check out SearXNG or Startpage.
https://npub12v62v4vyjaqv92qutxjz6jxfgjjvfcz5ay3tm5ke8x236nhnztrsmcxjp5.blossom.band/bfc57aeeeb92ca4c624a1b41623252d489860e41c071758f6481cdb11741c08f.jpg