Google Drive is convenient — but your files live on Google's servers under Google's terms. A Private Data Pod gives you the same convenience with the critical difference: you own the data, not Google.
Side by side
| Feature | 🔐 Private Data Pod | 📂 Google Drive |
|---|---|---|
| You own the data | ✓ | ✗ |
| No ad targeting or data profiling | ✓ | ✗ |
| Built on open W3C standard | ✓ | ✗ |
| Switch providers without losing data | ✓ | Google Takeout only |
| Granular per-file access control | ✓ | Limited sharing only |
| Works with third-party apps via open protocol | ✓ | ✗ |
| Revoke any app's access instantly | ✓ | Google account settings |
| Account cannot be banned/suspended unilaterally | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free tier available | ✓ 1 GB free | ✓ 15 GB free |
| No Google account required | ✓ | ✗ |
The details
When you upload to Google Drive, the files sit on Google's infrastructure. Google's Terms of Service grant them a broad licence to use your content to improve their products. You can export via Google Takeout, but the primary copy lives under their control.
Your pod is your personal server. The data is stored to serve you, not to feed an advertising algorithm. No licence over your content is granted to us beyond what's needed to run the server you're paying for.
Google is an advertising company. Metadata and usage patterns across Drive, Gmail, Docs, and other products feed into Google's ad-targeting profile for you. Your data may also be used to train AI models unless you opt out in account settings.
We run a Solid pod server. That's it. No ads, no tracking, no AI training on your data. Our revenue comes from subscriptions — your data is not the product.
Google Drive files are often stored in proprietary Google formats (Docs, Sheets, Slides). Exporting is possible but requires manual action and format conversion. All the apps you've connected via Google OAuth are tied to your Google account.
Because Solid is a W3C open standard, you can move to any compatible host — or self-host — and every app you've connected keeps working. There are no proprietary formats. Your data is yours to take.
Google can suspend or delete your entire account for Terms of Service violations — which can happen due to automated flagging with no human review. Thousands of users have lost access to years of documents, photos, and email with little to no recourse.
Your pod account is yours. We do not run automated content moderation that deletes your data without notice. And because it's an open standard, you're never one policy change away from losing everything — you can move elsewhere before that happens.