Privacy with AI: Client Names Stay on Your Mac
An AI agent is only as helpful as the data it may read. And everything it reads, it sends to its provider's servers: client names, addresses, bank details. For invoicing data that is a fundamental problem, whether the agent comes from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google or Mistral.
That is why GrandTotal gives the AI no names. You ask “What does Müller owe us?”. The AI provider receives “What does ⟦W-7F3A0⟧ owe us?”. You still see the answer with the real name, because GrandTotal puts it back in on your Mac.
How It Works
In Ask GrandTotal, GrandTotal replaces names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, IBANs and web addresses with placeholders before anything leaves the Mac. The same client keeps the same placeholder throughout the conversation. So the AI can compare, count and ask follow-up questions without ever knowing a name. Amounts, dates and document numbers stay readable. The mapping to the real names lives only in GrandTotal's memory on your Mac and disappears with the conversation.
For other AI programs, the Redact info option shortens every word to its first and last letter: “Erika Musterfrau” becomes “E*a M*u”. There you read the AI's answer directly, and nobody puts the names back in.
In Ask GrandTotal, this also applies to your question. GrandTotal recognizes names in it even with typos, spelled differently or in lowercase, such as “Müler”, “Mueller” or Mayer instead of Meier. When the AI searches, creates or exports something, GrandTotal puts the real values in. The spreadsheet in the Exports folder therefore contains the correct names.
See for Yourself
The eye in the Ask GrandTotal window switches to what actually went to the AI: your question, the AI's queries and its answer, each with placeholders. A whole document as the AI receives it is shown by Show as Ask GrandTotal sees it in the context menu.
Ask GrandTotal always pseudonymizes. For other AI programs, you find the option under Settings › MCP Server. The question mark next to it shows how a client reaches the AI.
What It Cannot Do
GrandTotal replaces names from your client data everywhere. Other names in notes, item texts, files or your question are recognized by the macOS language analysis, and it sometimes misses one. You can check this at any time, as described above under “See for Yourself”. Amounts, places and dates may in some cases point to a client.
With other AI programs connected through the MCP Server, the option protects everything GrandTotal delivers. What you type there yourself goes straight to the provider. So that the program still finds the client you named, GrandTotal looks up the name on the Mac and answers only with the internal number and the shortened name.
At a Glance
Placeholders instead of names
Names, addresses, IBAN, email, phone, web
Real names only on the Mac
In your question, too
Verifiable
The eye shows what went to the AI