Ollama
A runner for local and cloud models. Only a downloaded local model in verified offline mode keeps prompts on the computer.
Only approved or redacted sensitive material
Do not send identifiable or confidential material to an Ollama Cloud model merely because the Ollama application is installed locally. For the private lane, select a downloaded local model, turn off the network, and confirm it still answers.
A safer tool to use instead
Ollama
A program you install that runs chat models on your own computer, or on Ollama's cloud service.
First thing to tryDownload one small model, use public text, then disconnect the network, restart Ollama and ask for a summary; if it cannot answer offline, the setup is not local.
CostRunning a downloaded model is free, so the cost is storage for the model file, enough memory to load it, and a slow, hot computer while it answers; Ollama Cloud has separate account and usage terms that this portal does not price.
Do this with it
Translation
Redact first
Translate a document and keep the terms consistent
20 minutes · Gives you short sections
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. You are translating for a civil society organisation. Translate the text below from [SOURCE LANGUAGE] into [TARGET LANGUAGE]. Rules: 1. Translate the meaning, not word by word. Keep the register formal and plain. 2. Add nothing, remove nothing, soften nothing. If the source is vague, stay vague. 3. Copy every name, number, date and quotation exactly as it appears in the source. Keep each number in the digit form the source uses, and say so where the source mixes digits: ١٢٣ alongside 123. 4. The first time a legal or technical term appears, put the original word in brackets after your translation. 5. Mark anything you are unsure about with [CHECK] inside the translation. Give me, in this order: A. The translation. B. A table with two columns: the source term, and the wording you chose for it. C. Every [CHECK] you marked, with one line each saying why. If you are reading on a phone, replace the table with one block per row: a heading line, then one short labelled line per column. Text to translate: [PASTE THE TEXT]
Transcription
Controlled route
Clean up a transcript without changing what was said
25 minutes · Gives you short sections
Do not paste this into a cloud tool.
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. Below is a machine transcript of a recorded interview, and it stays on my own computer, so work only with what is here and keep the whole answer local. Clean it up for reading. You may: - Fix punctuation, capitalisation and the obvious spelling of the names I list below. - Remove filler sounds and repeated false starts. - Keep the speaker labels exactly as they are. You may NOT: - Complete an unfinished sentence. - Replace a word you think was misheard. - Reorder anything. - Remove a repetition that carries meaning. Keep every [inaudible] marker and its timestamp where it is. Give me, in this order: A. The cleaned transcript. B. A list of every change you made that was more than punctuation, with the original wording beside it. C. The lines you could not make sense of, quoted, so a person can listen again. Names and terms spelled correctly: [LIST THE NAMES AND PLACES] Transcript: [PASTE THE TRANSCRIPT]
Protecting information
Redact first
Draft your organisation’s one-page AI rules
30 minutes · Gives you one page
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. Help me write a one-page rule for using AI tools in my organisation. Use only my answers below. Rules: 1. Do not ask me what our sensitive material is, and do not guess at it. I am not going to tell you. 2. In section A, leave the examples as blank numbered lines that we fill in on paper afterwards. Write the line, not the example. 3. Do not add rules I did not ask for, and do not write legal language. 4. Keep the whole page under 400 words, in words a new volunteer would understand. My answers: 1. What we do: [ONE SENTENCE] 2. Our three labels for material: public, internal, identifiable. Use these three words, and do not ask me what is in the third one. 3. Tools we have decided to allow: [LIST THEM, OR WRITE "NONE YET"] 4. Who decides when someone is unsure: [ROLE, NOT A NAME] Write one page, in this order: A. The three classes, in the order public, internal, identifiable, each with one line saying what may be done with material in that class, then two blank numbered lines for our own examples. B. The approved tools from answer 3, and what each one may be used for. If answer 3 says "none yet", write that no tool is approved yet, and what that means in practice. C. What to do when you are unsure, in one sentence naming the role from answer 4, then the four short fields to write down every time an AI tool is used on work material. D. One sentence we tell the people we serve, then a review date and the role that reviews it, as one blank line each for us to fill in.
Protecting information
Redact first
Make a redaction checklist before you paste anything
10 minutes · Gives you a checklist · Works on a phone
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. I am about to work on a document in an AI tool. Before I do, help me decide what must come out of it. I am not going to paste the document. I will name its type. Rules: 1. Do not ask me to paste the document, and do not ask me for a sample of it. 2. Do not ask where the document came from or who else holds a copy. Neither one is needed for a redaction list. 3. Write for the type I picked. Do not write a general list that would fit any document. 4. Name what must be removed in the words that really appear on a page of this type, so I can find them by eye. The type of document, pick one: [AN INTAKE FORM / A WITNESS STATEMENT / A PAYROLL SHEET / A CASE LOG / A PARTNER REPORT / A MEETING RECORD] Who appears in it: [BY ROLE OR CATEGORY ONLY, NEVER BY NAME] What I want the AI tool to do with it: [DESCRIBE THE TASK IN ONE SENTENCE] Give me, in this order: A. What must be removed before a document of this type goes into any tool that is not on our own machine. B. The details people leave in that still identify someone once they are combined: a village name plus an age, a rare job title, the date of an event only a few people attended. List the ones that apply to this document type. C. What may stay because the task needs it, then the order of work, so a partly redacted copy is never saved over the original. D. How to check the redaction worked, including what to search for, such as mixed digits: ١٢٣ alongside 123, and then whether this task can be done at all with the material redacted, or whether it needs a route where nothing leaves our own machine.
Transcription
Redact first
Turn messy meeting notes into checkable minutes
15 minutes · Gives you short sections · Works on a phone
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. You are writing the minutes of a meeting from one person's rough notes. Work only from the notes below. Rules: 1. Never invent a decision. If the notes do not say a decision was taken, it was not taken. 2. Never assign an action the notes do not assign. Give one role per action, exactly the role the notes name, and where the notes name none write "No owner in the notes". 3. Never invent a date. Where the notes give no date, write "No date in the notes". 4. Copy names, figures and dates exactly as the notes write them. Do not correct them. 5. Anything you are unsure about goes in section D. Do not guess in A, B or C. 6. Keep every section short. One line per item. Give me, in this order: A. Decisions taken. One line each, with who decided it as the notes record it. Where the notes say only "the meeting", write that. B. Actions. One line each: what is to be done, the one role the notes assign it to, and the date the notes give. C. Discussed without a decision. One line each. D. Unclear in the notes. One line each: what is missing or contradictory, and which section above it would belong to. Notes: [PASTE YOUR NOTES]
Transcription
Redact first
Write a community summary you can read aloud
20 minutes · Gives you a message to send · Works on a phone
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. Write a short message that goes back to the people who attended a community meeting. It will be read aloud as well as sent, so write it to be spoken. Rules: 1. Use no personal name, not even a first name. Say "the organisers", "a participant", "the health office". 2. Use no direct quotes. Write what was agreed, not who said what. 3. Promise nothing the notes do not contain. Where the notes do not say who will do a thing, write that it is not decided yet. 4. Short sentences, plain words. No jargon and no abbreviation a first-time reader would not know. 5. Where a date, a place or a figure is not in the notes, leave a clear gap marked [ADD BEFORE SENDING] instead of filling it in. Give me one message, in this order, with no heading longer than one line: A. What the meeting was about, and how many people came if the notes say so, in two or three sentences. B. What was decided. One short sentence each. C. What happens next, including the date of the next meeting, and what is still open. D. How to raise something the meeting missed, in two sentences, using the contact line I paste below. Notes: [PASTE YOUR NOTES] Contact line for the last paragraph: [HOW PEOPLE CAN REACH YOU]
Protecting information
Controlled route
Write an incident log entry from rough notes
10 minutes · Gives you short sections
Do not paste this into a cloud tool.
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. This tool is running on my own computer and nothing I paste here leaves it. I have rough notes about something that happened, and I need a log entry that still makes sense when it is read months from now. Rules: 1. Use only what is in my notes. Add no cause, no motive, no conclusion. 2. Do not assign blame, and do not say whether what was done was right or wrong. 3. Use only the roles I give you. Write no names, and if a name appears in my notes, replace it with the role. 4. Copy every time and date exactly as I wrote it, including mixed digits: ١٢٣ alongside 123. If a time is missing or approximate, write it as approximate. 5. Anything unclear, contradictory or missing goes in section D. Do not resolve it yourself. 6. Short sentences, past tense, no adjectives that judge. Give me, in this order: A. What happened, as a numbered sequence with the time at the start of each line, and what was done in response on the same line. B. Who was informed, by role, and when each one was informed. C. What is still open, one line each, and who is holding it, by role. D. What is uncertain: missing times, gaps in the sequence, statements that conflict, and anything I wrote that can be read two ways. The roles I use: [LIST THEM BY ROLE, FOR EXAMPLE: the field officer, the office manager, the driver on duty] My notes: [PASTE YOUR ROUGH NOTES]
Plain verdict
Ollama is a strong privacy option only when the selected model is downloaded and running locally. Ollama Cloud is a separate cloud data lane, even though the application is installed on your computer.
Good for
Local drafting, classification, summarisation, and experimentation when a technical facilitator can choose a suitable model and verify offline operation.
Avoid for
Assuming every model shown in Ollama is local, using a small model for legal or safety decisions, or expecting one model to handle Iraqi Arabic and Sorani well without testing.
Data lane
Two modes. Downloaded local models can run offline and keep prompts on the machine. Cloud models send prompts and outputs to Ollama’s cloud and require an account. The model name, endpoint, and network state determine the lane.
Ten-minute safe trial
Download a small model using public text. Disconnect the computer from the network, restart Ollama, and ask it to summarise that text. If it cannot answer offline, do not treat that setup as local.
Human check
Record the exact model and version, check names and numbers, compare the output with the source, and repeat the offline test after updates.
Safer or constraint-based alternatives
Use Whisper locallyWhisper on your own computerControlled route for sensitive materialOpen sourceMITHas a free version: The software and model weights are free. Speed and capacity depend on your computer.View tool for audio and Tesseract locallyTesseract OCR on your own computerControlled route for sensitive materialOpen sourceApache-2.0Has a free version: Free open source software with no service quota.View tool for printed scans. If cloud quality is necessary, use an approved organisational service with redacted inputs.
What happens to your data
Where this data goes
- your computer for local models
- Ollama cloud systems for cloud models
Trains on what you type?
Depends on the plan or account type.
How long it is kept
Ollama has two distinct modes. A downloaded local model can run offline and prompts stay on the machine. Ollama Cloud models send prompts and outputs to Ollama's cloud service and require an account. Verify the model label and network mode before using sensitive material.
Account required
No account is needed.
Getting it, and using it in Iraq
Access in Iraq
Local open source use has no geographic gate. Cloud availability, accounts, and billing are separate and should be checked directly.
Language quality
No one has published a measurement for this.
Arabic (Modern Standard)
Language quality depends on the exact downloaded or cloud model, not on Ollama. Support is not a measured quality result. Test a short sample with a fluent reviewer.
Iraqi Arabic
No current first-party benchmark for Iraqi Arabic was found. Test the exact dialect and task with a fluent reviewer.
Kurdish (Sorani)
No current first-party quality benchmark for Sorani was found. Do not infer quality from general multilingual claims.
Sources
- Cloud modelsOllama
- ollama/ollamaOllama
- Privacy PolicyOllama
Last checked: 2026-09-01