Best Privacy Models for Mac Mini

A Mac Mini on the office LAN is a team privacy appliance. Inference runs on the box, and zero bytes leave the building. The 11GB AI budget on the 16GB default serves 9B-class models, and desktop cooling keeps it running around the clock. The M4's 120 GB/s path is plenty for chat-class private work.

For firms barred from cloud AI, this is the lowest-cost compliant setup. Ollama plus Open WebUI, bound to the LAN, gives every employee a private assistant in the browser with no vendor DPA to negotiate. Secure it like any internal server: LAN binding, user accounts, disk encryption. A 48GB M4 Pro Mini steps the same stack up to 14B quality.

Ollama plus Open WebUI on the Mini, accessible only on the office network: every employee gets a chat assistant in the browser, and the data path begins and ends inside your walls. No per-seat licensing, no vendor DPA to negotiate, no usage logs held by a third party.

Lock it down like any internal server: LAN-only binding or a firewall rule, user accounts in the web UI, the Mini itself under disk encryption. A 16GB base unit serves a small team at 9B quality; step to an M4 Pro for the 14B tier.