Joel, what you have written sounds completely plausible to me. However, let me add that there are three different concerns that are talked about in this thread:
- The original concern that there is a connection to some Google server when Joplin is started. As this is a generic request for some spellcheck dictionary, the only information that is transmitted is that some computer with some IP requests a to download a dictionary. It is not related to any content of your Joplin.
- The recent case in Germany, where it was ruled that a website that you visit is not allowed to automatically do something that transmits your IP address to third-party servers (e.g. to download fonts from google). Due to GDPR, the user must be able to consent (or reject) this.
- The topic Joel mentioned: If you sync your Joplin somewhere, the content of your notes need to be stored on some server (that's how sync works). Due to GDPR, if the content of your notes contains any personal information about your customers or similar, you need to have a contract with the server provider that basically states that the data is handled in a certain way (security etc).