Email Tamer — Privacy Policy

Last updated 1 September 2026

Email Tamer is a personal, self-hosted command-line tool that helps its operator identify and file promotional email in their own Gmail mailboxes. It is not a commercial product, it has no user accounts, and it is not offered to the public. It is used only by its author and members of their household, each of whom authorizes their own mailbox directly.

What the app accesses

With the operator's explicit Google consent, Email Tamer reads and modifies data in the specific Gmail account being authorized:

Message metadata — From headers (sender address and display name), Subject lines, List-Unsubscribe headers, message and thread identifiers, and label membership.
Mailbox settings — existing Gmail filters, labels, and the account's send-as aliases.
The account's own email address, used to confirm that the authorized mailbox is the one the operator intended to act on.

The app does not read message bodies or attachments.

What it does with that data

Scores senders by how likely their mail is promotional.
Applies and removes labels, archives messages, and moves messages to Trash at the operator's instruction.
Creates Gmail filters to route future mail from a given sender.
Sends a periodic summary email to the mailbox's own owner.

Where data is stored

All data stays on the operator's personal computer. There is no server, no hosted database, no analytics, and no logging service. Locally the app keeps per-mailbox files containing sender domains, sender display names, message counts, computed scores, and sample subject lines, alongside the OAuth token, which is written with owner-only file permissions. Deleting the application's state directory removes all of it.

Who else sees it

One category of data leaves the machine. To generate written commentary for the weekly summary, the app sends the following to Anthropic's Claude API:

Sender domains, sender display names — which may include the names of individual people who have emailed the mailbox — message counts, and computed scores for the top senders in that period.
The mailbox's email address, and the operator's own curated notes and allowlist for that mailbox.

Message subject lines and message bodies are not included in that request. No data is sent to any other third party. Nothing is sold, rented, shared for advertising, or used to build any profile.

Limited Use disclosure

Email Tamer's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google user data is used solely to provide and improve the mailbox-organizing features described above. It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never transferred to others except as required for that purpose or by law.

Retention and revocation

Locally stored data persists until the operator deletes it. Access can be withdrawn at any time from myaccount.google.com/permissions, which immediately invalidates the app's credentials for that mailbox.

Children

The app is not directed at children and is not made available to them.

Changes

Any material change to how Google user data is handled will be reflected on this page, with the revision date above updated.

Contact

Questions about this policy: alex.hakso@gmail.com