Privacy policy

1. Information we access and collect

• Google account information: Google sign-in requests your email address and basic profile information. Your email address identifies your MailSentinel account. We do not request or receive your Google password.
• Gmail information: message and thread identifiers, sender and recipient addresses, headers, subject lines, snippets, message body text and HTML, links contained in messages, and labels. MailSentinel fetches messages to perform the features you enable. PhishTrace does not download attachments or visit links in messages.
• Authorisation credentials: Google OAuth access tokens, refresh tokens, and expiry information, used to access Gmail while your connection remains authorised.
• Settings and AI credentials: custom category names, classification instructions, colours, reply templates, automation preferences, trusted organisation domains, your selected AI provider, and API keys you supply.
• Processing records: message identifiers, sender addresses, subjects, snippets, assigned categories, processing times and results, draft/reply status, and errors. When PhishTrace is enabled, records also include findings, quoted message evidence, assessment metadata, and feedback you submit.
• Technical and support information: session identifiers and security tokens, service diagnostics, account/message identifiers in operational logs, and information you send when requesting support. Hosting providers may process IP addresses and request metadata when serving the application.

2. Why we use this information

We use this information to authenticate your account; connect to Gmail; identify and classify new unread messages; create and apply Gmail labels; mark processed messages as read; create drafts or send replies according to your response settings; display processing history; prevent duplicate processing; and maintain and troubleshoot the service. Category and reply instructions you enter are used to carry out those features.

If you enable PhishTrace, we use bounded message content, sender information, links, and your configured organisation domains to assess suspicious indicators and show supporting evidence. PhishTrace is advisory and is off by default. It does not guarantee that an email is safe or automatically block an otherwise configured reply.

The background worker checks connected, signed-in accounts for new unread mail. The initial connection records existing unread message identifiers to avoid automatically processing that initial inbox history.

3. Google permissions

Google asks you to authorise the following permissions before MailSentinel connects:

• Basic account information (userinfo.email and userinfo.profile): identify the account used to sign in.
• Read Gmail (gmail.readonly): retrieve messages for classification and optional phishing assessment.
• Modify Gmail (gmail.modify): manage labels and message read status and perform configured mailbox actions.
• Manage drafts and send mail (gmail.compose): save drafts and send configured replies from your account.

You choose whether to grant access on Google's consent screen. These permissions can allow broader access than an individual feature needs; MailSentinel uses them for the functions described here. Connecting an account does not require sharing your Google password.

4. AI providers and email content

AI processing takes place on external provider servers, including when you run MailSentinel locally. MailSentinel supports OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Groq. You supply an API key and select the provider in Model providers; requests use that selected provider rather than silently switching to another one.

For classification, MailSentinel sends bounded email text and your category instructions to the selected provider. AI-assisted category or reply tools can also send the instructions and text you submit. When PhishTrace is enabled, it sends bounded message evidence, relevant headers and links, and organisation context to that provider. These inputs can contain personal information about you and other people in your correspondence. Provider responses are used to produce categories, assisted text, and assessment findings.

Your provider API key authenticates those requests. Google OAuth tokens are used for Gmail access and are not included as AI prompt content. MailSentinel does not use Gmail data to train or fine-tune general-purpose AI models. Your provider's API terms, account settings, processing locations, and retention rules also apply to information sent to it; this policy does not promise zero retention by external providers.

Review your selected provider's data practices before enabling AI processing: OpenAI, Google Gemini API, and Groq. Use API account settings and terms compatible with the protection of your Gmail data. Remove the provider key or revoke Google access if you do not want further processing.

5. Sharing and Limited Use

We do not sell Google user data or use Gmail content for advertising, advertising profiles, credit decisions, or general-purpose AI model training. Transfers of Google user data are limited to providing or improving the user-facing features described in this policy, with the following recipients and circumstances:

• Google: sign-in, Gmail retrieval, and the mailbox actions you authorise.
• Your selected AI provider: the processing described above.
• Infrastructure providers: Vercel serves the hosted frontend, Render hosts the deployed backend, and the configured MongoDB and Redis services store application records, sessions, and queued jobs. These services process the information needed for their roles. A locally operated installation uses the infrastructure configured by its operator.
• Email recipients: configured replies are delivered through Gmail to their recipients, who receive the reply content and normal email headers.
• Legal and security needs: disclosure when required by applicable law or necessary to investigate abuse, protect security, or protect users' rights, consistent with Google's applicable user-data requirements.

MailSentinel's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Human access to Google user data is restricted to circumstances permitted by those requirements, such as your affirmative consent to inspect specific data for support, necessary security investigations, or compliance with applicable law. Do not include passwords or API keys in support requests.

6. Storage and security

Account records, Google OAuth tokens, settings, encrypted provider API keys, processing logs, and assessment evidence are stored in the backend database. Redis holds sessions, queued work, and temporary processing markers. Message content is fetched for processing; stored snippets and assessment quotes can retain portions of that content. Application and hosting diagnostics may also contain account or message metadata.

Provider API keys are encrypted on the backend using AES-256-GCM. Account routes use session authentication and ownership checks, with CSRF protection for protected changes. The deployed service uses HTTPS; a local development installation can use HTTP on localhost. These safeguards do not mean every stored field is encrypted or that the service provides end-to-end encryption.

Infrastructure and AI providers may process data outside your country. Processing locations depend on the deployment and provider account configuration. No storage or transmission system can be guaranteed completely secure.

7. Data retention

Account information, OAuth tokens, settings, processing history, assessment evidence, feedback, and persistent duplicate-processing checkpoints currently have no scheduled automatic deletion period. They remain stored until removed by the operator, including in response to a verified deletion request. Signing out or revoking Google access does not automatically delete those records.

Session cookies have a configured lifetime of one day, and temporary Redis processing markers expire after seven days. Signing out destroys the current session. Successfully completed background jobs are removed from the queue; failed jobs can remain for diagnosis. Removing a provider key in the dashboard deletes its saved application record.

Infrastructure logs, backups, and information already sent to an AI provider follow the relevant provider's retention configuration and policies. They may persist after deletion from the active application database. Contact us for information about a particular deletion request; we do not claim a fixed backup deletion deadline.

8. Your controls, access, and deletion

• Stop background polling: sign out of MailSentinel. Work already queued or in progress may still finish.
• Revoke Gmail access: open your Google Account connections, select MailSentinel, and remove its access. Further Gmail requests require valid authorisation.
• Control AI features: disable PhishTrace, select a provider, or remove saved provider API keys in the dashboard. Removing keys does not erase requests already processed by that provider.
• Request access, correction, or deletion: email itsniteshsaini6376@gmail.com from your connected Google address, specifying your request. We may verify account ownership before acting. There is currently no self-service account deletion button.

A verified account deletion request covers your application account record and OAuth tokens, saved provider keys, custom categories and settings, email processing logs, PhishTrace evidence and feedback, and associated processing checkpoints and queued work under our control. Any legally required retention or provider backup limitations will be explained when handling your request.

Deleting MailSentinel records does not delete your Gmail messages or undo labels, sent replies, or drafts already created in Gmail. Manage those in Gmail. For a locally operated installation, contact that installation's operator to remove its database, Redis records, logs, and backups; the hosted-service developer cannot delete files on another operator's computer.

9. Cookies and browser storage

MailSentinel uses an HTTP-only session cookie to keep you signed in and protect account access. Browser storage can retain interface preferences and account identifiers used by the dashboard. Clearing browser storage does not delete backend records. This application does not include advertising trackers or advertising cookies; infrastructure providers can maintain their own operational logs.

10. Policy changes and contact

We will update this page and its revision date when our data practices change. Material new uses of Google data will be disclosed before they begin, with renewed consent where required. For questions, privacy concerns, or requests about your data, contact the MailSentinel project developer at itsniteshsaini6376@gmail.com.

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