Privacy Policy
Mailshade is a browser extension that blocks email tracking pixels and click-tracking redirects inside webmail clients (Gmail, Outlook, Office 365, Superhuman, Yahoo and ProtonMail).
What we collect from extension usage
Nothing.
Mailshade stores all of your data — blocked tracker events, settings, sender breakdown index — locally on your device using IndexedDB and the chrome.storage APIs.
We do not operate any servers that handle your inbox data. We do not have analytics. We do not use cookies on the extension. We do not transmit your email tracking pixel domains or sender info to any external party.
Newsletter
If you subscribe to Mailshade release notes on mailshade.org, the public website sends your email address to EmailOctopus, our email provider. EmailOctopus stores your email address, subscription status, consent metadata, delivery records, bounces and unsubscribe status so we can send release-note emails.
The embedded signup form uses Google reCAPTCHA for spam protection. The newsletter is optional, separate from extension usage, and you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email.
Mailshade release-note campaigns must be sent without open tracking or click tracking wherever EmailOctopus exposes those controls.
Crash reports
If you opt in to crash reporting (off by default), anonymised error events may be sent to Hawk.so. These events contain:
- Error message and stack trace
- Mailshade version
- Browser version
We strip pixel URLs, sender addresses, and message subjects from these events before they leave your device.
Sub-processors
Depending on which optional feature you use, data may be processed by:
- Hawk.so — crash and error monitoring. See their privacy policy at https://hawk.so/privacy.
- EmailOctopus — release-note signup, contact storage and campaign delivery. See their privacy policy at https://emailoctopus.com/legal/privacy.
- Google reCAPTCHA — spam protection for the public newsletter signup form. See Google's privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
We do not use Sentry, Datadog, or any other third-party error monitoring vendor.
License activation
When you start checkout from the extension, Mailshade contacts our auth endpoint at auth.mailshade.org to create and activate the Polar checkout. Those requests transmit only:
- The selected plan
- A locally generated one-time activation token
- The Polar checkout id after payment succeeds
When you paste a license key manually or the extension validates an activated purchase, the extension sends only:
- The license key itself
- The Mailshade Polar organization id
It does not transmit your email address, the contents of your inbox, or any tracker events.
Payments
Paid tiers are billed by Polar.sh, who acts as our Merchant of Record. Polar processes your payment details under its own privacy policy; Mailshade never receives or stores your card details.
Cloud sync (future feature)
When Mailshade cloud sync ships (currently in development), enabling it will sync your blocked-event log and sender breakdown to your own Google Drive or Dropbox folder. Mailshade servers, if any, will only act as a passthrough — data is encrypted on your device before upload using a key derived from your passphrase. We will never see your data in plaintext.
Your rights (GDPR)
- Access: Settings → Export all data
- Delete: Settings → Clear all data
- Portability: Export is in standard JSON format
Contact
privacy@mailshade.orgfor privacy questionssecurity@mailshade.orgfor security disclosures
Changes
We will notify users of policy changes via the Mailshade changelog and via an in-extension banner.