Privacy Policy

Welcome to ShieldMail. We are committed to protecting your privacy and giving you control over your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains our practices regarding data collection, usage, and protection when you use our browser extension.

ShieldMail is built on a privacy-first philosophy. Unlike many online services, we have designed our extension to operate with zero data collection from our end. This means we do not collect, store, analyze, or share any information about you or your usage of the extension.

By using ShieldMail, you agree to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree with these practices, please do not use our extension.

To emphasize our commitment to privacy, we want to be explicit about what we do not collect:

• No personal information: We don't collect your name, email address, phone number, or any identifying information.
• No usage analytics: We don't track how you use the extension, which features you access, or how often you use it.
• No browsing data: We don't monitor or record your browsing history, visited websites, or online activities.
• No device information: We don't collect data about your device, browser, operating system, or IP address.
• No email content: We don't read, analyze, or store the content of emails received in temporary inboxes.
• No telemetry data: We don't send any usage statistics, crash reports, or diagnostic data to our servers.

While we don't collect data on our servers, ShieldMail does store certain information locally in your browser to function properly:

• Temporary email addresses: The disposable email addresses you generate are stored locally in your browser's storage.
• Session credentials: Authentication tokens for temporary email services are encrypted and stored locally to maintain your sessions.
• Received messages: Emails received in temporary inboxes are cached locally for your convenience.
• User preferences: Your settings and preferences (e.g., auto-fill behavior, retention policies) are stored locally.

Important: All locally stored data remains on your device and is never transmitted to our servers. You have complete control over this data and can delete it at any time through the extension settings or by uninstalling the extension.

We take security seriously. All sensitive data stored locally in your browser is protected using encryption:

• Native browser encryption: We use your browser's native encryption APIs to protect stored credentials and session tokens.
• Secure communication: All communication with temporary email service providers uses HTTPS/TLS encryption.
• No plain text storage: Sensitive information is never stored in plain text format.
• Automatic data lifecycle: Old messages and expired addresses are automatically purged according to your configured retention policies.

ShieldMail integrates with third-party temporary email service providers to generate disposable email addresses and receive messages. These services include:

• Mail.tm
• Temp-Mail.org
• 10MinuteMail

Important considerations:

• These services have their own privacy policies and data practices. We recommend reviewing their policies if you have concerns.
• ShieldMail does not control how these services handle data. We have selected reputable providers, but cannot guarantee their practices.
• When you use ShieldMail, you communicate directly with these services through our extension. We do not intercept, store, or analyze this communication.
• Emails sent to temporary addresses are processed by these third-party services, not by ShieldMail.

ShieldMail requests minimal browser permissions necessary for its functionality:

• Storage: To save temporary email addresses, messages, and user preferences locally in your browser.
• Active Tab (optional): Only when you explicitly use the auto-fill feature, to detect email fields and fill them with your consent.
• Clipboard (optional): To copy temporary email addresses to your clipboard when you click the copy button.

We do not request:

• Access to all websites or tabs
• Permission to read or modify browsing history
• Access to bookmarks or downloads
• Permission to access data on all websites

ShieldMail operates on an explicit consent model. You are always in control:

• Auto-fill consent: When the extension detects an email field, it asks for your explicit permission before filling it.
• Site-specific preferences: You can set preferences for specific websites (always ask, always fill, or never offer).
• Data deletion: You can delete temporary addresses, messages, and all stored data at any time through the extension settings.
• Retention policies: You control how long messages and addresses are kept before automatic deletion.

ShieldMail is designed for general audiences and does not knowingly collect information from children under 13 years of age. Given that we don't collect any personal information from any users, this protection extends to all age groups.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child is using ShieldMail, please note that no personal information is being collected or stored on our servers.

ShieldMail is committed to transparency. Our extension is designed to be open-source, allowing:

• Security audits: Security researchers and privacy advocates can review our code to verify our privacy claims.
• Community contributions: Developers can contribute improvements and security enhancements.
• Full transparency: Anyone can see exactly how the extension operates and handles data.
• Trust through verification: You don't have to trust our word—you can verify our practices through the code.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal, operational, or regulatory reasons. When we make changes:

• We will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy.
• For material changes, we will notify users through the extension interface.
• Continued use of ShieldMail after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your privacy.

Since all data is stored locally in your browser, you have complete control over data retention:

• Automatic deletion: Configure how long messages and addresses are kept before automatic purging.
• Manual deletion: Delete individual messages, addresses, or all data at any time through the extension settings.
• Uninstallation: When you uninstall ShieldMail, all locally stored data is removed from your browser.
• Browser data clearing: Clearing your browser's extension data will also remove all ShieldMail data.

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal data under privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA, or other regulations. However, since ShieldMail does not collect or store any personal data on our servers:

• There is no personal data for us to access, modify, or delete on your behalf.
• You maintain complete control over all locally stored data through the extension settings.
• No data portability requests are necessary as no data is held by us.
• You can exercise your right to deletion simply by clearing data through the extension or uninstalling it.

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback about this Privacy Policy or ShieldMail's privacy practices, please contact us:

We are committed to addressing your privacy concerns and will respond to inquiries in a timely manner.