Privacy policy

The short version

• TalkMail runs entirely on your PC. There is no TalkMail server and no TalkMail account.
• Your email goes only between your PC and your own email provider (for example Google, Apple or your web host).
• Doug Oliver, who makes TalkMail, never receives your email, your contacts, your passwords or anything about how you use TalkMail.
• TalkMail has no ads, no tracking, no analytics and no usage reporting, and it does not sell or share anything.
• Passwords, including Gmail and iCloud app passwords, are kept in Windows Credential Manager on your PC, protected by your Windows account.
• Your mail is used only to show it to you and to send the mail you write, inside TalkMail.

Who we are

TalkMail is made by Doug Oliver, an individual developer in the United States, and published at dougoliver.net/talkmail. In this policy, "we", "us" and "the developer" mean Doug Oliver; "you" means the person using TalkMail.

Contact for anything about privacy: support@dougoliver.net.

What information TalkMail uses

To work as an email program, TalkMail handles the following information on your PC. None of it is sent to the developer.

Your account details

For each email account you add: the account name you choose, your name, your email address, your user name, and your email provider's server names, ports and security settings. These are saved in TalkMail's settings file on your PC.

Passwords

The password you type for each account. For Gmail this is an app password that Google makes for TalkMail, and for iCloud an app-specific password from Apple, so your real Google or Apple password is never typed into TalkMail. Passwords are stored in Windows Credential Manager under names starting with "TalkMail:", and Windows protects them with your Windows sign-in. They are only ever sent to the email provider they belong to, over an encrypted connection, to sign in.

Your email

Folder names, the list of messages (sender, recipients, subject, date, size, read status and attachment names), message text and attachments are fetched from your email provider when TalkMail needs them, to show them to you. Message text is kept in TalkMail's memory while it is running, so messages you've read or that TalkMail read ahead open quickly; it is not written to disk and is gone when TalkMail closes. The exceptions are attachments you choose to open (saved in a temporary folder so Windows can open them) or save (saved where you choose).

Mail you write

Messages you write, with any files you attach, are sent from your PC to your email provider's outgoing server, and to the people you address them to. A copy is kept in your Sent folder on your email provider's server, as with any email program.

Contacts

Names and email addresses you add to TalkMail's contacts are saved in a contacts file on your PC.

Settings

Your TalkMail choices (sorting, sounds, signature, and so on) are saved in TalkMail's settings file on your PC.

The log file

TalkMail writes a log of what it does, such as "Message sent", connection problems and error details, to help find and fix problems. The log never contains passwords or message text. It stays on your PC; it is only seen by the developer if you choose to send it, for example with a problem report.

Where it is kept on your PC

• Settings: %APPDATA%\TalkMail\settings.json
• Contacts: %APPDATA%\TalkMail\contacts.json
• Log: %APPDATA%\TalkMail\logs\talkmail.log (and talkmail.old.log)
• Passwords: Windows Credential Manager, Windows Credentials, entries starting with "TalkMail:"
• Attachments you open: a TalkMail folder in your Windows temporary folder

Uninstalling TalkMail removes the program. To remove your data too, delete the %APPDATA%\TalkMail folder and the "TalkMail:" entries in Credential Manager. Removing an account inside TalkMail deletes its saved password for you. For Gmail and iCloud, also delete the TalkMail app password on Google's or Apple's account page, so it can't be used again.

Who TalkMail talks to

TalkMail connects only to:

• Your email providers' servers, the ones in your account settings, using IMAP to read mail and SMTP to send it. For Gmail these are Google's imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com; for iCloud, Apple's imap.mail.me.com and smtp.mail.me.com. Connections are encrypted with SSL/TLS unless you choose otherwise for an account.
• Your web browser, on your own PC: TalkMail opens web links from messages there when you ask it to, and opens Google's or Apple's account pages when you press the buttons for making an app password.

TalkMail does not connect to any server run by the developer, and does not send any information to the developer or any other third party. We do not sell, rent, trade or share your information. We do not use it for advertising, and we do not use it to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models.

Your email providers handle your mail under their own privacy policies, for example Google's privacy policy and Apple's.

Gmail accounts

TalkMail reads and sends Gmail through Google's standard IMAP and SMTP mail servers, signed in with an app password that you make in your own Google account. TalkMail is not connected to your Google account in any other way: it doesn't use Google's sign-in service or any Google programming interface, and it can't see anything in your Google account except your mail.

• Your mail is used only on your PC, inside TalkMail, for the email features you use: listing, reading, writing, sending, marking and deleting your own mail.
• TalkMail only changes or deletes your mail when you tell it to (for example pressing Delete, or marking a message read).
• Nothing from your Gmail is ever sent to the developer or to anyone else, except that mail you write is sent through Gmail to the people you address it to.

Ending TalkMail's access to your Gmail

• In TalkMail, choose Accounts, Remove account. TalkMail deletes the app password from your PC.
• On Google's App passwords page (myaccount.google.com/apppasswords), delete the TalkMail app password. After that it can't be used by anyone.
• Changing your Google password also cancels all your app passwords.

TalkMail 0.3 offered "sign in with Google" instead. That was removed in version 0.4; the sign-in it saved is deleted from your PC the first time 0.4 starts. You can also remove TalkMail from your Google account's Third-party apps and services page at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

How your information is protected

• Passwords are kept in Windows Credential Manager, encrypted by Windows for your Windows account, not in TalkMail's settings file.
• Connections to Gmail and iCloud always use SSL/TLS encryption. For other accounts, TalkMail uses SSL/TLS or STARTTLS as set in the account; you can turn encryption off only if your provider requires it, and we recommend you don't.
• Gmail and iCloud use app passwords, so your main Google or Apple password is never typed into TalkMail, and an app password can be cancelled on its own at any time.
• Pictures, scripts and other content in messages are never loaded from the internet: messages are shown as plain text, so senders can't tell when you open a message.
• Anyone who can sign in to your Windows account can use TalkMail and see your mail, as with any email program. Keep your Windows account protected with a password or PIN.

How long information is kept

Everything TalkMail stores stays on your PC until you remove it: account details and passwords until you remove the account, contacts until you delete them, settings until you delete the settings folder. The log file is limited in size; older entries are moved to talkmail.old.log and then replaced. Message text in memory is gone when TalkMail closes. The developer keeps nothing, because the developer receives nothing.

If you email the developer for help (for example sending your log file), that email is kept only as long as needed to help you, and is never shared.

Children

TalkMail is not directed at children under 13, and the developer does not knowingly collect information from anyone, of any age.

Your choices and rights

Because your information stays on your PC and with your own email providers, you control it directly: you can see, change, export or delete it at any time, as described above. If you live somewhere with privacy laws such as the GDPR or California privacy laws, you have rights to know about, access, correct and delete personal information a business holds about you. The developer holds no personal information about TalkMail users through TalkMail; if you have contacted us by email, you can ask us to delete that correspondence at support@dougoliver.net.

This website

Downloading TalkMail from dougoliver.net works like visiting any website: the web server records standard request information (your IP address, the page or file requested, the time and your browser's description) for security and to keep the site running. These records are not used to identify you, not shared, and not combined with anything from TalkMail.

Changes to this policy

If TalkMail changes how it handles information, this page will be updated before the new version is released, with a new effective date at the top. If a change would mean TalkMail sends any information off your PC to anyone other than your email providers, it will be explained clearly on the TalkMail page and in the release notes, and it will be something you choose to turn on.

Contact

Questions or requests about privacy: support@dougoliver.net, or the contact page.

See also: the TalkMail page and TalkMail terms of use.