Security

How Postal keeps your mail yours

The short version

  • There is no Postal server. Your mail goes straight between Google and your Mac.
  • You sign in on Google’s own page. Postal never sees your Google password.
  • Postal asks Google for one permission: to read, compose and send email from your Gmail account.
  • Your mail is stored encrypted on your Mac.
  • We never sell your Gmail data, use it for ads, or use it to train AI models.

Your mail lives on your Mac

Postal downloads your mail straight from Google to your Mac and keeps its copy there. There is no Postal server that collects or stores your mail, so there is nothing of yours on our side to leak.

Signing in

You sign in on Google’s own page, in your browser. Google hands Postal a key for your account, which Postal keeps in your Mac’s Keychain. Remove the account in Postal, or remove Postal’s access in your Google Account, and the key stops working.

What Postal does with your Gmail

Shows your mail and searches it. Marks it read or starred, archives it, labels it, and moves it to spam or trash. Hides it until later with Remind Me. Sends the email you write. It uses your Gmail only for features you see in the app.

Encrypted on your Mac

Your mail, contacts, search index, pictures and unsent drafts are stored encrypted on your Mac (AES-256), with the key in your Mac’s Keychain. Every connection to Google uses HTTPS. The Privacy Policy lists what isn’t encrypted, like attachments you download, so protect your Mac with a password and FileVault.

Tracking pictures never load

The hidden pictures senders use to learn when you open their email are taken out before the email is drawn, so they never load. Other pictures from the web load unless you turn on Ask Before Loading Pictures; then nothing loads until you choose, and no sender’s server hears from your Mac when you open their email.

Fakes get flagged

Email from a look-alike of a company or a domain you know gets a warning before you click anything, and a link that leads somewhere other than it says asks before it opens.

AI on your Mac

Smart Compose and AI search in the free app run on Apple’s on-device model. Nothing they read leaves your Mac.

Google’s rules

Postal’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. The Privacy Policy lists exactly what Postal accesses and why.

Found a problem?

Tell us at support@postal.llc and we’ll look at it right away.