BLACKBIRDPrivacy
Your mail is yours.
The short version: Blackbird keeps your mail on your Mac (or on your own server, if you run one). Nothing you receive is sent to an AI model, and we don’t sell or share anything about you.
The Mac app
Where your mail lives
Blackbird keeps a copy of your mail in a database inside the app’s own folder on your Mac, so it can sort and search without a network round trip. Sorting, the line that says what each letter wants, search and typo correction all run on your Mac. We don’t run a cloud service that stores your mail, and we never see it.
No AI
Blackbird uses no AI model, on your Mac or anywhere else. Nothing you receive or write is sent to a model to be read, summarised, rewritten or used for training.
Who the app talks to
The app connects only to the mail services you add, to fetch, send and file your mail:
- Google (the Gmail API) for Gmail accounts
- Microsoft (Microsoft Graph) for Microsoft 365 and Outlook accounts
- Fastmail (JMAP) for Fastmail accounts
- Apple’s iCloud mail servers (IMAP and SMTP) for iCloud accounts
- Your own Blackbird server, if you run one beside your mail server
There is no analytics, crash reporting or tracking in the app. Sender pictures (a company’s icon next to its mail) are only fetched by your own Blackbird server, if you have one, and cached on your Mac; without one, your Mac never contacts a sender’s website.
Your sign-ins
When you sign in with Google, Microsoft or Fastmail, you sign in on their page in your browser and Blackbird receives a token, not your password. For iCloud you enter an app-specific password made at account.apple.com. Tokens and passwords are kept in files only your user account can read, inside the app’s private folder on your Mac. Removing an account deletes its sign-in.
What the app learns from you
To get better at sorting for you, Blackbird remembers a few things on your Mac: senders you mark as spam, which searches found nothing, and which of its “wants you” lines you answered. This stays on your Mac (or your own server) and is never sent to us.
Google user data
For Gmail, Blackbird asks Google for one permission: to read, send and organise your mail (gmail.modify). It uses it only to show your mail in the app, send what you write, and file letters when you ask (archive, trash, mark read, spam).
Blackbird’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
In plain words: your Google data stays between your Mac and Google. It is not transferred to us or anyone else, not used for advertising, not sold, not used to train any AI or machine-learning model, and no person reads it. You can remove Blackbird’s access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
Microsoft accounts
For Microsoft 365 and Outlook, Blackbird asks Microsoft for permission to read and organise your mail, send mail as you, and read your basic profile (name and address), and to stay signed in. The same rules apply as for Google: your data stays between your Mac and Microsoft and is used only to run the app. You can remove access in your Microsoft account settings.
This website
The waitlist
If you reserve the Founding Edition we keep your email address, the time you signed up and confirmed, a referral code for your link, and who referred you, if anyone. It is stored on our own server, not with a mailing-list company. We use it only to confirm your address, tell you where you are on the list, and email you when Blackbird is ready. We never sell or share it.
Every email has an unsubscribe link that works in one click. To have your address deleted entirely, write to privacy@blackbirdmail.app.
Analytics, without cookies
We count visits so we know what helps people understand Blackbird. This site sets no cookies and stores no IP addresses. To count a visitor once a day, we make a one-way code from the visitor’s address and browser with a secret that changes every day, and delete it the same day, so a visitor can’t be followed from one day to the next. We record the page, the website you came from (its name only), and a few named moments such as opening a letter in the demo.
Fonts and hosting
Everything on this site, fonts included, is served from our own server. No third-party scripts load.
Your rights
You can ask us what we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. Write to privacy@blackbirdmail.app and we’ll answer within 30 days. If you’re in the EU, UK or California you have these rights by law, and we give them to everyone.
Children
Blackbird and this site are not meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information.
Changes
If this policy changes, we’ll update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use what we already hold, we’ll email people on the waitlist first.