Mail Assistant Privacy Policy

Last updated 20 September 2026

What the app reads

Mail Assistant works with the mail Apple Mail has already downloaded to your Mac. It reads two things from your ~/Library/Mail folder:

• Apple Mail’s index — the database Mail already keeps, listing senders, subjects, dates, folders, sizes, and whether each message has been read.
• Message files — the individual .emlx files on your disk. These are read when you build the search index, which opens every message once; when you search for words inside messages; and when you ask what unsubscribe options a sender offers.

You grant this access yourself, once, in a standard macOS file panel the first time you use the app. macOS remembers your choice, so you are not asked again. That choice is recorded inside the app’s own folder rather than in System Settings, so you withdraw it in the app: Settings › Apple Mail access › Revoke Access. Deleting the app’s folder, described below, withdraws it too.

What the app stores, and where

Everything the app creates stays in its own folder on your Mac:

• A search index, so searching is fast and does not have to re-read your mail each time.
• A record of actions you confirmed — which messages were moved where — so the app can show you a history and put messages back.
• Searches you saved, so you can run them again.
• Marks you put on senders — kept, ignored, or set aside to look at later.
• Your settings, including the folder-access choice above.

All of it lives in ~/Library/Containers/com.jjleinnovations.MailAssistant/. Moving that folder to the Trash deletes all of it — the index, the history, your saved searches, your sender marks, and your settings — and withdraws the folder access you granted.

Two things live outside that folder, so that deleting it is not mistaken for removing every trace. macOS keeps its own Automation permission entry for the app in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation, which survives deleting the app; you can remove it there. And any spreadsheet you exported stays wherever you chose to save it.

What the app sends: nothing

This is not a promise you are asked to take on trust. Mail Assistant is a sandboxed app that does not request network permission from macOS. It cannot open an internet connection — the operating system refuses. Specifically:

• The app transmits no data of any kind off your Mac.
• No analytics, usage tracking, crash reporting, or advertising.
• No third-party software libraries are included in the app.
• No account, no sign-in, no server.

Changing your mail

When you confirm an action, the app asks Apple Mail to carry it out: move messages to a folder or to Trash, put them back, or mark them read or unread. This uses macOS Automation, which you approve separately the first time. Nothing is ever changed without a confirmation that names how many messages are affected.

Unsubscribing, and links you open

Mail Assistant never unsubscribes you. It reads the unsubscribe details a sender put in their own message and offers you the route they published:

• A web address is handed to your default browser, and the app stops there. From that point you are on the sender’s website and their privacy policy applies. The app does not open the page itself, does not follow it, and never sees the response.
• An email address opens a pre-addressed message in Apple Mail. Nothing is sent until you send it, and it is Apple Mail that sends it, not this app.

Either route tells the sender your address is live, because the link they publish identifies you. The app says so before you choose, and tells you when a sender is one you have never written to.

Requests about your data

Because nothing is collected, there is nothing held about you to give you a copy of, correct, or delete, and nothing that could be sold, shared, or disclosed to anyone. Everything the app produced is in the folder named above, under your control, on your own Mac.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. If the app ever gains the ability to send data anywhere — which would be a significant change to how it works — that will be stated plainly here and in the app’s release notes before it happens.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about the app: jjleinnovations@gmail.com.