Privacy policy
Privacy Policy
Exactly what ShieldMail stores, what the upstream mail providers receive, how Google AdSense and advertising cookies work here, and how to opt out of personalised advertising.
Last updated
This policy describes what happens to data when you use ShieldMail. It is written to be read rather than to satisfy a template, and it separates what *we* handle from what *third parties* handle, because those are very different.
The short version
- There are no accounts, so there is no profile of you anywhere in this service.
- Message contents are not stored by ShieldMail. They pass through to your browser.
- Your mail is physically received and held by a third-party provider, under that provider's policy.
- The site is funded by Google AdSense, which may set advertising cookies unless you decline.
- Nothing about your inbox is shared with advertisers.
What ShieldMail stores
| Data | Where it lives | How long | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provider access token | HttpOnly cookie in your browser | Until the mailbox expires | To fetch your mail without exposing the token to page scripts |
| Current address and expiry | Same cookie, plus your browser's local storage | Until expiry | To show the same inbox if you reload the page |
| Rate-limit counters | Server memory, keyed by a coarse identifier | Minutes | To stop automated abuse of the free service |
| Standard request logs | Hosting provider (Vercel) | Per their retention schedule | Operational and security necessity |
There is no database of users, no message archive, and no record connecting an address to a person. This is a design choice, not a claim of virtue — the service simply has no use for that data.
What ShieldMail does not store
- Message bodies, subjects, or sender addresses
- Attachments
- Any personal information about you, because none is ever requested
- A history of the addresses you have generated
What the mail providers receive
This is the most important section and the one most services in this category omit.
ShieldMail does not operate a mail server. Temporary mailboxes are created on the infrastructure of third-party providers. When somebody sends mail to your temporary address:
- It is delivered to that provider's mail servers, not to ours.
- It is stored on their systems, under their retention policy.
- ShieldMail fetches it on request and passes it to your browser without keeping a copy.
The provider therefore receives the full message, including sender, subject, body, and attachments, plus the fact that a request was made for that mailbox. Their handling is governed by their own privacy policy, which we cannot alter and do not control.
The provider mix changes with availability, which is why they are not named individually here. If you need to know which provider issued a specific address, ask through the contact page and we will tell you if the session is identifiable.
Advertising, Google AdSense, and cookies
ShieldMail is free because it shows advertising supplied by Google AdSense.
What Google may do. Google and its partners may use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites, and to measure performance. This includes the DoubleClick advertising cookie, which Google uses to serve ads across sites it works with.
Your controls, in order of directness:
- The consent banner on this site. Choosing "Reject non-essential" sets Google Consent Mode to denied for ad storage, ad personalisation, ad user data, and analytics storage. The site works identically either way.
- Google Ads Settings at
adssettings.google.com— turn off personalised advertising across all Google services, not just this site. - The industry opt-out pages at
optout.aboutads.infoandyouronlinechoices.eufor participating vendors. - Your browser. Blocking third-party cookies prevents most advertising cookies from being set at all.
What is never shared with advertisers: the contents of your temporary inbox, the addresses you generate, or who wrote to you. Advertising is served against the page, not against your mail.
Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on someone's prior visits to this website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet. Full detail is in the cookie policy.
Analytics
If analytics is enabled on this deployment, it is Google Analytics, configured under the same consent signal as advertising. Declining in the banner sets analytics_storage to denied. No analytics identifier is ever joined to inbox activity.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your personal data, and to object to processing. Requests go to privacy@shieldmail.shop and are answered within thirty days.
The honest caveat: ShieldMail holds almost nothing to act on. There are no accounts and no message storage, so an access request typically returns nothing beyond hosting logs. For message contents, the request must go to the upstream provider that received the mail.
Children
ShieldMail is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them. Since no personal data is collected from anyone, this is close to moot, but the position is stated for clarity.
Security
- Provider tokens are held in HttpOnly cookies, unreadable by client-side JavaScript.
- All traffic is served over HTTPS.
- Incoming message HTML is sanitised server-side: scripts removed, iframes stripped, remote images blocked so tracking pixels do not fire.
- Rate limiting is applied to the mailbox creation endpoint.
Temporary mailboxes themselves are not secured, and this is fundamental rather than an oversight. They have no password, and anybody who knows an address can read it while it is alive. Treat every message in a temporary inbox as public.
Changes
Material changes will be reflected in the "last updated" date at the top of this page. There is no mailing list, so checking that date is the reliable way to notice a revision.
FAQ
Do you sell any data?
No. There is no data to sell — no accounts, no profiles, and no stored messages. Revenue comes from advertising on the page.
Can you recover a message I lost?
No. ShieldMail keeps no copy, and once the mailbox expires the provider releases it too.
Does declining cookies limit the site?
No. Every feature works identically. Declining only changes whether advertising and analytics are personalised.
Who can see the mail in my temporary inbox?
You, anybody else who knows the address, and the upstream provider hosting the mailbox. There is no access control by design.
How do I opt out of personalised ads permanently?
Use Google Ads Settings at adssettings.google.com, which applies across Google's services rather than only here.