Privacy Policy

Who we are

MailKite ("MailKite", "we", "us") provides a developer email platform: we receive inbound email for your domains and deliver it to your webhook, and we send outbound email through our API. This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.

MailKite is operated by SendHub LLC, doing business as MailKite, 30 N Gould St #59709, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA.

Questions or requests? Email support [at] mailkite [dot] dev.

Information we collect

We collect three kinds of data:

• Account data — your email address, password hash (or Google sign-in identifier), and the API keys and webhook signing secrets we generate for you.
• Contacts you add — your address book: contacts you create, import (CSV/vCard), or sync from a connected provider such as Google (see "Connecting Google Contacts").
• Email content we process — messages sent to your verified domains (sender, recipients, subject, body, headers, attachments) and messages you send through our API. How long we retain this is your choice (see "Email retention and your controls").
• Deliverability signals — the sending patterns and delivery outcomes of your outbound mail (such as send volumes and cadence, bounce, complaint, and deferral rates, authentication results, and recipient engagement), and metrics we derive from them to route your mail.
• Usage and billing data — domains, message counts and metering, plan, and the Stripe customer/subscription identifiers tied to your account. Card details are handled by Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers.
• Site and product telemetry — a session cookie to keep you signed in, and aggregate analytics about which calls-to-action are clicked. We don't run third-party advertising trackers.

How we use it

We use your data only to run the service:

• Deliver the product — parse and route inbound mail to your webhook, send your outbound mail, and authenticate your API requests.
• Optimize deliverability — analyze your sending patterns and delivery signals, including with automated systems and AI, to select the best-performing IP pools and sending infrastructure for your mail and maximize inbox placement. This runs on delivery metadata and message characteristics; it is not used to build advertising profiles or shared with advertisers.
• Billing — meter usage and charge your plan and any domain registrations through Stripe.
• Support, security, and abuse prevention — diagnose delivery issues, protect the platform, and enforce our Terms (including anti-spam).
• Service communication — operational notices about your account, billing, or incidents.

We do not sell your data, and we do not use the contents of your email to build advertising profiles.

Email retention and your controls

By default we keep a parsed copy of each message only long enough for you to replay or debug a delivery, then it auto-expires — 3 days on Free, 30 on Pro, 90 on Scale, and 365 on Business. Inbound attachments are deleted after 7 days. Your webhook is the system of record; MailKite is the pipe.

You can tighten this per domain:

• Zero-retention passthrough — we deliver the webhook but persist nothing: no body, no attachments, no delivery record. Your webhook holds the only copy.
• At-rest encryption — paste your own public key and we encrypt retained message bodies to it before storing them, so we cannot read them. Only you hold the private key.

See the Retention & encryption docs for how to enable each.

Connecting Google Contacts

Connecting Google is optional and entirely under your control. If you click "Sync" next to Google on your Contacts page, we ask Google for read-only access so we can build your MailKite address book. We request only these scopes:

• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.readonly — to read your saved Google Contacts.
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.other.readonly — to read your Google "Other contacts" (people you have emailed but not saved), so your address book is complete.

From those contacts we import only each person's name and email address (and, when present, their company) into your own MailKite address book. We use this solely to (a) show you your contacts and (b) suggest recipients when you compose an email. We never use it for advertising, never sell or share it, and never use it to train AI/ML models. Your Google OAuth tokens are encrypted at rest (AES-GCM) and used only to sync your contacts.

You can disconnect Google at any time from your Contacts page, after which we stop syncing, and you can delete imported contacts individually or by deleting your account.

MailKite's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Subprocessors

We rely on a small set of infrastructure providers to deliver the service. Each processes data only to perform its function:

• Cloudflare — compute, storage (D1, R2), and email send/receive infrastructure.
• Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing. Stripe is a PCI DSS Level 1 certified service provider (the highest tier). Card numbers are entered directly into Stripe's hosted fields and never touch MailKite's servers, so MailKite itself never stores, processes, or transmits full card data.
• Anthropic — powers optional inbox-agent and assistant features; only invoked when you use AI, and never when you bring your own key in a way that bypasses us.
• Domain registrar(s) — when you register a domain through us, the registrant details you provide are shared with the registrar to complete registration.
• Google — if you choose "Sign in with Google" (to authenticate you) or connect Google Contacts (to sync your address book, read-only). See "Connecting Google Contacts".

Email authentication and security

Outbound mail is signed with DKIM and aligned to SPF and DMARC on your domain using the DNS records set at onboarding, so your mail authenticates as you. Webhook deliveries are signed with HMAC-SHA256 (the x-mailkite-signature header) so you can verify they came from us. Access to the API and webhooks is over TLS.

Cookies

We use a first-party session cookie (scoped to mailkite.dev) to keep you signed in across the dashboard, docs, and site. We use minimal first-party analytics to understand which links are used. We do not use third-party advertising cookies.

Your rights

You can access, export, correct, or delete your account data. Deleting a domain removes it and its routes; deleting your account removes your account data and stops processing. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA — email support [at] mailkite [dot] dev to exercise them and we'll respond within a reasonable time.

For email we process on your behalf, you are the controller and MailKite is the processor; we act on your instructions under the terms of our Data Processing Addendum.

GDPR — EU/UK/Swiss users

Our legal basis for processing account and billing data is performance of our contract with you (the Terms of Service) and our legitimate interest in operating and securing the Service. Where you use MailKite to process personal data of your own end users, you are the controller and MailKite is the processor, acting only on your documented instructions, under our Data Processing Addendum (see "Your rights" above), which incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers out of the EEA/UK/Switzerland.

Because our subprocessors (Cloudflare, Stripe, Anthropic) operate global infrastructure that includes the United States, personal data may be transferred outside the EEA/UK/Switzerland. We rely on Standard Contractual Clauses and, where applicable, the EU-U.S. and UK-U.S. Data Privacy Framework as the transfer mechanism with each subprocessor.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. You can also reach us at support [at] mailkite [dot] dev with any GDPR request.

California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

This section applies to California residents and supplements the rest of this policy. In the preceding 12 months we collected the following categories of personal information, as defined by the CCPA: identifiers (email address, IP address), account credentials, commercial information (billing and subscription records), internet/network activity (API and webhook usage, deliverability signals), and the content of email you send or receive through the Service.

We collected this information for the purposes described in "How we use it" above — to provide the Service, process billing, secure the platform, and communicate with you. We do not sell or share personal information (as those terms are defined by the CCPA), and have not done so in the preceding 12 months. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose beyond what's necessary to provide the Service.

• Right to know / access the specific pieces and categories of personal information we hold about you.
• Right to delete personal information we've collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing — not applicable, since we don't sell or share personal information.
• Right to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

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Data retention, location, and international transfers

We keep account and billing records for as long as your account is active and as required for legal, tax, and accounting purposes. Email content follows the retention rules above. Data is processed on our providers' global infrastructure, which includes the United States; contact us about region requirements for enterprise needs. See "GDPR — EU/UK/Swiss users" above for the transfer mechanism we use when data leaves the EEA/UK/Switzerland.

Children

MailKite is a developer tool not directed to children, and is not intended for anyone under 16.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced to your account contact email. The version in effect when you use the service governs that use.

Contact

Privacy questions or requests: support [at] mailkite [dot] dev.