Our Foundational Privacy Guarantee
small.email operates on a direct, paid subscription model. We never sell your personal information, we never scan your inbox for advertisements or behavioral profiling, and all persistent data storage resides strictly inside the European Union under GDPR law.
1. Overview
This Privacy Policy outlines how small.email ("we", "us", or "our") manages personal data when you visit our website (https://small.email), connect custom domains, and use our email infrastructure services.
We believe personal communications belong exclusively to their sender and recipient. Our technical architecture is designed to minimize data exposure at every layer, from inbound SMTP ingress to edge webmail delivery.
2. Information We Collect
We collect only the minimum data strictly required to deliver, secure, and route your emails:
Account Credentials
Your primary account email address, cryptographically hashed credentials, and multi-factor authentication tokens.
Domain & Routing Keys
Domain names you verify, DNS verification tokens, selector DKIM public keys, and SPF/DMARC routing parameters.
Mailbox Content
Inbound and outbound email messages, headers, attachments, and folder trees stored encrypted in object storage.
Billing Metadata
Subscription tier, renewal date, and invoice identifiers. Handled by Merchant of Record partners; we never see raw card numbers.
Operational Telemetry: Connection logs (IP addresses, timestamps, and SMTP response codes) are retained for up to 30 days solely for defensive rate limiting, spam prevention, and delivery diagnostics, after which they are permanently purged.
3. Mailbox Privacy & Zero Ad-Scanning
Traditional "free" email providers subsidize their infrastructure by reading your correspondence to train behavioral advertising models. small.email does not:
- No Content Inspection: We do not scan the text or attachments of your emails for marketing, commercial analytics, or profiling.
- No Ad Trackers: Our webmail interface is completely free of third-party advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, and analytics beacons.
- Workspace Boundary Isolation: Workspace owners can manage provisioning and quotas, but cannot access or decrypt mailbox contents of individual team members without direct credentials.
4. EU Data Sovereignty & Storage
All core infrastructure, primary databases, and message storage are hosted exclusively within the European Union:
- Inbound SMTP Gateways: Dedicated Haraka and Rspamd clusters situated in Frankfurt, Germany and Helsinki, Finland (Hetzner Online GmbH).
- Edge Metadata & Object Storage: Message indexes and encrypted MIME bodies stored via Cloudflare D1 and Cloudflare R2 restricted to the EU jurisdiction.
- Transactional Outbound: Amazon Web Services (AWS SES v2) provisioned strictly in EU regions (Frankfurt / Ireland) for verified paying customers.
5. AI & Machine Learning Processing Policy
If you choose to enable optional AI-assisted features (such as on-demand email thread summarization or draft assistance in the webmail client):
Zero Data Retention (ZDR) Commitment
Any prompt sent to foundational AI APIs (such as the Anthropic Claude API) is covered under strict enterprise Zero Data Retention agreements. Your data is processed in-memory, never stored on third-party servers, and never used to train foundational AI models.
All AI capabilities remain opt-in and under user control at all times.
6. Sub-processors & Service Partners
We work with vetted infrastructure providers bound by contractual Data Processing Agreements (DPAs):
| Partner | Service Provided | Jurisdiction | Data Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Edge CDN, Pages, Workers, D1 & R2 Storage | European Union | Encrypted mail storage & web traffic |
| Hetzner Online GmbH | Dedicated Inbound SMTP Gateways | Germany / Finland | Inbound SMTP filtering & delivery |
| Amazon Web Services EMEA | SES v2 Transactional Outbound | EU (Frankfurt / Ireland) | Outbound authenticated mail |
| Polar Software Inc. | Merchant of Record (Global USD Billing) | USA / EU Compliant | Customer email & billing receipts |
| PT Mayar Pintar Teknologi | Indonesian Payment Gateway (IDR) | Indonesia | Local payment verification (QRIS/VA) |
7. Your Rights Under GDPR
As a European Union or global data subject, you hold comprehensive rights over your personal data:
Right of Access (Art. 15)
Obtain confirmation of what personal data is processed and receive a full copy.
Right to Erasure (Art. 17)
Request the complete, permanent deletion of your account and all associated mailboxes.
Right to Rectification (Art. 16)
Update or correct any inaccurate account details and routing records.
Data Portability (Art. 20)
Export your full mailbox and message history in standard, interoperable formats.
Restriction of Processing (Art. 18)
Restrict processing while a contest or verification is in progress.
Right to Object (Art. 21)
Object to specific data processing operations at any time.
To exercise any of these statutory rights, please email us directly at privacy@small.email.
8. Data Retention & Permanent Deletion
We retain active mailbox messages until you delete them or close your account. When you delete a message or remove a custom domain:
- The record is immediately inaccessible from all user interfaces.
- Underlying encrypted object blocks in Cloudflare R2 are permanently purged through automated garbage collection within 30 days.
- System connection logs are routinely truncated and never retained beyond 30 days.
9. Contact & Data Protection
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, your rights under GDPR, or wish to exercise data portability, please reach out to our team: