Privacy Policy

🔒 Summary

Marginal is built with privacy as a first principle. Your email drafts are never stored by us, never sold, and never used to train models. You choose exactly which AI provider (if any) sees your text, and you can keep everything completely local.

Your text takes one of the two top routes, never through us.

📦 What data is collected

Marginal itself does not operate any servers that receive your data. The only information handled is:

• API keys / tokens you optionally enter for cloud providers (Google AI Studio, Hugging Face, OpenRouter, or a custom endpoint). These are stored only in your browser via chrome.storage.local and are never readable by Gmail or other websites.
• Your chosen provider, model name, and a few preferences (e.g. whether live checking is enabled, backup provider). Also stored locally in chrome.storage.local.
• Draft content — only the current compose window’s recipient chips, subject, and message body (excluding Gmail signature and quoted replies) — and only while a compose window is open.

We do not collect analytics, crash reports, usage statistics, or any other telemetry.

📤 How your draft text is used

When you use the Correct or Polish features, Marginal sends the relevant draft text to the AI provider you selected in the extension popup. This happens only while a Gmail compose window is open. Closing the compose window or sending the email stops any further processing.

You can turn off “Live check while I type” so analysis happens only when you click “Check now” or request a polish.

What Marginal does not read

Marginal looks only at the compose window you have open. It does not read your inbox, your sent mail, other people’s messages, your contacts, your attachments, or any other website. It does not use Gmail’s API or ask you to sign in to anything.

🤖 AI providers & data destinations

You choose the provider. Marginal supports:

You may also set a backup provider. If the primary provider fails (rate limit, outage, etc.), Marginal will automatically try the backup.

Their rules apply once your text reaches them

Cloud providers are independent companies. After your draft arrives, their own privacy policies, retention periods and terms apply, and we cannot control them. Some providers keep prompts for a time, review them for abuse, or use free-tier traffic to improve their products. If that matters for a message, switch to Ollama or choose a paid tier with stricter terms.

Providers may be in other countries

Cloud providers may process data on servers outside your country. Because your text goes straight from your browser to the provider you picked, any cross-border transfer is between you and that provider. Marginal never routes it through a server of ours.

🔑 Storage & security

• API keys and settings live exclusively in chrome.storage.local — isolated to this extension and inaccessible to Gmail or other sites.
• No data is synced to your Google account or any remote Marginal server (there is none).
• You can clear a provider’s key at any time from the extension popup (“Clear this provider’s key”).
• Uninstalling the extension removes all locally stored data.

Protection in transit

Requests to Google AI Studio, Hugging Face and OpenRouter use encrypted HTTPS. Requests to Ollama go to localhost on your own machine and never cross a network. If you set a custom endpoint, the connection is only as secure as the URL you enter, so use an https:// address unless the server is on your own machine or trusted network.

Keep your key safe

Your API key is stored unencrypted in your browser profile, like most extension settings. Anyone with access to your computer account could read it. Use a key with a spending cap where your provider allows one, and revoke it with the provider if you think it has been exposed.

⏳ How long data is kept

• Draft content: held in memory only while a compose window is open and a request is running. Marginal does not save it to disk.
• Settings and API keys: kept on your device until you clear a key, change the setting, or uninstall.
• On our side: nothing, because we receive nothing.
• On a provider’s side: set by that provider’s own policy.

🚫 What we never do

Marginal’s use of data follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its limits on what developers may do with user data. In plain terms:

• Sell or rent your data to anyone
• Share your data with advertisers or data brokers
• Show ads or build advertising profiles
• Train AI models on your emails
• Use your data for anything except the suggestions you asked for
• Use your data to judge creditworthiness or for lending
• Let people read your emails: we cannot, because they never reach us
• Load or run code downloaded from the internet

🧭 Your rights & choices

Wherever you live, including the EU, UK and California, you control your information. Because Marginal holds nothing about you on any server, most requests are met by acting on your own device.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not make automated decisions that affect your legal rights. If you cannot resolve a concern with us, you may contact your local data protection authority.

🛡️ Permissions explained

• storage — to save your provider choice, model name, and API keys locally.
• Host permissions for mail.google.com — required so the content script can detect compose windows and inject the Marginal panel.
• Host permissions for the AI providers (Google, Hugging Face, OpenRouter, localhost for Ollama) — so the extension can send the draft text you choose to analyze.
• Optional host permissions — only requested if you configure a custom endpoint, and only for the origin you specify.

Marginal does not request access to your full Gmail account, contacts, or any other Google services beyond the open compose window.

💬 Quick answers

👶 Children

Marginal is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

🔄 Changes to this policy

If we update this privacy policy, the “Last updated” date at the top will change. Significant changes will be noted in the extension’s Chrome Web Store listing or release notes where practical.

✉️ Contact

Questions or concerns about this privacy policy? Send a message and you will get a reply.