Privacy policy

pigeonhole · last updated October 21, 2026

pigeonhole is a personal email-sorting tool run by Jason Yang. It is used only by Jason and a few family members and colleagues who authorize it on their own Google accounts. This page explains what Google user data it accesses and how that data is used.

Data accessed

With the account owner's permission, pigeonhole uses these Google API scopes:

• gmail.modify: to read message metadata (sender, recipients, subject, whether it is a mailing list) and a short text preview of each new message, to add labels, and to remove messages from the inbox.
• gmail.settings.basic: to manage the account's own Gmail filters and label settings.

It does not read attachments and does not access contacts, calendar, Drive or any other Google service.

How the data is used

• The metadata and short preview of a new message are sent to the Anthropic API (Claude) to choose a label. They are processed under Anthropic's commercial API terms. Nothing else is sent to any third party.
• pigeonhole then adds that label in Gmail and, following rules the account owner chose, may archive the message (remove it from the inbox). It never deletes messages, sends email, replies, unsubscribes, or changes read or unread status.
• The data is used only to provide this sorting for the account owner. It is not sold, not used for advertising, and not used to train AI models.

Storage and security

• pigeonhole runs on a single computer at the owner's home. There is no pigeonhole server or cloud database.
• OAuth tokens are stored in the macOS Keychain on that computer.
• Local files on that computer keep message IDs, the labels chosen, and a list of archived message IDs so that any archiving can be undone. Activity logs record only IDs, labels and counts, not message content.
• Nothing is published or shared with other people.

Limited Use

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

Removing access and data

You can revoke pigeonhole's access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions. To have the local records for your account deleted, email the contact below. Labels added in Gmail stay in your account until you remove them.

Contact

Jason Yang · Toronto, Canada · jasonxtyang@gmail.com