Legal
Privacy Policy
Relay ("we," "our," or "the service") provides AI-assisted email classification, response drafting, and automated sending for business customer support inboxes hosted on Gmail, Microsoft 365 (Outlook) or any standard IMAP mailbox. This policy explains exactly what data we access, who it is disclosed to, and how it is protected.
What Google user data Relay accesses
Relay requests the minimum Gmail permissions required to read an incoming customer email and reply to it. With the explicit authorization of the inbox owner, Relay accesses the following Google user data:
| Scope requested | Google user data accessed | Why it is required |
|---|---|---|
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify |
Message content of emails in the authorized business inbox: subject lines, message bodies, sender and recipient email addresses and display names, timestamps, attachment names, message and thread identifiers, and Gmail labels. | Relay must read the full body of an incoming customer email to determine what is being asked, and must read the surrounding thread for context. It applies and removes Gmail labels to track which messages it has handled, marks messages as read, writes reply drafts back into Gmail, and moves messages it classifies as spam to Trash (where Gmail keeps them for 30 days). It does not delete messages. A read-only scope cannot write drafts or labels; the narrower gmail.readonly and gmail.labels scopes together still cannot create the draft that a human reviews before sending. |
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send |
Outbound message content sent from the authorized business inbox. | Relay's core function is answering routine customer email. Where the client has explicitly enabled automatic sending for a category, the approved reply is sent from their own inbox so the customer receives it in the existing thread. No narrower scope permits sending. |
During onboarding, and only with the account owner's explicit instruction, Relay reads a client's historical email archive in the authorized inbox in order to learn that business's existing policies and writing style.
Relay accesses only the specific business inbox a client authorizes. Relay does not access personal Gmail accounts, and does not request or access any other Google service — including Google Contacts, Drive, Calendar, or Photos.
Microsoft 365 and other mailboxes
Relay connects to three kinds of business inbox. For Gmail the access is described above. For Microsoft 365 / Outlook and for standard IMAP mailboxes, Relay performs the same functions with the equivalent permissions, and everything in this policy applies to that data in the same way.
| Mailbox | Permission or credential | What Relay does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 / Outlook |
Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send, offline_access, User.Read, granted by the mailbox owner (or their administrator) through Microsoft's own consent screen. |
Reads incoming messages and their conversation in the authorized mailbox, writes reply drafts into that mailbox's Drafts folder, and, where the client has enabled automatic sending, sends the approved reply from the client's own address. Relay does not move, archive or delete messages in Microsoft mailboxes. User.Read is used only to confirm which mailbox was connected. |
| IMAP / SMTP |
The mailbox address, server names and an app password or mailbox password supplied by the client. | Reads new messages in the inbox without marking them as read, saves reply drafts to the Drafts folder, and sends approved replies through the client's own SMTP server. Relay does not move or delete messages in IMAP mailboxes. |
Microsoft account data is used only to provide the functions described in this policy and is handled in accordance with the Microsoft APIs Terms of Use. Relay does not request or access any other Microsoft service, such as OneDrive, Teams, Calendar or Contacts.
How we use this data
Email content is used exclusively to classify inquiries, retrieve relevant policy information, and generate accurate reply drafts for that specific client's business. Extracted facts and policy information are stored in an isolated, per-client knowledge base that is never shared across clients.
Relay's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Who we share, transfer, or disclose Google user data to
Relay discloses Google user data only to the service providers listed below, only for the purposes stated, and only to the extent needed to answer that client's email. Each acts as a processor under contract and is prohibited from using the data for its own purposes.
| Recipient | Google user data disclosed | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic, PBC |
Message subject and body content, sender display name and address, and prior messages in the thread; during onboarding, text from the client's website and past replies. | Classifying the customer's intent, generating the reply draft, checking the draft before anything is sent, and extracting facts from the client's own material. | United States |
| OpenAI, L.L.C. |
The text of the customer's question at reply time, and text extracted from the client's email archive and website during onboarding. | Converting text into numeric embeddings so the relevant policy can be retrieved when answering. Embeddings only; no other OpenAI service is used. | United States |
| Qdrant Solutions GmbH |
Numeric embeddings and the text passages they were derived from, in a database isolated per client. | Storing and retrieving each client's knowledge base. | Australia (Google Cloud, Sydney region) |
| Hetzner Online GmbH | Message content during processing; the handling log (including draft text and, for the learning loop, the customer's message with the reply the business sent); encrypted mailbox credentials at rest (Gmail OAuth tokens, Microsoft 365 refresh tokens, IMAP/SMTP passwords). | Hosting the automation server that orchestrates the above, the database holding the handling log and credentials, and the nightly encrypted backups. | Falkenstein, Germany |
| Backblaze, Inc. |
The nightly backup bundle, which contains the handling log and the encrypted credentials described in the row above. The bundle is encrypted on our server with AES-256 before upload; Backblaze receives only ciphertext and never holds the key. | Off-site copy of the backup, so that a failure of the primary server does not lose client data. Copies are deleted after 30 days. | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Shopify Inc. |
A customer's email address or order reference taken from the message. | Looking up that customer's order status in order to answer accurately. | Canada / United States |
| Google LLC |
Operational metadata only — timestamps, message identifiers, category, and outcome. No message content. | Client-visible audit log of what Relay handled. | Google infrastructure |
Beyond the processors above, Relay does not share, transfer, or disclose Google user data to any third party. Specifically:
- We do not sell or rent Google user data, under any circumstances.
- We do not share Google user data for advertising, marketing, or profiling.
- We do not use Google user data to train, retrain, or fine-tune any AI model, our own or a third party's. Data sent to Anthropic and OpenAI is submitted under API terms that exclude it from model training.
- We do not transfer Google user data to data brokers, or to any party for their independent use.
- Relay personnel do not read client email content except where a client explicitly requests support with a specific message, or where required to investigate a security incident.
Transfers of personal data outside the European Economic Area are made under the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. We may disclose data where compelled by valid legal process, and will notify the affected client unless prohibited from doing so by law.
How we protect Google user data
Relay applies the following mechanisms to Google user data, Microsoft account data, and all other sensitive information:
- Encryption in transit. All connections — to Gmail, Microsoft 365 and IMAP/SMTP servers, to processors, to the Relay dashboards, and administrative access to our servers — use TLS 1.2 or higher. Relay's web properties are served over HTTPS only.
- Encrypted credentials at rest. Gmail OAuth tokens, Microsoft 365 refresh tokens, IMAP/SMTP passwords and all other client credentials are encrypted at rest (AES). The decryption key is stored separately from the database and is not recoverable from a database copy alone. The automation platform's own credential store and the nightly backups use AES-256.
- Per-client isolation. Each client's knowledge base is a separate, isolated collection. No query for one client can return another client's data.
- Restricted infrastructure access. Administrative access to Relay's servers is by SSH public key only; password authentication is disabled. A host firewall permits only the ports required to operate the service. Credential files are readable only by the system administrator account.
- Data minimisation and retention limits. Message content is kept only where the service needs it: the draft text in the handling log (and, for messages that fit no category, the note to the team that includes the customer's message), and — for the learning loop — the customer's message paired with the reply the business actually sent. Diagnostic records of automation runs are deleted automatically after 7 days. Everything else is deleted at the end of the agreement, as set out below.
- Revocation and deletion. A client can disconnect Relay's Gmail access at any time from their Google Account permissions page, or Relay's Microsoft 365 access from their Microsoft account's app permissions (or their administrator's Enterprise applications list), which permanently revokes our access (at once for Google; for Microsoft once the current access token expires, within about an hour); an IMAP connection is ended by changing or revoking the mailbox password. In every case we also delete the stored credential on request. On request, or when a service agreement ends, we permanently delete that client's knowledge base, handling log, learning-loop records, dry-run results and stored credentials within 7 days and confirm by email; encrypted backups roll off after 14 days on the server and after 30 days in the off-site copy.
- Incident response. In the event of a breach affecting Google user data, we will investigate, revoke affected credentials, and notify affected clients and the relevant supervisory authority without undue delay and within 72 hours where required by law.
Human oversight and control
Clients retain full control over automated sending at all times, including the right to have automatic sending paused at any time by emailing sales@relaymailz.com (switched off the same working day). Categories eligible for fully automatic sending are limited by design, and every automated decision is subject to a confidence threshold and an independent verification check before anything is sent without human review.
Data retention and deletion
Client data is retained for as long as the service agreement with that client is active. Upon request, or at the end of a service agreement, a client's data — the knowledge base derived from their website and email archive, the handling log, the learning-loop records and stored credentials — is permanently deleted within 7 days. What remains is one cost line per handled message with no content in it, the business record needed for invoicing, and the encrypted backups, which roll off after 14 days on the server and after 30 days in the off-site copy. A plain-language version of all of this is on the Trust & security page.
Your rights
Clients (and, where applicable under data protection law, their end customers) may request access to, correction of, or deletion of data processed by Relay by contacting us directly.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected with an updated "last updated" date above.
Contact
Questions about this policy or how your data is handled can be directed to us by emailing sales@relaymailz.com.