Privacy Policy

The short version

MsgLens works in two modes, and they have opposite privacy properties. The difference is the most important thing on this page, so it comes first.

The viewer, which is what you get without an account, never uploads anything. It parses .msg, .eml and winmail.dat files entirely inside your browser using JavaScript. It has no upload endpoint, so we have no technical means of receiving, storing or reading those messages — that is a property of how the site is built, not a policy we could quietly change.

You can verify it: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and open a file. No request carries your data. Or disconnect from the internet after the page loads — the viewer keeps working.

The workspace, which requires signing in, does upload — but only the files you explicitly save. That is the whole point of it: a message has to reach our servers for a colleague to be able to open it. Opening a file in the viewer never saves it. Nothing is stored unless you press Save.

What we do not collect

• The contents of any file you open in the viewer without saving it.
• File names or file sizes, anywhere, ever.
• Email addresses, names or any other personal data from messages you only view.

The viewer sends one thing, and it is worth being exact about what: when a file is opened, a single event records its format — msg, eml, tnef — and whether it parsed. Not its name, not its size, none of its contents. It exists so we know which formats fail, and it is the only request the viewer makes.

The file itself still never leaves your tab, and that is still checkable: open the Network tab and open a file. You will see one small event go out and no request carrying the file. Turn your connection off and the viewer keeps working, because parsing never needed the network.

What is measured, and where

Two places, neither of them the viewer.

The pricing page loads two measurement tools, because it is the one page with a question worth asking about it: how many people press a buy button and do not finish.

The workspace reports two things from the server, and only for files you chose to save: that a file was saved, and that a saved file was opened. Each carries its format, its size and your account id — nothing about the message itself, no subject, no sender, no contents. This is a count of actions the server already performs on your behalf; it stores these files and serves them back, so counting the request sees nothing it did not already see. Nothing is reported for a file you only view without saving.

• Mixpanel receives four events: that the page was viewed, that a plan button was pressed, and whether the checkout then opened or failed. Each carries the plan name and an identifier that is generated fresh for the visit and discarded when the tab closes. No email address, no account id, nothing that survives the session.
• Hotjar records how the page is used — scrolling, clicks, mouse movement. It is scoped to the pricing page for the reason above: it captures the screen, and no screen with a message on it will ever have it loaded.

Both are third parties with their own policies (Mixpanel, Hotjar). Blocking them changes nothing about what the site does — the prices, the checkout and the viewer all work with both blocked.

If you sign in and save files

Signing in uses Google. We receive your Google account identifier, email address, display name and profile picture, and we store them so we can show you the right workspace and let colleagues see who saved what. We never receive your Google password, and we ask for no access to your Gmail, Drive or contacts.

When you save a message, we store:

• The file itself, in Cloudflare R2 object storage, encrypted at rest. Only members of the team you saved it to can retrieve it.
• Its subject, sender name and address, date and size, in a database, in readable form. This is what makes the list searchable and sortable without downloading every file. If that matters to you, the viewer stores none of it — use the viewer.
• Who saved it and when, so a team can tell where a file came from.

Deleting a file removes both the stored object and its database row. Deleting a folder does the same for everything inside it. Neither is recoverable afterwards, and we keep no backup copy from which we could restore one.

We do not read stored files, do not use them to train anything, and do not share them with anyone outside the team they belong to. If you want your account and everything in it removed, email [email protected] from the address you signed in with.

What is stored on your device

One localStorage entry, theme, records whether you chose light or dark mode. It never leaves your browser and you can clear it at any time through your browser settings. Opened messages are held in memory only and are gone when you close or reload the tab.

Hosting and server logs

The site is served as static files from Cloudflare Pages. As with any web server, Cloudflare records standard request logs (IP address, user agent, requested URL, timestamp) for delivery and abuse prevention. These are subject to Cloudflare's privacy policy. Because the viewer makes no requests while parsing, nothing about the files you open appears in those logs.

Advertising

This site is free and is funded by advertising served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies or similar technologies to serve and measure ads, and may personalise them based on your prior visits to this and other sites.

• Google's use of advertising cookies is described in How Google uses information from sites that use its services.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings, or opt out of third-party vendors' use of cookies at aboutads.info.
• Advertising has no access to the contents of files you open. Message parsing happens in an isolated frame that runs no scripts at all, and no message data is ever placed in the page's URL, storage or global state.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, a consent message appears before personalised advertising cookies are used. You can accept, decline, or open the detailed controls, and you can change your choice at any time from that same message. Declining does not restrict any part of this site.

If you use an ad blocker, the site works normally. Nothing is gated behind ads.

Remote images in messages

Images hosted on external servers are blocked by default, because senders routinely use them as tracking pixels. If you choose Load images, your browser requests those images directly from the sender's server, which reveals your IP address and approximate time of reading to that server. That request goes to the sender, not to us. The choice is per-message and resets when you open a different message.

Children

This site is a general-purpose utility and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Your rights

Because we do not collect personal data, there is generally nothing for us to access, correct, export or delete. For advertising data held by Google, use the Google controls linked above. If you have a question about this policy, contact us at [email protected].

Changes

If this policy changes, the "last updated" date above changes with it. Material changes to how the site handles data will be described here rather than made silently.