Shelf — Privacy Policy

Effective July 24, 2026

Shelf ("the extension") adds user-defined section headers and private notes to Gmail's thread lists. It is built so that it cannot access your email account: it uses no Gmail API, requests no OAuth grant, and has no server.

What Shelf stores

Only data you create while using it:

• Section names, their order, and which threads you filed under them
• Notes you write (including their colors and formatting)
• Small housekeeping flags (e.g., whether you dismissed the first-run tip)

Threads are referenced by Gmail's numeric thread identifier only. Shelf does not collect, store, or transmit the content of your emails, your contacts, or your Google account information.

Where it's stored

Everything lives in your browser's extension storage (chrome.storage.local), with Chrome's built-in extension sync (chrome.storage.sync) used as a best-effort mirror so your data follows your Chrome profile across your own computers. That sync is operated by your browser and your Google account settings — Shelf itself sends data nowhere.

What Shelf never does

• No transmission of any data to the developer or any third party
• No analytics, telemetry, tracking, ads, or fingerprinting
• No accounts, sign-ups, or remote code
• No reading, sending, archiving, deleting, or labeling of your email

Permissions

• storage — to save the data listed above on your device
• Access to mail.google.com pages — to draw Shelf's interface inside Gmail. The extension runs nowhere else.

Deleting your data

Remove any note or section inside Gmail at any time, use Export/Import in the extension's options page to take your data with you, or uninstall the extension — uninstalling deletes its local storage, and Chrome sync purges the mirrored copy per your browser's normal behavior.

Changes & contact

If this policy ever changes, the updated version will be posted at this URL with a new effective date. Questions: shelfforgmail@gmail.com.