OpenWorthy privacy policy

Last updated: 24 September 2026

OpenWorthy is software that runs on your own computer and marks the email worth opening. This policy explains what it does with your information.

The short version

• OpenWorthy runs only on your device. Nothing about you or your mail is ever sent to us or to anyone else.
• It reads message headers only — who a message is from and to, its thread and list headers — and never the content of your email.
• It changes your mailbox in only two ways: adding or removing its own marker (a label, category or flag called “Worth Reading”), and keeping one small coordination record per computer you run it on, so that only one of your computers marks mail at a time. The record holds nothing but a random computer ID and a time: a hidden label in Gmail, a hidden folder in Outlook, or on other providers a short message in a folder named “OpenWorthy”.
• If you switch on server-side rules, it also creates rules in your mailbox — a Sieve script, Gmail filters or Outlook message rules — that add the same marker to mail from senders your own history shows are worth reading, so that mail is marked while your computer is off. Those rules only ever add the marker, and OpenWorthy never changes or deletes a rule or filter you made yourself. Turning them off in Settings removes them. For Gmail this asks for one extra permission, to manage filters; without the feature it is never requested.

What OpenWorthy accesses

To decide which messages are worth opening, OpenWorthy reads these header fields of messages in your inbox and sent folder: sender, recipients, reply-to, date, message and thread identifiers, subject, content type, mailing-list headers, automated-message headers and authentication results. It does not read message bodies or attachments.

Where your data goes

Nowhere beyond your device. OpenWorthy connects directly from your computer to your email provider (for example Google or Microsoft). No email data, and nothing about you, passes through or is stored on any server of ours.

On your device, OpenWorthy keeps a small database of its decisions and of how often you correspond with each sender. Email addresses and message identifiers in it are stored as keyed cryptographic hashes, not in readable form. Message subjects are not stored. Sign-in tokens and app passwords are kept in your operating system’s keychain.

OpenWorthy sends no analytics, telemetry or crash reports. If you choose to report a bug, you decide what to attach.

Every connection OpenWorthy makes, and how to watch them yourself, is listed in Check it yourself.

Updates

The OpenWorthy app checks for a new version by downloading a public file from our website, openworthy.buzzneuron.com, when it starts and once a day. The request carries nothing about you or your mail. As with any web request, the website’s host, GitHub, receives your IP address and the details of the request, such as its time, under GitHub’s privacy statement. You can switch the check off in the app’s Settings. The engine and the command-line program never check for updates.

Buying Pro

Pro is sold by our reseller, Paddle.com, the Merchant of Record for every order. Checkout takes place in your web browser on Paddle’s pages, and Paddle processes your payment details under its own privacy notice; we never see them. Paddle shares with us your email address, country, and name if you give it, and what you bought, which we use only to issue your licence, send it to you and support you. A small service of ours receives the purchase from Paddle, signs your licence and emails it to you through our email provider, Resend, under its privacy policy; the service itself stores nothing. Paddle keeps the record of your purchase, as the law requires of a seller.

Your licence is a short signed text that contains your email address. It is stored on your computer and checked there; OpenWorthy never sends it, or anything else, to us.

Our website

This website is hosted by GitHub Pages. We use no cookies, analytics or trackers on it. GitHub receives visitors’ IP addresses to serve the pages, under the GitHub privacy statement linked above.

Google user data

OpenWorthy’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Gmail data is used only to provide OpenWorthy’s labelling feature to you, is never transferred to others, is never used for advertising, and is never read by humans.

Your control

• Stop at any time: removing an account in Settings (or with openworthy account remove) deletes the account’s local data and credentials and, for Google, revokes OpenWorthy’s access.
• Revoke access yourself: Google — myaccount.google.com/permissions; Microsoft — account.live.com/consent/Manage or your organisation’s My Apps.
• Undo marks: Undo on the Activity screen (or openworthy undo) removes only the marks OpenWorthy added.

Contact

BuzzNeuron · pranay@buzzneuron.com