The short version: we store the polls you create, the votes they receive, and the account details needed to run your plan. We never read the content of your emails, never sell your data, and never use it for advertising.
What we store
- Your account: your email address and plan, plus the settings you choose in the dashboard.
- Your polls: questions, options, settings, and results.
- Votes: which option each vote chose. If a poll asks voters to identify themselves, the name and/or email they enter is stored and shown to the poll’s creator. Voters always see a clear notice first.
- Recipients of a poll email: the addresses a poll was sent to. We use these only to power features you use, like reminding non-voters and inviting people when you schedule a time. Recipients are captured from the email headers (To/Cc), never from the message body.
The Chrome extension
The Polls for Gmail Chrome extension adds poll creation, a live poll sidebar, and in-email poll status to Gmail in your browser.
| Permission | Why the extension needs it |
|---|---|
| Access to mail.google.com | To show the Polls button in the compose toolbar, the Polls sidebar, and the status panel for emails that contain a poll. When you insert a poll, the extension places it in your draft. When you send that draft, it reads the To and Cc addresses of that draft only and sends them to Polls for Gmail for reminders and scheduling. When you open an email, the extension checks it, locally in your browser, for Polls for Gmail vote links. If it finds one, it sends only that poll’s ID to Polls for Gmail to show the poll’s status. The extension doesn’t add anything to your BCC field, and it never stores or transmits the content of your emails. |
| Access to pollsforgmail.com | To connect the extension to your Polls account and to create and manage your polls through our API. |
| Storage | To remember, in this browser only, which Polls account the extension is connected to (a revocable access token). |
| Scripting | Used by the InboxSDK library (see below) to integrate with Gmail’s interface on mail.google.com. |
- The extension requests no Google account permissions (no OAuth scopes). You connect it by signing in on pollsforgmail.com.
- Disconnect anytime from the extension’s menu or in your dashboard Settings. Disconnecting immediately revokes the browser’s token.
- The extension uses InboxSDK, a library by Streak, to integrate with Gmail. InboxSDK may send limited, anonymized technical usage and error data to Streak so the library keeps working with Gmail. See Streak’s privacy policy.
Limited Use
Polls for Gmail’s use of information received from Google APIs and from the Chrome extension complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements, and the Google API Services User Data Policy. Data is used only to provide the features you use. It is not sold, not used for advertising, not used to determine creditworthiness, and not read by humans, except with your permission, for security, or to comply with the law.
The Gmail add-on
The Google Workspace add-on uses only the Gmail scopes it needs: to show its sidebar and to insert a poll into the draft you’re composing. When you insert a poll, it adds a capture address (poll-…@pollsforgmail.com) to your draft’s BCC. That address records who the email went to, from the message headers only, and the message body is never stored. Removing that address from BCC opts that email out.
Emails we send
We send emails that relate to your polls, such as vote alerts, "time’s decided" notices, reminders you ask us to send, and account emails. You can turn most of them off in dashboard Settings. Every email says why you received it.
Retention and deletion
Your polls stay in your account until you delete them. To delete your account and all of its polls, email [email protected] from the address on your account.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email [email protected]. Very Big Machine, New York.