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Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 18, 2026

In short

  • Hato runs on your Mac and talks to Google directly: your email never goes through any server of ours.
  • It only uses your Google data to provide the features you see in the app.
  • Besides Gmail, it only asks for its own hidden folder in your Google Drive, to keep a copy of your settings. It can’t see anything else in your Drive.
  • We never sell or share your data, or use it for advertising or AI training.
  • AI agents, like Claude, only get in if you turn them on. They don’t see what you mark as private, unless you allow the email you have open.
  • Once a day, Hato tells us which version you use, with nothing that identifies you. You can turn it off in Settings.
  • You can delete your data and revoke access at any time.

1. Who we are

Hato is a desktop email client for Gmail on macOS, developed and maintained by Mat Veiga (“we”, “us”), who is responsible for the processing described in this policy. You can contact us at soporte@gethato.com.

This Privacy Policy explains which data the Hato application and this website handle, and in particular how Hato accesses, uses, stores, protects, shares and deletes the Google user data it receives when you connect your Google account.

2. How Hato works

Hato is an application that you install and run on your own Mac. When you connect it to your Gmail account, the app communicates with Google's APIs directly from your computer, always over encrypted connections (HTTPS).

Hato has no backend servers. There is no Hato server between your Mac and Google, so we never receive, see or store your email, your contacts or your credentials. Everything the app does with your data happens on your device.

3. Google user data that Hato accesses

You connect Hato to your account through Google's official sign-in page (OAuth 2.0), so Hato never sees or stores your Google password. Google shows you the permissions the app requests before you grant them. Hato requests only the minimum permissions its features need:

Gmail https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify
Your email messages and their content (sender, recipients, subject, date, body and attachments), your Gmail labels and read/unread status, your drafts, the signature set in your Gmail settings and the email address of the connected account. With this permission Hato can also add and remove labels, archive, move messages to the trash, send email and save drafts on your behalf, always as a result of your actions. This permission does not allow permanently deleting messages.
Google Drive, only Hato’s folder https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata
A hidden folder in your Google Drive that only Hato can use. Hato cannot see, open or change your files in Drive: only what it saves there itself. It will use it to keep a copy of your settings and your decisions (who gets into your Inbox, your private senders, your mail hours), so you don’t lose them when you change Mac or reinstall the app. Until that copy arrives, in an upcoming version, Hato saves nothing there.

Hato does not request access to any other Google service, such as your Google contacts or Google Calendar, or to the rest of your Google Drive, and it does not access your Google password.

4. How Hato uses Google user data

Hato uses Google user data only to provide the user-facing features of the app that you see and control:

  • Reading and sorting your email: showing your messages and sorting them into the Guardian, Inbox, News and Bills according to the decisions you make.
  • Organizing your mailbox: reflecting your decisions in Gmail with labels (Hato/Inbox, Hato/News, Hato/Bills, Hato/ReplyLater, Hato/SetAside and Hato/Following), and archiving, moving to the trash or marking as read the messages you choose.
  • Writing: sending the replies and new messages you write, with your Gmail signature, and saving your drafts in Gmail.
  • Attachments: showing the attachments under each email, with a thumbnail for images; previewing one with macOS Quick Look when you click it; downloading one only when you ask for it, to the folder you choose; and sending them along when you forward an email.
  • Notifications: if you turn them on for a person, for the threads you follow or for your email hours, showing a macOS notification with who wrote to you and the subject (in private mode, without the subject; from a private sender, without the name either). They are created on your Mac.
  • Contacts: listing the people who have written to you, from the email stored on your Mac, so you can see and change where their email goes.
  • Search: searching the email stored on your Mac, inside the app.
  • Your settings in Google Drive: when that copy arrives, keeping your settings and decisions in Hato’s hidden folder in your Drive, and bringing them back when you connect on another Mac (see section 3).
  • Agents (optional): if you turn them on in Settings, handing the agents you use on your Mac, like Claude Code or the chat in Hato’s agent panel, the emails they ask for, saving the replies they draft as Gmail drafts for you to review and send, and applying the changes you allow them to make. See section 5.

Hato only changes your mailbox as a result of something you do or decide in the app, or of something you allow an agent to do. It does not use Google user data for advertising, does not sell it, does not use it to build user profiles, and does not use it to develop, improve or train generalized artificial intelligence or machine learning models.

5. How Google user data is shared

We do not share, sell, rent or transfer Google user data to anyone. Because Hato has no servers, your data never reaches us or any third party: it only travels between your Mac and Google, over encrypted connections. Hato does not include advertising, analytics or tracking services, so there are no other companies that could receive it.

The only information we could ever receive from you is what you decide to send us yourself, for example if you write to us asking for help. We would use it only to answer you.

If you use an agent. Agents are off by default and, if you don't use one, your data only travels between your Mac and Google. If you turn them on in Settings → Agents, Hato hands the agent the emails it asks for on your Mac. That includes Claude Code, connected from your Mac or through the chat in Hato’s agent panel. What it reads reaches the company that provides it (Anthropic, for Claude), which handles it under its own terms. You choose what it can do, see in Hato everything it does, and can turn it off at any time.

When you write to the agent from the panel, Hato tells it which screen and which email you have open, only as identifiers: it reads that email only if your request needs it. It never sees emails from senders you mark as private, unless it asks for the one you have open and you allow it, for that email and that conversation only. The conversation is not saved to disk. If you use the microphone, the dictation is done by macOS, under Apple’s terms, and nothing is sent until you send it.

6. How Google user data is stored and protected

Hato stores data only on your Mac, inside your user account, in the app's data folder (~/Library/Application Support/Hato):

  • Access credentials: the OAuth tokens Google issues when you connect your account, encrypted with the macOS Keychain.
  • A local copy of basic message details: sender, subject, a short opening snippet, date, read status and the inbox or pile each message is in, so the app opens instantly.
  • Your settings: your Guardian decisions, your private senders, your mail hours, who notifies you and your Gmail signature.

The full content of each email is downloaded from Google when you open it, is kept in memory while the app is running, and is not saved to disk by Hato. As in any web browser, images inside emails may be kept temporarily in the app's cache. An attachment is saved on your Mac only if you download it yourself, or as a temporary copy in your Mac’s temporary folder, which macOS empties on its own, while you preview it. Emails Hato hands to an agent are not saved to disk either, and the log of what agents do is kept only in memory until you quit the app.

To protect this data:

  • All communication with Google uses encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS).
  • Credentials are encrypted with the macOS Keychain.
  • Emails are displayed in an isolated environment that cannot run code, links open in your browser, and the most common 1×1 tracking pixels are removed.
  • If you turn agents on, only programs running under your own Mac user account can connect to Hato.
  • We, the developer, have no access to the data stored on your Mac.

7. Retention and deletion of Google user data

Hato keeps the data described above on your Mac only for as long as you use the app with your account. You can delete it at any time:

  • Sign out in Hato: the access credentials are deleted from your Mac immediately.
  • Revoke access from your Google Account, under Third-party apps & services: Hato loses all access to your account immediately.
  • Delete all local data: uninstall Hato and delete the ~/Library/Application Support/Hato folder. If you connect a different Google account, Hato deletes the local copy of the previous one.
  • Delete the copy in Google Drive: if Hato has saved one, in Google Drive → Settings → Manage apps → Hato → Delete hidden app data.

The Hato/… labels remain in your Gmail until you remove them from Gmail. Since we do not store any of your Google user data, there is nothing on our side to delete; if you need help, write to us at soporte@gethato.com.

8. Human access

No person, including the developer, reads your email or any other Google user data. Hato processes it automatically, on your Mac, only to provide the features you use. We would only see an email if you explicitly choose to send it to us, for example to report a problem.

9. Limited Use of Google user data

Hato’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

10. External images in emails

Many emails include images hosted on the sender's servers. Some of them are tracking pixels: tiny or hidden images whose only job is to tell the sender that you opened the email, when, and from which IP address. Hato shows the images in your emails, but removes those pixels before displaying the email. If you prefer, you can block all external images in Settings: then they only load when you ask, in one email or always for a sender. Either way, an email can never make Hato reach your local network or your own Mac.

11. Anonymous usage statistics

To know how many people use Hato and which version they use, the app makes a single request a day to gethato.com. It only sends Hato’s version number and, when it applies, two flags: whether it is the first time this month and whether it is the first time it is opened. It does not send your email address, anything from your Google account or your emails, or any identifier.

Our counter only adds up those requests by day, by month and by version: it does not store your IP address or any other data. As with any visit to a website, the hosting provider may log technical data for a limited time (see the next section). The legal basis is our legitimate interest in knowing how much Hato is used and which versions are still in use, with as little data as possible.

You can turn them off at any time in Settings → Privacy → Anonymous statistics.

New versions. To let you know when there’s a new version, when it opens and every few hours Hato reads https://gethato.com/api/ultima.txt, a file with the number of the latest version. That request sends nothing, not even your version, so it also works with the statistics turned off.

12. This website

This website is static: it uses no cookies, includes no analytics and loads no third-party resources. It only stores your theme choice in your browser, to remember it. When you download Hato from it, we add one to a counter of downloads by day and version; we don’t store your IP address or anything else about you. The hosting provider may log technical data about visits, such as the IP address and date, for security purposes and for a limited time.

If you email us, we will use your data only to reply and keep it only for as long as needed to handle your request. The legal basis is your consent when you write to us.

If you join the launch list, we send your email address to MailerLite, our email provider, based in the European Union, which asks you to confirm it. We use it only to write to you when Hato 1.0 comes out and, if you tried the beta, to give you its discount. You can unsubscribe with the link in every email or by writing to us, and we delete it. The legal basis is your consent.

13. Your rights

Since Hato does not store your data on any server, you are in direct control: you can view and delete it on your Mac and revoke access from your Google Account at any time.

For any personal data we do process (for example, if you email us), you can exercise your rights of access, rectification, erasure, objection, restriction and portability by writing to soporte@gethato.com. You can also lodge a complaint with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD).

14. Children

Hato is not intended for children under 14.

15. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will publish the new version on this page with its update date. If the change is significant, we will highlight it on this website.

16. Contact

For any question about this policy or about your data, write to Mat Veiga at soporte@gethato.com.