Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated 29 October 2026

Tempo is an email client for macOS, made in Perth, Western Australia. This policy explains what information the Tempo app and this website handle, where it goes, and the choices you have. "Tempo", "we" and "us" mean the developer of Tempo. "You" means the person using the app or visiting this site.

The short version

  • Your email is downloaded to your Mac and stays there. We don't run servers that store, read or scan your mail.
  • Tempo connects directly to your email provider (Google, Microsoft or your IMAP/SMTP server).
  • Passwords and sign-in tokens are kept in the macOS Keychain, and the local mail index is encrypted.
  • The app contains no analytics, advertising or tracking.
  • We never sell your information or use your email to train AI models.

Information stored on your Mac

To make folders, threads and search fast, Tempo keeps a copy of your mail on your Mac. This includes:

  • message headers, bodies, snippets and a search index;
  • cached attachments, which are removed after the retention window you choose in Settings → Storage;
  • drafts, signatures, rules, labels and your app settings;
  • your trusted senders and trusted link sites;
  • diagnostic logs in ~/Library/Logs/com.mrmasonic.tempo/, which never contain passwords or tokens.

The mail index is encrypted at rest with a key that is generated on your Mac and stored only in the macOS Keychain. Account passwords and OAuth tokens are also stored only in the Keychain. None of this is sent to us.

Your email providers

When you add an account, Tempo signs in to that provider and talks to it directly to sync, send and change your mail:

  • Google (Gmail): Tempo signs in with Google OAuth in your browser and uses the Gmail API. It requests access to read, compose, send and organise your mail, plus your email address and basic profile so it can label the account.
  • Microsoft (Outlook, Microsoft 365): Tempo signs in with Microsoft and uses the Microsoft Graph API for the same purposes.
  • IMAP and SMTP: Tempo connects to the servers you enter, or the ones it finds for you, using the credentials you give it.

Your provider's own privacy policy covers what it does with your data. You can revoke Tempo's access at any time from your Google account or Microsoft account.

Google user data

Tempo's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. Gmail data is used only to provide the email features you see in the app. It stays on your device, is not transferred to us or anyone else, is not used for advertising, and is not used to develop or train AI or machine-learning models. No person reads it.

Push notifications relay

A desktop app can't receive the "new mail" signals that Google and Microsoft send, so Tempo uses a small relay service that we operate. When push is enabled for a Gmail or Outlook account:

  • the provider tells the relay that a mailbox changed, using the account's email address and a change identifier;
  • the relay passes that signal to your copy of Tempo, which then syncs directly with your provider.

These signals contain no message content, subjects or senders. The relay keeps them in memory only long enough to deliver them. Like any web service, it may record basic connection details such as IP addresses and timestamps in short-lived server logs, which we use only to keep the service running and secure. If push isn't available, Tempo checks for new mail on a schedule you can set in Settings.

Account setup lookups

When you add an IMAP account, Tempo may look up the server settings for your email domain, for example in Mozilla's public Thunderbird configuration database or on your provider's own autoconfiguration server. These lookups send the domain part of your address (such as example.com), not your password.

Remote content

Remote images in email can tell senders when and where you opened a message. Tempo blocks them by default. If you load images for a message, or always load them for a trusted sender, the servers hosting those images can see your IP address and that the message was opened. Links that point somewhere other than the address they show ask before opening, unless you've trusted that site.

Notifications

New-mail notifications are shown through macOS Notification Center on your Mac. They aren't sent through any Tempo server.

This website

This website doesn't use cookies and doesn't ask you for personal information. To understand how many people visit and which pages are useful, we use Umami, a privacy-focused analytics tool that we host ourselves. It records pages viewed, the referring site, browser, operating system, device type and approximate country. It doesn't use cookies, doesn't store your IP address, doesn't follow you across other sites, and the data isn't shared with or sold to anyone.

Our hosting provider may also keep standard server logs, such as IP address, browser type and pages requested, for security and reliability.

Deleting your data

Removing an account in Settings → Accounts stops its sync, cancels its push subscription, deletes its tokens from the Keychain and deletes its mail, drafts and attachments from your Mac. Deleting the app and its data folder in ~/Library/Application Support/com.mrmasonic.tempo/ removes everything else. Mail on your provider's servers is not affected.

Where information is handled

We're based in Australia and handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The push relay and this website may be hosted outside Australia by our service providers. Your email providers may also store your mail in other countries under their own policies.

You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it. Because your mail stays on your Mac, we usually hold very little: at most the email address and connection details the push relay handles.

Children

Tempo isn't directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country), and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Changes to this policy

If we change how Tempo handles your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. For significant changes we'll also tell you in the app or on this site before they take effect.

Contact

Questions or complaints about privacy? Email us at privacy@tempo.mrmasonic.com and we'll reply within 30 days. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.