On ILoveTempMail's free plan, each email your temp mail address receives is deleted 3 hours after it arrives, attachments included; Pro keeps emails for 30 days. The address itself keeps receiving mail for 5 days as a guest, or 30 days by default in an account linked with the phone app (Pro can extend it). You don't need a name, email address or phone number to use it.
When you use a disposable email service, you are trusting it with the contents of your inbox, even if that inbox only lasts a few days. The question "what do you actually do with my data?" deserves a straight answer.
This page explains what ILoveTempMail collects, what it does not collect, how long data exists, and what happens when it is deleted. The formal version is our privacy policy.
What ILoveTempMail Collects
ILoveTempMail is built around a minimal-data philosophy. Here is what we store to run the service:
- Email content: The subject line, body, and metadata (sender address, timestamps) of emails received by your mailbox. This is stored temporarily so you can read your messages.
- Attachments: Files attached to incoming emails are stored alongside the email content. They are deleted together with their email.
- Account and sign-in data: A random account ID; for phones, the device's ID (on iPhone and iPad a random ID kept in the keychain, on Android the ID from its DRM system or a random one), stored with your account so the app finds it again after a reinstall, with a one-way hash of it on the phone's sign-in record; and for each device you sign in on, a sign-in session (the kind of device, a name such as "Chrome on macOS", the app version and when it was last used). The secrets behind each sign-in and your recovery code are stored only in hashed form. None of this is tied to your name or phone number.
- Account link (optional): If you link the website to an account by scanning a QR code with the phone app, your mailboxes are stored under that account so they sync across your devices.
- Push notification tokens: If you enable push notifications on the mobile app, we store the token issued by Apple (APNs) or Google (FCM) so we can notify you when new mail arrives.
- Subscription status: If you buy Pro, Apple or Google processes the payment, and RevenueCat (our subscription management provider) tells us whether your subscription is active, expired, or cancelled. We never see your payment details.
- Pro feature settings: If you use Pro features, we store what they need to work: your custom domains, the address you forward mail to (for mailboxes where you turn forwarding on), and the emails you send, which appear in your Sent folder with their delivery status.
Our privacy policy states that we do not sell, trade, or share your data with third parties, and that we do not use it for advertising or analytics profiling. The free version does show ads, which Pro removes; see Third-Party Services below.
What ILoveTempMail Does NOT Collect
This list matters just as much:
- Your name: We never ask for it.
- Your real email address: You never need one to create or use a mailbox. (If you turn on Pro forwarding, we store the address you forward mail to.)
- Your phone number: Not requested, not stored.
- Your IP address: We do not store it with your mailboxes or messages, although third-party ad and analytics services may receive it when your browser or app connects to them.
- Personally identifiable information (PII): No government IDs, physical addresses, or biographical data.
- Your browsing history: We do not track which other websites you visit.
How Long Emails Are Kept
Emails are deleted on a fixed schedule, counted from when each one arrives:
Attachments are deleted together with their email. So copy a code, save a receipt or download a file as soon as it comes in. There is no archive and no "recently deleted" folder, and a deleted email can't be recovered.
How Long Mailboxes Last
The address itself has its own lifetime:
- The countdown starts when the mailbox is created. Opening or reading the mailbox does not reset it.
- You can delete a mailbox at any time from the app or the website. It disappears right away, and its emails go with the same automatic cleanup.
- When the time is up, the address stops receiving mail. New emails sent to it no longer reach you.
Deleting Your Account
You can delete your whole account at any time. In the app, go to Settings → Account → Delete account. Without the app, enter your recovery code on the delete account page.
- It happens right away. Your account, mailboxes, emails, attachments, forwarding rules, custom domains, sent emails and MCP access keys are deleted, and every device is signed out.
- Addresses aren't reused. A small record of each address is kept so it is never given to anyone else.
- Subscriptions are separate. Deleting your account doesn't cancel Pro. Cancel it in the App Store or Google Play.
The privacy policy lists everything that is deleted and kept.
Attachment Handling
Attachments deserve a specific mention because they involve file storage beyond the database:
- Incoming attachments are processed and stored when the email arrives.
- They open from the email in your mailbox; ILoveTempMail doesn't publish or share them.
- They are deleted together with their email: after 3 hours on the free plan, or 30 days with Pro.
- We do not scan attachment contents for advertising or data mining purposes.
HTML emails are sanitized and shown in a sandbox with scripts blocked. Remote images do load, so a sender's tracking pixel can still tell them that an email was opened.
Third-Party Services
ILoveTempMail uses the following third-party services. Here is what each one does and what data it receives:
RevenueCat (Subscription Management)
RevenueCat handles in-app purchase validation and subscription status tracking. It receives:
- Your app store transaction ID
- Subscription status (active, expired, cancelled)
- An app user ID (not your name or email address)
RevenueCat does not receive your email content or attachments. Their privacy policy is available at revenuecat.com/privacy.
Firebase (Push Notifications and Analytics)
Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers push notifications to your device when new mail arrives. It receives:
- Your push notification token
- The notification payload: a short alert, such as the sender and subject line, not the full email
The apps also use Firebase for analytics, as our privacy policy notes. Firebase does not receive the body of your emails or your attachments. Google's Firebase privacy information is available at firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
Ads (Free Version)
The free version of ILoveTempMail shows ads, and Pro removes them. Ads are delivered by a third-party ad network, which handles data under its own privacy policy.
Security Measures
- HTTPS/TLS encryption: All communication between your device and ILoveTempMail's servers is encrypted in transit using TLS.
- Encrypted SMTP: Where the sending server supports it, incoming emails are received over encrypted SMTP connections (STARTTLS).
- No passwords to leak: You never create an ILoveTempMail password. Guest mailboxes are tied to your device, and you link the website to an account by scanning a QR code with the phone app, so there is no ILoveTempMail password to leak.
How ILoveTempMail Compares to Public Inbox Services
Not all temporary email services work the same way. Some (particularly older, free services) use public inboxes, meaning anyone who knows (or guesses) the email address can read its contents. This is a significant privacy risk, explained in our guide to public inbox risks.
ILoveTempMail mailboxes are private by default. A guest inbox opens only in the browser that holds its access token, an account's inboxes only on devices signed in to it, and no inbox is listed or opened by address for other users or search engines.
The Bottom Line
ILoveTempMail is designed to give you a functional temporary inbox with a small data footprint. We store what is necessary to deliver the service (email content, attachments, an account ID with your sign-in sessions, and a push token, plus Pro settings if you use them) and delete emails automatically: 3 hours after they arrive on the free plan, or after 30 days with Pro. We do not ask for your name, your real email, or your phone number to create a mailbox. Your inbox is private, not public.
If you have specific questions about data handling that are not covered here, contact us through the support page. Ready to try it? Get a free temporary email address.
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