Privacy Policy
Herald was previously called Tidings. We renamed the app on October 11, 2026. This policy covers the app under either name, and nothing about how it handles your information changed with the name.
Herald (the "app") is an iPhone email app made by Desert Gate Holdings ("we", "us", "our"). This policy explains what information the app handles, where it is kept, what leaves your iPhone and why, and the choices you have. It also covers this website, heraldemail.com.
The short version
- There are no Herald servers. The app connects your iPhone directly to your own mail providers. We never receive, see or store your email, attachments, contacts or passwords.
- No account. You don't sign up for anything with us.
- No analytics, tracking or ads. The app contains no analytics, advertising or tracking code. We don't sell or share your information.
- Your data stays on your device. Passwords and sign-in tokens are kept in the iPhone Keychain. Saved mail is protected by iOS Data Protection and left out of iCloud and computer backups.
- A few small, specific things leave your iPhone besides your mail traffic, each listed below with the reason.
What we collect
Through the app, nothing. Desert Gate Holdings does not operate any server that the app sends your information to, and the app has no user accounts. We have no copy of your email and cannot read, recover or hand over your messages, because we never have them.
We receive information about you only in these limited cases:
- If you email us. When you write to support, we receive your email address and whatever you include in your message. We use it only to answer you, and we delete support emails when they are no longer needed.
- Purchases. Apple processes all payments. We never see your name, payment details or Apple Account. Apple gives us sales reports that do not identify you.
- Apple's optional diagnostics. If you turn on sharing with app developers in your iPhone's settings (Privacy & Security, Analytics & Improvements), Apple may give us crash reports and aggregated usage statistics, under Apple's privacy policy. These do not contain your email.
What is stored on your iPhone
To work, the app keeps the following on your iPhone only:
- The email accounts you add: addresses, display names, server settings, aliases and signatures.
- Your passwords, app passwords and sign-in tokens, stored in the iPhone Keychain.
- Mail downloaded from your providers, including attachments, folder lists and the people and companies you email with.
- Your settings and choices, such as pinned, muted or hidden chats, blocked senders, merged addresses and the optional Face ID lock.
Saved mail and attachments are protected by iOS Data Protection, so they are encrypted by your iPhone and tied to your device passcode. The app's files are marked to be left out of iCloud and computer backups, and they are not synced to iCloud. Your mail remains on your mail provider's servers as it always has, so if you lose your iPhone or delete the app, you can add your accounts again on a new device.
Face ID is handled entirely by iOS. The app only learns whether unlocking succeeded; it never receives your face data.
What leaves your iPhone, and why
The app connects only to the services below, and none of them is operated by us. Only your mail providers (including Microsoft, for Microsoft accounts) receive the contents of your email.
| Goes to | What is sent | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your mail providers (for example Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Apple iCloud, or your company's mail server) | Your sign-in details, mail you send, and requests to download, move, file or delete your mail. The app connects directly to each provider's servers. | To receive, send and organize your email. Each provider's own privacy policy applies to the mail it holds. |
| Microsoft (Microsoft Graph) | For Microsoft accounts (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and Microsoft 365), the email you send. You sign in on Microsoft's own page. | Microsoft accounts send mail through Microsoft Graph, Microsoft's official interface for its mail service. |
| DuckDuckGo icon service (icons.duckduckgo.com) | The domain part of a sender's address, for example northwind.example. Never the full address, the person's name or the message. | To show company logos in your chat list. You can turn this off in Me, Show company logos. |
| Cloudflare DNS over HTTPS (cloudflare-dns.com) | The domain part of an email address you add, for example example.com. | To look up that domain's mail servers so the app can fill in the right settings. This happens only while you add an account. |
| Apple | Purchase requests. | Apple processes Herald Pro purchases and tells the app whether your subscription is active. |
Like any internet connection, each of these services can see your iPhone's IP address when the app connects to it.
Pictures and links. Pictures in an email that are hosted elsewhere load automatically, as they do in Apple Mail. Loading them can tell the sender that you opened the email, along with your IP address, so you can turn on Ask before loading pictures in Me to block them until you choose to load them. Pictures are fetched from wherever the sender hosts them. Links you tap open in your browser and are governed by the site you visit. Scripts in emails never run.
Google user data
Today, Herald connects to Gmail and Google Workspace with a Google app password that you create, stored in your iPhone's Keychain. We plan to offer Sign in with Google after Google reviews the app. When it is available and you use it, Google gives the app permission to access your mail on your behalf, and the sign-in token is stored in your iPhone's Keychain. This section describes how that data is handled.
Herald's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
In particular, for data accessed through Google APIs:
- Used only for email features. It is used only to provide the email features you see in the app: showing, sending, searching, filing and deleting your mail.
- Stays on your device. It is stored only on your iPhone. It is never sent to Desert Gate Holdings, because we have no servers to receive it.
- Not transferred to anyone. It is not sold, shared or transferred to any third party.
- Not used for advertising. It is never used for advertising, retargeting, personalized ads, credit decisions or lending.
- Not read by humans. No person at Desert Gate Holdings reads it. We have no access to it.
- Not used to train AI. It is not used to develop, improve or train artificial intelligence or machine learning models.
You can revoke Herald's access at any time in your Google Account under Security, Your connections to third-party apps and services, or by removing the account in Herald and deleting the app.
What we don't do
- We don't show ads or include advertising, analytics or tracking code in the app.
- We don't use Apple's advertising identifier or track you across other companies' apps and websites.
- We don't sell or share personal information, including as "sale" and "sharing" are defined under California law.
- We don't read, scan or analyze your email. The app has no AI features.
This website
heraldemail.com is served by Cloudflare, which processes standard request information, such as IP addresses, to deliver the pages and protect the site from abuse. The website (not the app) uses Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits: it sets no cookies, does not use your IP address to identify or follow you, and does not track you across other sites. It records things like which page was viewed, the referring site, and your browser and country. The website sets no cookies and has no advertising.
Your choices and rights
- Company logos: turn off Show company logos in Me to stop sending sender domains to DuckDuckGo.
- Remove an account: in Me, choose the account, then Remove Account. Its mail, settings and Keychain items are removed from your iPhone. Your mail stays with your provider.
- Delete everything: delete the app. Because nothing is kept on our side, this removes Herald's mail and settings. iOS can keep an app's Keychain items (your saved passwords and sign-in tokens) on the device after the app is deleted, so to remove those too, remove each account in Me before deleting the app.
- Access, correction or deletion requests: we hold no personal information from the app, so there is nothing for us to provide or delete. If you've emailed us, you can ask us to delete that correspondence at support@heraldemail.com.
Security
The app relies on the iPhone Keychain and iOS Data Protection to protect what it stores. Connections to mail providers use the security your provider supports, and the app lets you see and choose the connection security (SSL/TLS or STARTTLS) for custom accounts. Email itself travels between mail providers the way it always has; Herald does not change how your provider secures it.
Children
Herald is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change is significant, such as the app starting to send new information off your iPhone (for example, a future optional feature), we will document it here before it is released and tell you in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Desert Gate Holdings
5601 W McDowell Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85035
United States
support@heraldemail.com