Privacy policy

1. Who is responsible

Big Helpers Software and Solutions Private Limited provides the Harkara email application and is responsible for this policy. Privacy questions may be sent to contact@bighelpers.in.

2. Information Harkara handles

To provide the features you choose, the app may handle:

• mail-account addresses, display names, provider settings, OAuth tokens or app passwords;
• messages, folders, drafts, attachments and message metadata from accounts you add;
• an individual contact you select through the system contact picker;
• files you choose from your device or a connected file provider; and
• device-local preferences such as language, theme, reminders, app lock and trusted image or link choices.

This information is needed for a mail client to display, search, compose, send and organise your mail. Harkara does not upload it to Big Helpers.

3. Where information goes

Harkara communicates directly with services you deliberately connect or use:

• your mail provider, through OAuth or encrypted IMAP and SMTP connections, to receive and send mail;
• Google or Microsoft authentication services when you choose their sign-in option;
• a file provider when you choose a file through its picker;
• a website only when you choose to open a link or allow remote images for a message or sender; and
• on Android, Google, but only usage statistics and only if you turn on reading and writing help (see section 7).

Those providers process information under their own terms and privacy policies. Harkara does not sell personal data, use it for advertising, or share it with data brokers.

If you sign in with Google, Harkara’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google user data is used only to provide the features you use in Harkara; it is not used for advertising, not sold, not read by people except as that policy allows, and not used to develop, improve or train generalised AI or machine-learning models. The reading and writing help in section 7 reads Gmail messages only on your device; on Android, the usage statistics it causes Google’s ML Kit to send include the size of the text the model was given, never the words.

4. On-device storage and security

Mail and app data are kept on the device so Harkara can continue working offline. Account secrets are protected using the operating system's secure key storage. The app disables Android cloud backup for its data. An optional six-digit app passkey and the device's fingerprint or face authentication can protect access to the app interface.

No system can guarantee absolute security. Keep your device and mail accounts secured, install operating-system updates, and remove an account from Harkara when you no longer want it on that device.

5. Device permissions

You may deny optional permissions. The related feature may then be unavailable or less precise, but unrelated mail features continue to work.

6. Remote images, links and tracking protection

Remote images in mail can disclose that a message was opened. Harkara blocks them unless you allow them and remembers only the choices you make. Links are shown to you before opening where the app needs confirmation. Message HTML is sanitised and displayed without JavaScript.

7. Reading and writing help (on-device AI)

Harkara can summarise a long letter, suggest short replies, help rewrite what you have written, and point out which unread mail needs a reply. These features are optional, run only when you tap them, and work in English. They use the AI model built into your device: Apple’s on-device model on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Google’s Gemini Nano, through ML Kit and Android’s AICore system service, on supported Android phones.

The text of your mail is processed on your device. It is not sent to Big Helpers, Apple, Google or anyone else for these features. Summaries, suggestions and labels are kept only while the app is open; they are not stored or synced.

On Android the help is off until you agree to turn it on. Once it is on, Google’s ML Kit sends Google usage statistics: the device’s make, model and system version, Harkara’s version, an install identifier, the languages set, and how long each request took and how large it was — never the text of your mail or what the model wrote. Google uses these to run and improve the service. You can turn the help off in Harkara’s settings; Harkara then asks the model for nothing new, though statistics about earlier use may still reach Google. Android’s AICore service, not Harkara, downloads and runs the model. On iPhone, iPad and Mac, Harkara adds nothing that reports on the help’s use.

8. Retention and deletion

Harkara keeps local data until you delete the relevant item or account, clear the app's storage, or uninstall the app. Removing local data does not necessarily delete the corresponding message or file from your provider unless the action you selected also performs that provider-side deletion. Because Big Helpers does not receive your mailbox or local app database, it cannot retrieve or delete that information for you.

9. Children, advertising and analytics

Harkara is meant for adults — people aged 18 and over — and is not directed to children. It contains no advertising SDK or behavioural advertising, and Big Helpers does not create advertising profiles from Harkara use. Harkara has no analytics SDK of its own; the one exception is on Android, where Google’s ML Kit, used by the optional reading and writing help, sends Google the usage statistics described in section 7 once you turn that help on.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when Harkara's features or legal obligations change. The effective date above identifies the current version. A material change to how the app handles data will be reflected here before the corresponding app release.