MemDesk privacy policy

Last updated: 4 October 2026

MemDesk is a Chrome extension, a phone panel in the Gmail app and a phone app, made by Michael Beijer. This policy says what they do with your data. The short version: there is no MemDesk server. Your board and your notes live in your own Gmail, your calendar stays in Google Calendar and Google Tasks, and the publisher never receives any of your data.

What MemDesk can see, and why

To work, MemDesk asks Google for permission to read and change your Gmail (the gmail.modify permission). With it, MemDesk:

• For the board: reads the subject, sender, date, snippet and labels of the conversations you put on the board, and adds or removes the board's labels on them (_Board/To do and so on), including taking a conversation out of the Inbox when you drop it on a column set to archive.
• For the notes: reads the messages under the _Notes label and its folders, saves each note as a new message there (never in your Inbox, and never sent), moves its own older versions and the notes you delete to Gmail's Trash, and creates, renames and deletes empty folders under _Notes.
• To tell accounts apart: reads your email address.

For the Calendar tab, and only once you allow it there, MemDesk asks Google for read-only access to Google Calendar and Google Tasks (calendar.readonly and tasks.readonly), and for your email address. With them, it:

• Reads the list of your calendars and task lists, the events in the days on screen, and your tasks (title, due date, whether it is done, and the link to the email a task was made from), to show them.
• Reads your email address, to check that the calendar is the one of the account open in the tab.

It cannot change, add or delete anything in your calendars or tasks: the permissions are read-only. Nothing from them is stored; they are read again when the calendar is shown.

The Gmail permission Google grants is broader than what MemDesk does. MemDesk never sends mail, never deletes anything for good, never touches Spam, and moves nothing to Trash but its own notes. In the Chrome extension, a gatekeeper in its background worker refuses any other kind of request before it reaches Google.

Where your data is kept

• In your Gmail: your board (as labels on your conversations) and your notes (as messages under _Notes).
• In Chrome: the board's column layout and your own card titles, notes and colours, in Chrome's sync storage (so they follow your Chrome profile); card order and a few view settings (including which calendars to show) in this browser only.
• The access tokens that let the extension talk to Gmail, and to Calendar and Tasks, are kept in memory for the browser session only, and are gone when Chrome closes.
• The phone panel and the phone app run in Google Apps Script, on Google's servers, as you, under the same rules (the calendar read-only). The panel reads only your list of labels and the labels of the email you have open, and changes the board's labels on that email when you move it; the app reads and writes your Gmail on your behalf as the extension does. In your phone's browser, the phone app keeps which folders you have folded and which calendars you show, and, so that it opens at once, a copy of your Scratchpad, of the list of your notes (titles and first lines) and of the app's settings, plus any Scratchpad text not saved yet. That copy never leaves the phone, and is replaced each time the app hears from Gmail. The board's layout and card edits are kept in the script's settings for your account.

Who your data is shared with

Nobody. MemDesk talks only to Google: Gmail, and for the calendar, Google Calendar and Google Tasks. It has no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, and sends nothing to the publisher or anyone else. Nothing is sold.

MemDesk's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Removing MemDesk

Remove the extension in chrome://extensions, and withdraw its access to your Google account at myaccount.google.com/connections. Your board and notes stay in your Gmail as ordinary labels and messages, until you delete them there.

Questions

Ask on GitHub, or through beijer.uk/contact. If this policy changes, the new version will be here, with a new date at the top.