Personal data involved in receiving email
Temporary inboxes don’t require sign-in; long-term forwarding requires a real email address. The two services handle different data, and deletion and expiry mean different things for each.
Last updated and effective:
Temporary addresses expire
3 hours by default, up to 24 hours per inbox. Once expired, the address and its emails can’t be recovered, so don’t use it for long-term account recovery.
Temporary email limitationsForwarding archives have a viewing period
Archives are viewable for 30 days. Pausing an alias affects only future messages; it won’t recall copies already sent to your real inbox.
Pausing vs. deletingKeep access credentials private
Your browser saves credentials so you can restore access. Sign out after using a shared device, and never share requests, screenshots or browser data containing credentials.
Tips for using shared devicesScope and update date
This notice applies to temporary email, sign-in with a real email address, forwarding alias management and forwarding email archives provided by tmpletter.com. Information you submit to games, communities or other platforms is handled by those platforms under their own privacy policies; this notice does not replace them.
The Steam and Reddit emails shown on the homepage are demonstrations of how incoming mail looks and do not represent actual deliveries. Tmpletter is not affiliated with these brands, nor endorsed or authorized by them to display these sample emails.
This page shows its latest update and effective date. For how to use the service and its limits, see the separate Terms of Service; before choosing an email address for an account you need to keep long term, we recommend reading the Email Lifespan Guide.
How we use data
Temporary email and forwarding accounts are separate ways to access the service. You don’t need to provide a real email address to create a temporary address. For long-term forwarding, your real email address is used to verify your account and receive forwarded messages.
The table below explains what data the service needs and why. Emails may contain names, account details, verification codes or attachments supplied by the sender. Avoid using a temporary inbox for highly sensitive information.
| Data | Purpose | What to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary address and access credentials | Deliver incoming messages to the relevant inbox and verify requests to view, renew or delete it. | Credentials grant access and should remain private. A temporary address is not a long-term identity credential. |
| Real email address for sign-in | Send sign-in codes, identify forwarding accounts and receive forwarded messages. | Use an email address you can keep accessing. Don’t use a temporary address that is about to expire to sign in. |
| Alias settings | Keep track of which aliases belong to which accounts and whether they should continue forwarding. | Pausing an alias affects future delivery. Deleting an alias does not delete all past emails. |
| Email content and delivery information | Enable inbox access, email forwarding, archive viewing and delivery status display. | May include sender, recipient, subject, date and time, message body and attachments. |
| Necessary security logs | Help rate-limit requests, diagnose problems and prevent abuse. May include IP address, request time, endpoint and error details. | Security logs are separate from inbox contents. An email’s expiry time does not indicate when these logs are deleted. |
You don’t need to give Tmpletter your game account password to receive temporary email. If anyone asks for your password, sign-in code or email access credentials to troubleshoot a verification code, don’t provide them. For delivery issues, check each step in our Delivery Troubleshooter.
Temporary inbox lifecycle
New temporary inboxes are valid for 3 hours by default. You can renew an inbox while it’s still valid; each renewal adds 3 hours, up to 24 hours total per inbox. The remaining time shown is based on the validity period returned by the service and is not a promise of indefinite storage.
Renewing keeps the same address. Changing your address creates a new 3-hour inbox and invalidates the old one; old messages aren’t moved to the new inbox. If you gave the old address to a registration platform, you’ll also need to update it there.
| Item or action | What happens in the service | What this does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary inbox expiry | 3 hours by default, up to 24 hours per inbox. Once it expires, the address and emails are cleared and access cannot be restored. | This does not guarantee that underlying backups, caches or security logs are physically deleted at the same time. |
| Renewal | Keeps the current address and its emails, and adds time within the limit. | Does not restore emails that have expired or been deleted. |
| Change address | Creates a new inbox and destroys the old one; the old address and emails are no longer available. | This is not email migration and does not update the email address registered with external platforms. |
| Destroy inbox | Ends use of the entire inbox, unlike deleting a single email. Changing your address includes destroying the old inbox. | Does not recall content you have copied, downloaded or submitted to other platforms. |
| Forwarding email archives | The console lets you view archived emails for 30 days and delete email records at any time. | The viewing period is not a long-term backup service and does not determine how long copies remain in your real inbox. |
| Accounts, aliases and security logs | Used to maintain accounts, route aliases and support necessary security measures. | This notice does not promise a single, unverified deletion timeline for this data. Contact support with specific requests. |
Deleting an individual temporary email does not change the address or extend the inbox’s lifespan. Use verification codes before the inbox expires, and make sure you no longer need messages in the old inbox before changing addresses. Manage these actions from the homepage inbox.
Forwarding and archives
Your real email address receives sign-in codes without a password and messages forwarded from your aliases. After signing in, you can create up to 100 forwarding aliases and manage each one separately. The console lets you view forwarded emails in the archive for 30 days; don’t rely on it as the only backup for important messages.
Once a message is forwarded to your real inbox, your email provider handles that copy under its own rules. Pausing or deleting it in Tmpletter cannot recall the copy or delete any email retained by the sender.
- Pause an alias: stop future messages
- While paused, incoming messages are discarded instead of reaching your real inbox. Once resumed, only new messages are forwarded; messages discarded while paused won’t be sent later. Existing archives are not automatically deleted.
- Delete an alias: stop using this forwarding address
- Once deleted, the alias no longer receives email and its slot becomes available. Deleting an alias does not clear its archive; delete individual emails separately to remove those records.
- Delete email records: remove selected archived messages
- Deleting selected records does not pause the alias. New messages continue to be handled according to its current settings. Delete any copies already delivered to your real inbox separately, in that inbox.
To stop promotional emails from a platform, you can pause its alias first and decide later whether to delete past records. Go to Long-term Forwarding Management to view alias status and email archives. For important accounts, set up a recovery method on the platform that you can keep using.
Browser storage and email security
Your browser stores sign-in credentials and your sign-in email to keep your forwarding account accessible. Temporary inbox credentials restore access to the same temporary address, while your current reading selection helps keep the email you’re viewing open. Your sign-in session and temporary inbox are separate; signing out of your forwarding account does not destroy a temporary inbox.
Clearing site data or switching browsers may erase locally stored credentials. Temporary inboxes have no recovery process through a real email address, so don’t assume you can regain access to an old inbox if you lose its credentials. Conversely, clearing local data does not send a request to delete emails or your account from the server.
External email messages are displayed in a reading area separated from the site’s controls and are processed to reduce the risk of message content interfering with the page. This does not guarantee that emails are genuine, that links lead where they claim or that attachments are safe. Don’t assume an email is from a platform just because of the sender’s display name.
Before leaving a shared device
- Sign out from the alias console; closing the tab is not a substitute for signing out.
- When you no longer need a temporary inbox, handle its emails first, then decide whether to change your address and invalidate the old inbox.
- Clear downloaded attachments, clipboard contents and screenshots that contain addresses or verification codes.
- Never send anyone your access credentials, full sign-in codes or browser storage contents.
If you receive a suspicious link, open the platform’s official app or website yourself to check it. Don’t enter your password or payment details through the link.
Even on your own device, avoid exposing your inbox during a public screen share. If you think your credentials have been exposed, stop using the relevant address or session and contact us at the support email below. Don’t include credentials that provide direct account access in your message.
Requests and contact
You can manage data using the controls in the service; you don’t need to contact support every time you delete an email. Different controls affect different data, so choose the one that fits your needs. Signing out does not delete emails.
- Temporary emails and addresses: In the homepage inbox open and delete emails. Changing your address invalidates the old inbox; renewing keeps the current address.
- Forwarding aliases: In Long-term Forwarding Management pause or delete a specific alias. Other aliases are not affected.
- Forwarding archives: Open an email in the same console and delete records you no longer need. Manage copies in your real inbox separately.
- Sign-in session: Use the console’s sign-out option to end your session on this device. Your temporary inbox remains active until it expires.
To request access to or correction of your data, account deletion or other privacy-related help, contact support@tmpletter.com. Tell us whether you use a temporary inbox or a forwarding account, the relevant address and what you’d like us to do. Don’t send passwords, sign-in codes or access tokens. To prevent accidental deletion of someone else’s data, support may need to verify that you’re authorized using the email address associated with your request.
What we can do depends on whether the relevant data still exists and whether we can verify your authorization. Expired or deleted temporary emails can’t be restored. If a request involves security measures or other necessary retention limits, we’ll explain the situation rather than promise an unverified, standard deletion timeline.
Send your request to support
We recommend including “Privacy request,” the service type and what you’d like us to do. See the separate Terms of Service for permitted uses and service limitations.