Privacy Policy

Effective 2 October 2026

Who makes Causabee

Causabee is an open-source Mac app made by Ralf Chille. Until version 0.5 it was called Matterbee; the name is all that changed. For any question about this policy or your data, write to ralf@chille.de.

Because Causabee has no server, the developer does not collect, store or see any of your data. Everything below describes what the app does on your own Mac, and which services it talks to for you.

What Causabee reads

Mail

You connect a mail account in the app: Gmail, iCloud, or another provider over IMAP. You sign in with an app password, or with “Sign in with Google”. Causabee then reads only new mail with the label you use for it (for example “Causabee”). It does not read the rest of your mailbox, and it does not even mark the mail it reads as read.

Causabee never writes to your mailbox. It cannot send mail, and it cannot delete or move mail. A message Causabee drafts for you opens in your mail app, and you send it. A document you scan on the iPhone is kept on your iPhone, in the Files app under “On My iPhone › Causabee”.

Files and screenshots

Files, PDFs and screenshots are read only when you drop them into Causabee.

Calendar and Reminders

If you add an appointment or a task to Calendar or Reminders, Causabee asks macOS for access first. It keeps the items you connected in step with Calendar and Reminders, on your Mac. Apple’s own services sync them, as they do for any other app.

Where your data is kept

• On your Mac, in ~/Library/Application Support/Causabee. The full text of your mail stays here and is never synced.
• In your private iCloud, only if you turn on iCloud sync in the settings (it is off at first). Your matters, tasks, dates, notes, the assistant’s answers and a short digest of each mail are kept in the private iCloud database of your Apple Account. Only you can read it. The developer has no access.
• In a folder for each matter, in iCloud Drive or in a folder you choose, for the files that belong to it.
• In the macOS Keychain, for your mail app password or Google sign-in token and your AI provider keys.

What is sent to an AI provider

Causabee uses an AI model to sort mail into matters, find tasks and dates, write summaries and answer your questions. This only happens when you click, for example on “Sort in”, on “Update”, or when you send a question.

• Mail that is clearly not about a matter, such as newsletters, is left out by simple rules on your Mac, without any AI.
• Before anything is sent, Causabee finds names, addresses and numbers on your Mac and replaces them, for example with [Person A]. Links are replaced with [link]. If the disguise can’t be built, nothing is sent.
• The disguised text goes straight from your Mac to the provider you picked in the settings: Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI or Mistral. It uses your own API key. It does not pass through any server of the developer.
• The answer comes back to your Mac, where Causabee puts the real names back in and stores the result.

What the provider does with a request is set by its own terms: Anthropic, OpenAI, Mistral.

Google user data

If you use “Sign in with Google”, Causabee asks Google for these permissions:

• https://mail.google.com/ – Gmail’s IMAP access. Causabee uses it only to read new mail with your label.
• email – your address, to show which account is connected.

The sign-in token is kept in the macOS Keychain on your Mac. Causabee connects to Google directly from your Mac.

Google user data is used only to provide the features you see in the app. Disguised text from your mail goes to the AI provider you picked, only to sort it into matters and answer your questions, as described above. Causabee does not sell Google user data, does not use it for advertising, and does not use it to develop, improve or train AI or machine-learning models. No person reads it.

Causabee’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

You can remove Causabee’s access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

What the developer receives

Nothing. Causabee has no user accounts, no server, no analytics, no crash reports and no advertising. It does not contact the developer.

This website

This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no fonts or scripts from other sites. It is hosted by GitHub Pages. GitHub may log visitors’ IP addresses for security; see GitHub’s privacy statement.

Your choices

• Delete tasks, dates and appointments one by one in the app.
• Turn off iCloud sync in Causabee’s settings. To remove what was synced, go to System Settings, your Apple Account, iCloud.
• Remove everything: quit Causabee, then delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Causabee and Causabee’s entries in the Keychain.
• Disconnect Google at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Children

Causabee is not made for children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version is posted here with a new date. Every earlier version is kept in the public code repository.