Advertisement & Sponsorship

1. Current advertising status

OpenMail may display placeholder advertising spaces in email lists, a right-side advert pane, account areas, public pages, upgrade areas, and future app surfaces. A placeholder does not mean a third-party advertiser is active, tracking users, or paying OpenMail.

2. Core principles

• Advertising and sponsorship should be clearly labelled and visually separate from private email.
• Ads must not imitate personal messages, unread states, security warnings, or OpenMail system controls.
• Ads must not interfere with core email use or use deceptive design.
• Private email content and mailbox credentials must not be sold or used to build advertising profiles.
• Malware, phishing, scams, hidden tracking, and misleading claims are prohibited.

3. Placement and labelling

Labels may include Advertisement, Sponsored, Partner content, Promotion, Affiliate link, Upgrade offer, or Paid placement. Advertising should be identifiable before engagement and must not be selectable as real email or affect message-selection tools.

4. Sponsorships, affiliates, and upgrades

OpenMail may accept clearly disclosed sponsorships, partner content, affiliate links, or upgrade prompts. An affiliate link may provide OpenMail with commission. A commercial relationship does not automatically mean endorsement or a guarantee of the third party's products, security, pricing, or conduct.

5. Privacy and tracking

OpenMail should not use private message bodies, attachments, contacts, special-category data, financial distress, legal problems, family information, or protected characteristics for advertising targeting.

Hidden pixels, invasive trackers, advertising cookies, fingerprinting, or third-party scripts must not be used without permission, transparent privacy information, and any required consent controls.

6. Prohibited and restricted categories

OpenMail may reject advertising involving phishing, scams, malware, credential theft, illegal drugs, unlawful medicines, dangerous or misleading health claims, unlicensed gambling, adult services, weapons, counterfeit or stolen goods, fraud tools, pyramid schemes, unauthorised financial promotions, hate, extremism, doxxing, fake warnings, piracy, or exploitation of vulnerable users.

Financial, health, legal, political, charity, gambling, alcohol, nicotine, subscription, environmental, and other regulated categories may require licences, evidence, disclaimers, age or location controls, and additional review.

7. Claims and creative standards

Claims about price, discounts, results, security, privacy, compatibility, health, environmental impact, financial returns, AI, or performance must be accurate, clear, and supported by evidence. Ads must not use fake urgency, fake notifications, disguised buttons, forced redirects, auto-downloads, hidden click areas, or dark patterns.

8. Landing pages and technical safety

Landing pages must match the advert, identify the advertiser, disclose material pricing and subscription terms, provide required privacy information, and remain free from malware, phishing, deceptive forms, unsafe redirects, and illegal tracking.

OpenMail may impose file-size, format, accessibility, animation, performance, and network limits and may scan creative and destinations for security risks.

9. Advertiser responsibilities

Advertisers are responsible for their content, claims, rights, licences, products, services, prices, refunds, customer support, landing pages, data collection, cookies, regulatory approval, and legal compliance. They must not materially change approved destinations, claims, pricing, redirects, or tracking without notice.

10. Review, removal, and reporting

OpenMail may reject, delay, edit, pause, or remove advertising because of legal, security, privacy, quality, brand, technical, regulatory, or user-safety concerns. Urgent removals may occur without notice.

Report concerns to hello@openmail.email with the subject “Advertisement report - OpenMail”. Include where and when it appeared, the advertiser, a safe screenshot, and why it appears misleading, unsafe, or unlawful.

11. User choice and ad-free plans

Future controls may include hide, report, “why am I seeing this?”, cookie settings, tracking rejection, personalisation opt-out, or paid ad-free plans. Ad-free plans may still include security, legal, account, service, and transactional notices.

12. Advertiser enquiries and updates

Advertising and sponsorship enquiries should include business identity, website, contact, product, placement, dates, audience, claims, evidence, tracking requirements, regulation status, and proposal. Email hello@openmail.email.

This policy may change as formats, sponsors, privacy controls, law, monetisation, security, and user feedback evolve.