A detailed guide for users who want to understand exactly how our system works, what data we access, and how we protect your privacy.
TLDR Parents reads school and activity communications and turns them into calendar events for your family — with a privacy-by-design onramp that gives you complete transparency and control.
TLDR Parents is designed so you can start with zero access and go as far as you choose.
The simplest way to get started. Forward a school or activity email to your TLDR Parents forwarding address. We pull the events out and show you what we found in the app.
Zero access to your inbox or calendar required.
If that's as far as you ever want to go, that's fine. You still get value.
You can also set up automated email forwarding in Gmail — a filter that automatically forwards emails from specific senders (like your school or TeamSnap) to your TLDR Parents forwarding address. This provides ongoing automation without granting any inbox access. See Set Up Gmail Auto-Forwarding for details.
Connect your Google Calendar to have events proposed directly to your calendar. TLDR Parents will prepare events that align with your family activities and help you push them from the app.
Google permissions required: Google Calendar scope.
Note: Calendar access is independent of email access. You can connect your calendar without connecting Gmail.
For automated email processing, you can connect your Gmail account. There are two sync options:
Standard Sync — You apply the "tldrparents" label in Gmail to the emails you want processed. You can label emails individually or create a Gmail filter to bulk-apply the label. TLDR Parents reads only labeled emails. See Set Up Gmail Filter with TLDR Label for setup instructions.
Smart Sync — TLDR Parents scans email metadata (sender and subject line) to identify school and activity communications, then applies the "tldrparents" label automatically. Only labeled emails are read and processed.
Google permissions required: gmail.readonly and gmail.modify (classified by Google as Restricted Scopes — see What "Restricted Scopes" Means below).
You can disconnect Gmail at any time with one click from your account settings. Access is revoked immediately.
In both Gmail sync modes, the "tldrparents" label is the only modification made to your inbox.
TLDR Parents does not:
Every email remains in your inbox, unread and untouched. If Smart Sync applies the label to an email incorrectly, the email still appears normally in your inbox — nothing is hidden from you.
Google requires apps that access Gmail to pass an independent security audit called a Cloud Application Security Assessment (CASA) before production access is granted.
For TLDR Parents, the CASA assessment included:
CASA is not a self-assessment. It is performed by an independent security firm approved by Google.
CASA is not a one-time event. TLDR Parents maintains compliance through annual security reviews with Google. Our focus is not only on what we've designed for, but on preventing unintended access that an exposed application could provide.
Google classifies certain Gmail permissions as "Restricted Scopes" — permissions that provide meaningful access to user data and require a higher standard of review before approval.
To use restricted scopes in production, an app must:
TLDR Parents has completed both requirements.
| Data | When accessed | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Email sender and subject | During Smart Sync classification | Identify school and activity communications |
| Email body content | During event extraction | Extract event details (dates, times, locations) |
| Email headers | During classification | Identify email type (newsletter vs. personal correspondence) |
Not accessed: Drafts, sent mail, trash, contacts, or any email outside the "tldrparents" label (Standard Sync) or outside the classification scope (Smart Sync).
| Data | When accessed | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Existing events | When proposing new events | Avoid creating duplicates |
| Calendar metadata | During setup | Identify available calendars |
Not accessed: Shared calendars from other users, calendar settings, or contact information from calendar entries.
Each email follows this path through the TLDR Parents system:
Data retention: Raw email content is not stored long-term. TLDR Parents retains the extracted event data and a reference to the source email so you can verify the information.
| Service | Purpose | Data access |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Application hosting, databases, and infrastructure | Encrypted user data, extracted events, account information |
| OpenAI (GPT-models) | AI classification and event extraction | Email text content sent via API |
| Google APIs | Gmail and Calendar access | Emails and calendar data per permissions above |
| Auth0 | User authentication | Login credentials (email, Google SSO token) |
TLDR Parents uses OpenAI GPT-mini models via API for email classification and event extraction:
Revoke Gmail or Calendar access at any time from your account settings. Access is revoked immediately — there is no waiting period.
Labels previously applied to your emails remain in Gmail (labels belong to your account, not to TLDR Parents), but TLDR Parents can no longer access, read, or modify anything in your inbox.
Every email processed by TLDR Parents is visible in the app. You can see which emails were identified, what events were extracted, and the source email for each proposed event.
If Smart Sync applies the "tldrparents" label to an email you don't want processed, remove the label in Gmail. That email will not be processed again.
Account deletion removes all data from TLDR Parents systems — extracted events, family profile, and account information. Contact support@tldrparents.com to request account deletion.
The email remains in your inbox, unread, exactly where it was. The only change is the "tldrparents" label, which you can remove at any time. The email content is not modified.
In Standard Sync, no — only emails with the "tldrparents" label are accessible. In Smart Sync, the system scans email metadata (sender and subject) to determine whether an email is a school or activity communication. Only emails that match are labeled and processed. Emails that don't match are not retained or processed.
Disconnecting Gmail immediately revokes all access. Deleting your account removes all data from TLDR Parents systems. Your Gmail and Google Calendar are not affected in either case.
Only if they create their own TLDR Parents account and connect their own Gmail. Each user's connection is independent. TLDR Parents never accesses another person's inbox through your account.
A human assistant with email access can read, reply, forward, and delete without restriction. TLDR Parents operates within a narrowly scoped set of permissions — reading and labeling — that Google enforces at the API level. TLDR Parents cannot send emails from your account or delete messages.
Google's permission model groups several capabilities under gmail.modify, including applying labels, marking as read, and archiving. TLDR Parents uses this permission exclusively for labeling. The other capabilities are not used. This is verified through the CASA security assessment.
Yes. The Google OAuth consent screen shows the exact scopes requested when you connect Gmail. You can also review and revoke permissions at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
Contact TLDR Parents Support at support@tldrparents.com