FAQ

What’s going on here?

SearchMyEmail.com is a free service that lets a “boss” designate “assistants” that can search his/her email account. Everything that’s searched is reported back to the boss. The assistant knows that everything he/she searches for is reported back to the boss. This way, the assistant is unlikely to search for something nefarious, like “employee salaries” or “affair”.

What if I don't use Gmail?

Sorry, right now this service only works with Gmail and G Suite accounts.

I don't have an assistant. I guess this tool isn't for me?

Maybe, but if you have people you work with or collaborate with, they may get a productivity boost by being able to search your email account. It's not just assistants who benefit from searching your email; it can be anybody you work with.

Why not just give my assistant my Gmail login and let them search that way?

Because then you, the boss, will have no record of what was searched and what messages were viewed.

Why can’t I just forward the email that my assistant needs to him/her?

You can, but that takes away precious time that you, the boss, could be spending growing your company. Let the assistant find what he/she needs on his/her own in your email account, and rest easy that you’ll know exactly what they’ve looked at.

Will an assistant also be able to see attachments?

Yes, if an assistant opens an email and downloads an attachment, you, the boss, will be notified of both the opening of the email, and the downloading of the attachment.

Are you affiliated with Google and Gmail?

Not officially. SearchMyEmail.com is software built by us, using the Gmail API, which is available to any software developer.

Who should I give access to search my account?

You should only give access to your account to people that you generally trust. While we take some precautions to prevent access to emails from your bank, an assistant with evil intentions could use this to reset the passwords to your Amazon.com or Netflix accounts by triggering the password reset function from the website, then searching your email for the passwords reset link, and then changing the password. In most cases, this is the PURPOSE of SeachMyEmail, so that an assistant can manage your online accounts for you. But please exercise caution in who you allow to search.

Could my assistant use this to access my bank account?

While your assistant can search for anything in your account, we specifically block access to emails from bank-related domains. That prevents an assistant from attempting to reset the password to your Chase.com account for example. Resetting passwords, however, is one of the use cases of this tool. But with bank logins, we’ve put measures in place to prevent seeing emails from bank domains.

Can I restrict what my assistant can search for?

Not yet, but we’ll likely add that capability in the future.

Can my assistant reply to my emails for me after searching for something?

Yes, if you give your assistant this right. As of July 15, 2020, assistants are able to REPLY or REPLY ALL to an email for you, but only if you, the boss, have specifically granted this right to the assistant on your Assistants Page after logging in as a boss.