If you use Smartlead or Instantly for your sending infrastructure, you have good reasons to be skeptical of a new AI platform touching your mailbox and sequences. This page addresses every concern directly, with no corporate fog.
Cognlay is not a sending infrastructure platform.
Cognlay does not have its own IP pools. It does not warm up inboxes. It does not route your email through shared servers. It uses your own connected mailbox through SMTP and IMAP. SMTP sends configured outbound emails. IMAP detects replies and maintains thread context. Your emails go out from your domain and your reputation. Cognlay writes the content and decides when to send it.
Cognlay does not replace your sending infrastructure. It uses your own connected mailbox through SMTP and IMAP, the same mailbox you already control. There are no shared Cognlay IP pools. There are no shared warm-up accounts. Your emails go out from your domain, your mailbox, your reputation. Cognlay only decides what to write in the next email and when to send it.
Cognlay sends through the SMTP settings of the mailbox you connect. It does not route your email through any Cognlay-owned sending servers or IP addresses. Your deliverability depends on your domain and mailbox health, not on whether another Cognlay user was spammy.
Queued emails are sent at the scheduled time. If Cognlay's service experiences downtime, sends may be delayed — not lost. You can also pause any sequence manually at any time. Cognlay does not send emails from sequences you have not explicitly activated, so there is no risk of uncontrolled sends.
Cognlay does not do inbox warm-up. Use a dedicated warm-up or sender-health tool if your mailbox still needs reputation building. Once the mailbox is ready, Cognlay can own the governed outbound loop: lead sourcing, enrichment, CSV import, adaptive sequence writing, reply handling, sender safety, and learning from outcomes.
Your emails and replies live in your mailbox, and your lead records can be exported or deleted from Cognlay. If Cognlay ceased to exist, your mailbox does not disappear. You can disconnect mailbox access or rotate SMTP/IMAP credentials at any time. You are never locked in at the infrastructure level.
Cognlay uses IMAP only for the connected outbound workflow: reply detection, thread context, and follow-up safety. The product does not use the Gmail API, does not request Google OAuth scopes, and does not browse unrelated mailbox content for general analysis.
Stored mailbox credentials are encrypted. In the event of a security incident, Cognlay would notify affected users. You can rotate or revoke SMTP/IMAP credentials from your mailbox provider, which stops new mailbox access even if Cognlay systems are unavailable.
Cognlay is built for signal-driven outbound, not mass volume blasting. High-volume teams may still keep dedicated sender operations, but Cognlay is a full governed AI SDR platform. It sources and enriches leads, writes adaptive outbound, routes replies, protects sender reputation, and learns which markets and messages create qualified pipeline.
Never send email from shared Cognlay IP pools
Never sell or share your lead data with third parties
Never browse unrelated mailbox content outside your configured sequences
Never train AI models on your email content
Never request Gmail API, Drive, Calendar, or Google OAuth scopes
Never send from domains or mailboxes you haven't connected
Never store your Google password
Never continue sending after mailbox access is disconnected
You are the data controller for your lead data. Cognlay acts as a data processor under your instructions.
Lead data is not sold, rented, or shared with third parties for marketing purposes.
Email content processed by AI for follow-up rewriting is not retained beyond the immediate task.
You can request deletion of your account and all associated data at any time via info@cognlay.com.
Unsubscribe handling is built in — opted-out leads are automatically suppressed from all future sequences.
Sequences send from your own domain and mailbox — Cognlay does not use shared sending infrastructure.
Cognlay does not spoof sender identities or forge message headers.
You remain responsible for ensuring your lead list was lawfully obtained.
CASL requires express or implied consent before sending commercial email to Canadian recipients — this is your responsibility as sender.
Cognlay's built-in opt-out handling satisfies CASL's unsubscribe requirements automatically.
We recommend maintaining a consent record for Canadian contacts before adding them to sequences.
Cognlay does not sell California residents' personal information.
Your lead data and mailbox content are not shared with third-party advertisers.
California users can request data deletion by contacting info@cognlay.com.
The AI receives the context needed for the specific outbound action: the email subject and body, lead behavior, reply text if present, sequence configuration, and sender profile. It is not given unrelated inbox threads for general analysis.
No. Cognlay does not use your email content, lead data, mailbox threads, or sequence replies to train AI models. Email content processed for follow-up rewriting is used only for that specific task.
Cognlay uses large language models from leading AI providers (including Google's Gemini family). These providers do not retain your data for training under their enterprise API terms.
Cognlay operates autonomously within the sequence parameters you configure. Pre-send guardrails check each email before it goes out. You can pause or stop any sequence at any time from your dashboard.
Still skeptical? Good. Email hello@cognlay.com — Jay responds to every compliance question personally.