The reader uploads nothing
The PDF reader runs entirely in your browser. Your file is read from your own disk into your own memory and rendered locally. Nothing is transmitted to this server or anywhere else.
You can verify this rather than taking our word for it: open the reader, disconnect from the network, and open a document. It works.
The tools do receive your file
Transforming a PDF requires having it, so a tool that merges or compresses a document necessarily receives it. There is no way around that and we are not going to imply otherwise.
What happens then is narrow. The file is written to a temporary directory, processed, and the result is written next to it. Both are deleted automatically within thirty minutes, and in practice within seconds of the download. Nothing is archived, indexed, backed up, or looked at.
At a glance
- Reader
- Nothing leaves your browser
- Tools
- File received, processed, deleted
- Maximum retention
- 30 minutes
- Typical retention
- Seconds
- Accounts
- None
- Cookies
- One session cookie, for the form-security token
- Third-party trackers
- None
- Adverts
- None
What is logged
Standard web server request logs: the URL, a timestamp, a response code. No file contents, no filenames, no passwords. Passwords supplied to open or protect a document exist in memory for the duration of that one operation and are never written anywhere.
Transport
Everything is served over HTTPS. The site sets a strict content security policy, sends no third-party scripts, and has no external analytics, fonts or frames. There is nothing on a page here that talks to anyone but this server.
When you should not use this site
For genuinely confidential material - medical records, legal documents, anything under a professional duty of confidence - use software on your own machine. Any online tool has to receive the file, and no policy statement changes that fact. This is the honest recommendation and it costs us traffic to make it.
Encryption and what it protects
Protect PDF encrypts with AES-256, which is real protection: without the password the contents are unreadable by any means. Permission flags, which some tools call security, are a request to the reader software rather than enforcement, and a reader is free to ignore them.
We do not offer password recovery or cracking, for our own tools or anyone else's. A properly encrypted PDF cannot be opened without its password, and any site claiming otherwise is either wrong or targeting files that were never encrypted.
Reporting a security problem
If you find a vulnerability, contact us and we will respond. Please do not test against other people's data, and please give us a reasonable window to fix something before publishing it. A security.txt file is served at the well-known location with the same contact details.
Questions and answers
Are my files really deleted?
Yes, on a timer that runs on every request, with a thirty-minute ceiling. Most jobs are removed within seconds of the download because the sweeper catches them on the next request.
Can you see my documents?
Nobody looks at them. They exist on disk for the duration of one operation. If that is not a sufficient guarantee for a particular document - and for some documents it should not be - use local software.
Do you use cookies?
One session cookie carrying the form-security token, which is what stops another site submitting a form here on your behalf. No analytics or advertising cookies.
Is my password stored when I protect a PDF?
No. It is used in memory for that one operation. There is no recovery of any kind, which is why the page tells you to write it down before you start.