Privacy Policy

This policy explains exactly what happens to your files and your data when you use PDFMeld. We have tried to write it in plain language rather than legal boilerplate, because the whole point of this service is that you can understand and verify what it does with your documents.

The short version

Most of our tools never send your file anywhere. They run inside your web browser, on your own device. We do not receive the file, we cannot read it, and it is never stored on our servers. A small number of tools do need a server — those are listed explicitly below, and nothing else is hidden.

Tools that never upload your files

The following tools process your documents entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly. The file never leaves your device:

• Combine PDFs, Extract Pages, Delete Pages, Export Pages, Reorder PDF
• Compress PDF, Fix Corrupted PDF, Trim Margins, Spin Pages
• Images to PDF, PDF to Images, Extract to Markdown
• Insert Pagination, Apply Watermark, Annotate PDF, Interactive Forms
• e-Sign Document, Censor Text (Redact), Compare Files
• Make Searchable (OCR), Mobile Scan
• Encrypt PDF, Remove Password

You can verify this yourself. Open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and run any of the tools above — you will see no file upload request. Alternatively, load the page and then disconnect from the internet: these tools still work perfectly offline.

Tools that do use a server

Converting to and from Microsoft Office formats requires a document rendering engine that browsers do not provide. These tools send your file to our conversion server:

• Docx to PDF, Slides to PDF, Sheets to PDF
• PDF to Word, PDF to Slides, PDF to Sheets
• Web to PDF (sends the URL you enter, not a file)

For these tools: your file is written to temporary storage, converted, returned to you, and deleted immediately in the same request cycle. It is never retained, never backed up, never inspected, and never used for any other purpose. Uploaded files are given a random identifier rather than keeping your original filename.

What we collect

We use Google Analytics to understand which tools people use and where problems occur. This collects standard web analytics data: pages visited, approximate location by country, browser and device type, and referring site. Your IP address is anonymised.

We also count tool usage so we can tell which tools are popular and which are failing. Because this is the one place where our privacy promise could quietly be broken, here is exactly what a usage event contains:

• Which tool was used, and whether it succeeded or failed
• How long the operation took, rounded to whole seconds
• How many files were selected, as a range (for example "2-5")
• Roughly how large they were, as a range (for example "1-5MB")
• If it failed, a generic category such as "password required" or "timeout"

It never includes your filenames, any part of your file's contents, text extracted from your documents, passwords you enter, or URLs you paste. Those values are not transmitted anywhere — for the client-side tools they never leave your browser at all. Blocking analytics with an ad-blocker or browser setting does not affect any tool.

We do not ask you to create an account. We do not collect your name, email address, or payment details, because none of those are needed to use this service.

Cookies and advertising

We use cookies for analytics, and we may display advertising from Google AdSense to keep this service free. Advertising partners may use cookies to serve relevant ads based on your visits to this and other sites.

You can opt out of personalised advertising through Google Ad Settings, or manage cookies through aboutads.info. You can also block cookies entirely in your browser settings — the PDF tools will continue to work normally.

Your rights

If you are in the EU/EEA or UK, GDPR gives you rights to access, correct, and delete data held about you. Because we do not hold accounts or store your files, there is very little data to act on — but you can contact us with any request and we will respond.

The lawful basis for our analytics and advertising processing is consent, which you can withdraw at any time via your browser or the ad settings links above.

Children

This service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, we will update the date at the top of this page. The core commitment — that client-side tools never receive your files — will not change, because it is a property of how the software is built rather than a policy choice.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to privacy@pdfmeld.com.