Privacy Policy
What happens to your documents when you use FreePDFTools, and what this website does and does not collect. The short version is in section 1.
Effective date:
Your files are processed locally in your browser tab. They are not uploaded to this server and they are not sent to any third party.
1. The short version
FreePDFTools is a set of free PDF and image tools that run entirely inside your own web browser. Everything below follows from that one fact.
- Your files are opened and processed by JavaScript in your browser tab. They are never uploaded to this server, never stored on it and never sent to any third party.
- The web server receives only ordinary access log data: IP address, time, requested URL, status code, referrer and user agent. Section 4 lists each item.
- The site sets no cookies of its own, runs no analytics, shows no advertising and loads nothing from third-party networks. Section 5 has the detail.
- Advertising is planned but not switched on; section 6 explains what would change.
2. Who this policy covers
This policy applies to freepdftools.io and every tool and page served from it. It does not cover other websites you reach by following a link from here, or software installed on your own device; those have their own policies.
3. How your files are handled
Processing happens in your browser
When you select a file, your browser reads it from your device and hands it to JavaScript in the page. The document is opened, copied, rotated, split or rendered on your own machine, and the result arrives as a new download. No copy of it is transmitted to our server or to anyone else.
There is no upload step
There is no server-side copy of your document to be stored or deleted. You can confirm this with your browser's developer tools: while you use a tool, no network request carries your file's contents.
What this does and does not protect you from
Keeping documents on your own device removes a whole category of risk: there is no server-side store of your files to be breached or handed over. It does not guarantee that a particular file will work correctly in a particular browser, operating system or device. A very large document may exhaust your device's memory, a malformed file may fail to open, and an already compromised device is not made safe by a browser-based tool.
4. What the web server records
Like every website, this one is served by a web server that writes an access log entry for each request. This happens whether or not you use a tool, and the tools do not cause it.
| What is recorded | Why the server has it |
|---|---|
| IP address | Identifies where the request came from; needed to reply and to detect abuse. |
| Date and time | When the request was made. |
| Requested URL | Which page, stylesheet, script or image was requested. |
| HTTP status code | Whether the request succeeded or was rejected. |
| Referrer | The linking page, but only if your browser sends it. |
| User agent string | Browser and operating system family; used for compatibility and abuse detection. |
These entries contain no file contents and no file names: choosing a document in a tool produces no request at all. We do not combine this data with anything else or build advertising or behavioural profiles from it.
Access logs are written and kept by the hosting provider that runs this site. How long they are retained is decided by that provider under its own policy, not by this site. Ask us if you need the current retention period.
5. Cookies and tracking today
As the site stands today:
- No cookies are set by this site.
- No analytics, statistics, heat-mapping, advertising or tracking service is loaded.
- No third-party content is embedded: fonts, stylesheets, scripts and images are all served from this domain, so visiting a page does not announce you to another network.
- Nothing is saved in your browser's local storage or session storage.
Your browser or an extension you installed may store its own data about pages you visit; that is outside this site's control. If any statement above stops being true, this policy will be updated before the change goes live.
6. Advertising: planned, not yet active
Not active yet. No advertising code of any kind is loaded on this site at the time of this policy. Nothing in this section is happening today.
FreePDFTools is free to use, and advertising is the intended way of paying for it. If advertising is enabled through Google AdSense, this policy will be updated to describe it before any ad code goes live, and the following would change:
- Google and its advertising partners may set cookies and read device identifiers to serve, cap and measure advertising, including personalised advertising where it is permitted.
- Data about your visit, such as the page you are on and an approximate location from your IP address, may be shared with those partners for that purpose.
- Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland must be shown a consent mechanism before non-essential cookies are set, for example a Google-certified consent management platform, and refusing consent must be as easy as giving it.
- You could change or withdraw consent at any time, and control personalised advertising through Google's Ads Settings page. Google's partner sites policy explains how its partners may use data collected this way.
- Even then, the files you process would never leave your browser: advertising would affect the pages you see, not your documents.
Until then, no advertising cookie, identifier or network request exists here.
7. Your rights
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the GDPR (and, in the UK, the UK GDPR) gives you these rights over personal data about you:
- Access. To ask whether we hold personal data about you and to receive a copy of it.
- Correction. To ask us to correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Deletion. To ask us to erase personal data about you.
- Objection. To object to processing that is based on legitimate interests.
- Portability. To receive data you provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or to have it transmitted to another provider where that is technically possible.
- Restriction. To ask us to limit how data is used while a concern is being looked at.
In practice, because your file contents never reach this server, the operator normally holds no personal data about a visitor at all. The only personal data that can exist is the access log information in section 4, which the hosting provider holds and controls. We cannot retrieve a document for you, because we never had it.
To make a request, write to the address in section 12 and describe what you are asking for. We will answer within the time limits set by the law that applies to you (normally one month), and may ask enough to be sure we are replying to the right person. You may also complain to your national data protection authority.
8. International transfers
This site can be reached from anywhere, and the hosting provider that serves it may run servers, backups and support systems in more than one country. The access log data in section 4 may therefore be processed outside the country you are in, including outside the European Economic Area. Those transfers are covered by the hosting provider's own terms and safeguards, which are expected to meet the requirements of the law that applies to it.
9. Children
This site is not directed at children under 13. There is no account, sign-up, profile or comment feature, so it does not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has sent personal data to the contact address, tell us and we will delete it.
10. Security and backups
Processing documents locally reduces risk, but it is not a promise of absolute security: no browser-based tool can guarantee that every file will open correctly on every device, or make a compromised device safe. Keep your own backups and check a result before relying on it — your files never reach this server, so we cannot recover, inspect or restore them.
11. Changes to this policy
This policy may change when the site changes: when a tool is added, when hosting changes, or if advertising is enabled. The effective date above shows the current version, and any significant change will be described here rather than slipped in quietly. Continuing to use the site means the updated policy applies.
12. How to contact us
Questions about this policy, or a request about your data, can be sent to [email protected], or through the contact page. Please do not send documents by email: we do not need them and cannot process them for you. The rules for using the site are set out in the terms of use.
This policy was last reviewed on .