PDFKits is built on a simple promise: your PDF files never leave your device. This page explains, in plain language, how we operate, what data we collect, and how we protect you. Last updated: May 2026.
All 45 PDF tools on PDFKits — merge, split, compress, convert, edit, sign, OCR, redact, watermark, encrypt — run entirely inside your browser using JavaScript and WebAssembly. When you drop a PDF onto any tool, the file is loaded into your browser's memory, processed locally on your machine, and the result is offered to download. No PDF content is ever sent to our servers. You can verify this yourself: open your browser DevTools, switch to the Network tab, then use any tool — you will see zero outbound requests carrying PDF payloads. This is structurally different from upload-based services like Smallpdf or iLovePDF, which require your file to leave your device to be processed.
We collect a minimal set of anonymous usage signals: page views, anonymous tool processing counts (the tool name and a tally — never the file contents or filenames), browser type, country derived from IP, and standard server access logs (kept 30 days). This is used to measure feature adoption, detect outages, and prioritize roadmap work. We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not sell, share, rent, or otherwise disclose your data to third parties for marketing purposes.
Two tools use external APIs: Chat with PDF sends only your questions plus a small extracted text context (never the full file binary) to an AI provider for inference. OCR PDF runs OCR fully in your browser via Tesseract WebAssembly — nothing leaves your device. We also load Google Analytics 4 with IP anonymization and Do Not Track support.
You have the right to access, correct, or delete any personal data we hold about you (which is minimal since we don't store your files). Email privacy@pdfkits.app for any request — we respond within 7 days. PDFKits complies with GDPR (EU), CCPA (California), and PIPEDA (Canada). Material changes to this policy are announced at the top of this page for 30 days before they take effect.