Your document never leaves your device.

What happens to a PDF you open

The file is read into memory in your browser tab and handed to pdf.js, which parses and renders it inside a web worker on your machine. Edits are kept as a list of changes next to the file. When you download, pdf-lib builds the new PDF in the same tab and the browser saves it through a temporary blob link. No step in that chain talks to a server.

The app makes network requests only for its own static files: its JavaScript, stylesheets, fonts and the emoji images under the emoji tool. The editing page loads no analytics script, no error reporter and no third-party embed; the only third-party script anywhere on the site is the visit counter described below.

What is stored in your browser

• IndexedDB, database pdf-editor: the bytes of every PDF you opened and the edits you made to each, so that a document's link keeps working after a refresh.
• localStorage: the list of your documents (name, created and updated times), the theme you chose, the last zoom level and whether the properties panel is open. Small PDFs may also be mirrored here as a fallback when IndexedDB is unavailable.
• sessionStorage: the tool, shape and page rotation you last used in a tab, so they survive a reload of that tab only.

None of this is sent anywhere. The editor sets no cookies; the only cookies on the site are the visit counter's, and only after you agree to it.

Visit counting

The site's pages and the documents screen count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, a small script that reports the page address, the site that sent the visit, the browser family and how long the page took to load. It sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser and keeps no identifier, so it cannot follow you from one visit to the next or from one site to another, and it needs no consent notice. It is not loaded on the editing page, and it never sees your document or the address of a document you have open.

Visit counting

The site's pages (this one, the landing page, the blog, the comparisons) can count visits with Google Analytics: which pages were viewed, roughly where from, on what kind of browser, and which site sent the visit. It loads only after you choose OK in the notice at the bottom of the page, and it then sets Google's cookies on this site. If you choose "No thanks", or never answer, nothing is loaded. The editor pages never load it, so no third-party script runs beside your document. Your answer is kept in this browser's localStorage; clear this site's data to be asked again.

How to remove it

Open the documents page and remove a document to delete its file and edits. To remove everything at once, clear this site's data in your browser's settings. Because nothing was copied elsewhere, that is the end of it.

What the host of this site can see

Like any website, the server that delivers the app's files sees the ordinary request for those files: your IP address, browser name and the address of the page. It does not receive the document, the edits or the name of your file, because the app never sends them.

Exported files

The PDF you download is a new file. The one you opened is never modified. An exported PDF contains your edited text, a subset of the fonts it uses, and any annotations you added. It does not contain a record of your original words where you replaced them, except in the rare cases described in the export post, where the original text is covered rather than removed.