Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: January 1, 2025

🔒 The short version

For most tools, your files never leave your device — processing runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript, and we never see, store, or have access to those documents. A small set of AI-powered tools (Chat with PDF, Summarizer, Translator, OCR, and similar) work differently: they send extracted text — or, for the OCR tools, page/image data — to our AI provider to generate a result. See Section 2 below for exactly which tools and what's sent.

1. Overview

PDFly ("we", "us", or "our") operates the website pdfly.uk and provides browser-based PDF tools. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect (very little), how we use it, and the rights you have.

2. File Processing

Most file processing on PDFly happens locally in your browser. When you use a core tool — merge, split, compress, convert, protect, and similar — on a PDF, image, or Word document:

  • ✓ The file is read by JavaScript running in your browser tab
  • ✓ Processing (merge, split, compress, convert) happens in your browser's memory
  • ✓ The output file is generated in your browser and offered for download
  • ✗ No file content is ever sent to our servers
  • ✗ No file content is ever stored anywhere outside your device

AI-Powered Tools: Some tools — Chat with PDF, Explain PDF, PDF Summarizer, PDF Translator, Generate Quiz, Rewrite PDF, OCR PDF, and OCR Image — work differently because they rely on AI to generate a result. For these tools:

  • ✓ For Chat with PDF, Explain PDF, PDF Summarizer, PDF Translator, Generate Quiz, and Rewrite PDF, text is first extracted from your file locally in your browser
  • → OCR PDF and OCR Image work differently: there's no local text extraction, since extracting the text is what the AI does. OCR PDF renders each page to an image in your browser; OCR Image uses the image you upload directly
  • → That extracted text (and your question, for Chat with PDF) — or the page/image data, for OCR PDF and OCR Image — is sent to our server, which forwards it to our AI provider to generate a response
  • → The AI provider processes this to return an answer, summary, translation, transcription, or similar result
  • ✗ We do not store this content ourselves beyond what's needed to complete the request

If you'd prefer your document content never leaves your device, use one of PDFly's non-AI tools instead — the vast majority of PDFly's tools work this way.

3. Information We Collect

We may collect limited, non-personal data to operate and improve the service:

  • Usage analytics — page views, tool usage counts (no file data), via a privacy-respecting analytics service
  • Browser information — browser type, device type, referring URL (standard server logs)
  • Local storage — your dark/light theme preference, stored in your browser only

We do not collect: names, email addresses, payment information, or any file content.

4. Advertising

PDFly may display advertisements from Google AdSense or similar providers. These services may use cookies to serve relevant ads. You can opt out via your browser settings or visiting Google Ad Settings.

5. Cookies

We use minimal cookies: your dark mode preference (localStorage, never sent to servers) and any cookies set by advertising or analytics third parties. You may disable cookies in your browser at any time.

6. Third-Party Services

PDFly loads the following third-party resources:

  • Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com) — for typography
  • Tailwind CSS CDN (cdn.tailwindcss.com) — for styles
  • Cloudflare CDN (cdnjs.cloudflare.com) — for JavaScript libraries (pdf-lib, JSZip, mammoth)
  • Google Gemini — our AI provider, used only by PDFly's AI-powered tools (see Section 2) to process extracted document text (or page/image data, for OCR PDF and OCR Image) and generate results

These services have their own privacy policies. No file data is shared with the fonts, styling, or library CDNs above. For the AI-powered tools only, extracted text or image data is shared with our AI provider as described in Section 2.

7. Children's Privacy

PDFly does not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal information, please contact us.

8. Your Rights

Since we collect minimal personal data, there is little to request. However, you may contact us to ask what (if any) personal data we hold and request its deletion. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy occasionally. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy? Contact us at privacy@pdfly.uk or visit our Contact page.