How PDF Stitch keeps your files in your browser
PDF Stitch is a web page that does all its work inside your browser. This page says what that means in practice. The full privacy notice says who runs the site and what your rights are.
Your files are read and changed in this tab
When you add a file, the browser hands it to the page, and the page reads it there. The libraries that draw pages (pdf.js), build the downloaded PDF (pdf-lib), recognise text in scans (Tesseract) and turn documents into PDFs (officeparser) all run inside the tab. There is no server that receives your documents, so no document, page, file name or title is sent anywhere.
Check it yourself
In the app, the "Nothing is uploaded" button at the top opens a list of every other site the page has contacted since you opened it, and how often, taken from the browser's own record of what it fetched. On the live site it shows the view counter described below, the licence server if you use Pro, and nothing that carries a document. Your browser's developer tools show every request, this site's own included. You can also turn off your network once the app has loaded: it keeps working.
What it keeps in your browser
- Your settings (the look, the language, thumbnail size, which side panels are open, whether single-key shortcuts are on, and whether the library is on), and your answer about counting, in the browser's local storage.
- Your licence, if you activate Pro, in the browser's local storage, so that Pro stays on: the licence key, the licence made for this browser, a random id for this browser and the name you gave it, if any. To activate Pro and renew it each month, the app sends the key or the licence, that id, the kind of browser and system (such as Chrome on Mac) and the name you give the device, if you give one, to the licence server, which keeps the devices of each licence, with their names and when each was added and last seen, to count them and list them for you. It asks for no name or email address: a device's name is only what you type, such as "Work laptop", and "Your plan" on that device changes or removes it at any time. With a team licence, everyone on it sees its devices and their names. The key is your purchase number, which links it to your purchase at Paddle. In the first 14 days after buying, it also checks each day it opens.
- The site's own files, kept by a service worker so that the app opens without a network. Files that another app shares with the installed app pass through that store for a moment and are deleted once they are opened.
- Your documents, only if you ask. Unless you turn on "Keep my files in this browser", nothing about your documents is saved, and everything is forgotten when you close the tab. If you turn it on, copies of your files, your stitches, your open tabs, the recycle bin and your saved signatures are kept in this browser's own storage. Turning it off deletes them.
What it fetches
Only its own files from this site: the app itself, the data pdf.js needs for some fonts and pictures, the text recognition engine and languages, the document converter and the handwriting fonts. The last few are fetched the first time you use them. On the live site it also loads the view counter's consent script from views.harshankur.com. If you activate Pro, it also contacts the licence server, sending only your licence key or licence, a random id for this browser, its kind of browser and system, and the name you give it, if any. The buy page loads Paddle's checkout only when you continue to payment.
What is counted
This site counts visits with a view counter run by its author, in two levels. Without your consent nothing in your browser counts you: the site's server notes only that the page was requested, the page you came from, and roughly which browser and system. The first time, the site asks whether it may count in more detail. If you allow it, the counter also records how long the page was visible and how far it was scrolled, roughly which country and screen size, and which features were used, such as "a PDF was downloaded". Your answer is kept in this browser, and "Privacy settings" changes it at any time. The counter sets no cookie and never stores your full IP address: only a shortened one, with its last part removed, which on its own does not point to a person. It never receives anything about your documents: no names, no titles, no content.
Redaction that really removes
Covering text with a black box often leaves the text in the file. In PDF Stitch a page with a redaction is saved as a picture of itself, so what was under the box is not in the file. Before the file is saved, every redacted page of the finished file is opened again and checked: if any of its text is under a redaction, the file is not saved. Pages without redactions keep their real text. With Pro, the rest of a redacted page's text is laid back over its picture, invisibly, so the page can still be searched, all but what was blacked out.