Check for yourself that nothing is uploaded
Every file tool on the internet says it respects your privacy. Almost none of them let you confirm it. Here is how to check ours in about thirty seconds, using a tool that is already built into the browser you are reading this in.
Live check on this page
This counts every network request your browser makes. Drop any file below and watch the number stay exactly where it is.
Counted with the browser’s own Performance API, which records every request the page makes. The code doing the counting is visible in this page’s source.
The airplane-mode test
This is the simplest proof there is, and it takes about a minute. If a tool needed to send your file somewhere, it could not possibly finish the job with the internet switched off.
- Open a tool and run it once with the internet on — the PDF Studio or the Photo Studio. Export a file, so the tool loads everything it needs.
- Reload the page. On a first visit the part of the site that saves things for offline use only takes charge on the second load.
- Turn on airplane mode, or switch off wi-fi and mobile data.
- Now add different files and export again.
- It still works. Merging, cropping, cutting out backgrounds — all of it runs on your own device.
There is no clever explanation for this. A tool that uploaded your files would simply stop.
Why run it once online first? The tools are built on open-source libraries — the same PDF and image code used across the web — and those download the first time you use a tool. After that your browser keeps them, and the tool runs with no connection at all. A tool you have never opened will not work offline, because its code has not reached your device yet. We would rather say that plainly than have you discover it mid-job.
Want it to survive a reload too? Add the site to your home screen and the tools you have already used stay available with no connection, not just while the tab is open. There is an Add to home screen button after you finish a job in any Studio, or use your browser’s install option.
The thorough version
The counter above is our code, so you may reasonably not want to trust it. Here is the check that does not rely on us at all.
- Open any tool on this site — the PDF merger is a good one.
- Press F12 to open your browser’s developer tools. On a Mac, Cmd + Option + I.
- Click the Network tab. This lists every piece of data leaving or entering your browser.
- Press the clear button (a circle with a line through it) to empty the list.
- Now add your files and run the tool.
- Look at the list. Your file is not in it, because it was never sent. On most tools nothing new appears at all.
What you will see
We would rather be accurate than impressive, so: the Network tab is not always completely empty, and here is exactly why.
- Loading the page itself. Your browser fetches our HTML, styles, scripts and fonts, the same as any website.
- Tool libraries. A few tools pull in a shared library the first time you use them — the PDF engine, or the text-recognition engine. These are downloaded to you. Nothing of yours goes back.
- Our host sees the request. Cloudflare delivers the site and, like any host, processes ordinary details such as your IP address and which page you asked for. Full detail is on our privacy page.
What you will never see is your file. That is the claim, and it is the one you can verify.
We want to know immediately. Tell us what you saw and which tool you were using.