Privacy Policy

This is the core technical fact this entire policy is built around, so we're stating it plainly: PDFBell does not upload your PDF files, images, or any file you process with a PDFBell tool to any server. Every tool on this site — Merge PDF, Sign PDF, PDF to PNG, Crop PDF, and the rest — runs on open-source JavaScript libraries (such as pdf-lib and pdf.js) that execute inside your browser tab, on your own device.

When you drop a file into a PDFBell tool, that file is read directly by your browser's JavaScript engine and never leaves it. There is no upload step, no temporary storage on our servers, and no copy retained anywhere by us — because the file is never transmitted to us in the first place. You can verify this yourself by opening your browser's network inspector while using any tool: you won't see your file leave your device.

We do not, and cannot, see the contents of the files you process. We don't know what's in the contracts you sign, the pages you delete, or the images you convert.

PDFBell itself sets no cookies. In particular, it sets no analytics cookies and no advertising cookies.

PDFBell uses your browser's localStorage — a small storage area tied to this website that stays on your device — to remember two preferences between visits: your light/dark theme choice (key pdfbell-theme) and whether the completion chime is turned on or off (key pdfbell.sound). Both are ordinary UI preferences, contain no personal information, and are never sent to us or to anyone else. You can clear them at any time through your browser's site-data settings.

PDFBell does not currently show any advertising. We plan to apply for Google AdSense in the future once the site is established, and we're disclosing our intended approach now so this policy stays accurate before that happens, not just after.

When AdSense is enabled, Google and its advertising partners will use cookies (including the DoubleClick DART cookie) and similar technologies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other websites, and to measure ad performance. Google's use of advertising cookies allows it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to PDFBell and other sites on the internet.

You will be able to opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings at adssettings.google.com, and opt out of other third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info/choices. Where required by law — for example under the EU/UK GDPR — we will additionally present a consent banner before any advertising cookies are set.

We will update this section, and the date below, before any ad code goes live on the site — not after.

PDFBell's fonts (Plus Jakarta Sans, IBM Plex Mono, and the handwriting fonts used by Sign PDF) are self-hosted and bundled with the site rather than loaded from Google Fonts' servers at runtime. That means your browser doesn't make a separate request to a font provider — and that provider doesn't see your IP address — just to render this page's text.

PDFBell runs no analytics scripts and sets no analytics or advertising cookies. We do not use Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics tool on the site.

PDFBell is served through Cloudflare, which provides content delivery and security for the site. To deliver and protect the site, Cloudflare processes standard request data — your IP address, user agent, the URL you request and a timestamp — and it gives us aggregated traffic statistics from that data. We do not receive your files, and no file contents or file names are part of these requests, because your files never leave your browser.

Cloudflare processes this data under its own privacy policy at https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.

PDFBell is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age. Normal use of PDFBell's tools involves no collection of file contents or personal details; the only data involved is the standard request data and aggregated traffic statistics described under Analytics and hosting above.

If we change how PDFBell works in a way that affects this policy — most notably, when AdSense goes live — we'll update this page and the “Last updated” date above. We don't send email notifications for policy changes, since we don't collect an email address to send one to.

California's Consumer Privacy Act and Consumer Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA) give California residents specific rights over their personal information, and we want to be direct about how those rights apply to PDFBell: because every PDFBell tool processes your files entirely inside your own browser and nothing about their contents is ever transmitted to us, PDFBell has no personal information from your files to sell or share. We do not sell personal information, and we do not "share" personal information — as CPRA defines that term — for cross-context behavioral advertising.

California residents also have the right to know what personal information a business holds about them, request its deletion, correct inaccurate information, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. In PDFBell's case, exercising these rights mostly confirms what's already true: aside from the two local-storage preferences described above, which stay on your device and are never sent to us, the only data involved is the standard request data that Cloudflare processes to deliver and protect the site, under its own privacy policy, and the aggregated traffic statistics derived from it; we hold no account, email address or file content that could be looked up, deleted or corrected. If you have a CCPA/CPRA request or question anyway, reach us through our Contact page and we'll respond.

Questions about this policy can be sent to hello@pdfbell.com.