Your PDF Tool Is Probably Uploading Your Files — Here's How to Check

Many free online PDF tools upload sensitive documents, such as tax returns and medical records, to external servers for processing. Investigations show that nine out of ten popular tools utilize server-side processing, with some privacy policies stating files may be retained for up to 24 hours. Users can verify this by checking for POST requests in Chrome DevTools. To ensure privacy, browser-based processing using WebAssembly is presented as a secure alternative that keeps files on the local device.