How TeddyPDF keeps your files private

TeddyPDF is a set of free PDF tools with one rule behind all of them: your files stay on your own device.

What happens when you use a tool

Opening a tool downloads the page, and the software that tool needs, from teddypdf.com. When you choose a file, that software does the work inside your browser. Your file, and anything about what is in it, is not sent back to TeddyPDF or to anyone else.

A few tools need bigger pieces of software, such as the PDF reader, the text recognition engine or the office document converter. They are fetched from teddypdf.com the first time you need them, and your browser normally keeps a copy for next time.

The lock

Plenty of websites promise to delete your files. TeddyPDF does not ask you to take its word for anything.

When you choose a file, the tool first gathers everything it needs. Then, before your file is opened, the page tells your browser to block any further attempt by the page to send or fetch anything, to any website, including teddypdf.com. Your browser enforces that block, not TeddyPDF's own code, and it stays in place until the page is reloaded. The green badge at the top of each tool fills in once the lock is on.

Helper programs that some tools start for heavy work, such as reading PDF pages or recognising text, are built from software already inside the locked page and are held by the same block. Automated tests check every tool: once the lock is on, the test server receives nothing more from the page.

A lock cannot stop you choosing to leave, of course. Clicking a link simply opens another page, and your file does not go with it.

Check it yourself

1. Turn off your internet. Open a tool and choose your file. Once the software it needs has loaded and the privacy lock is on, disconnect: the job still finishes, because nothing needs to travel anywhere.
2. Watch the network log. On a computer, open your browser's developer tools and pick the Network tab. Use a tool and you will see the page's own files load, and nothing sent to anyone.
3. Try the lock. Open a file in any tool, then type fetch('/') into the developer tools Console and press Enter. The browser refuses, because the page has locked itself.

Every page also carries a content security policy, an instruction to your browser to load nothing from, and send nothing to, any other website. Even a mistake on TeddyPDF's part could not send your file elsewhere.

What TeddyPDF does not do

No adverts, no analytics, no advertising trackers, no cookies and no accounts. The pages load no fonts or scripts from any other company.

What a web host sees

Delivering any web page means the hosting company receives ordinary details of the request, such as your internet address and the page asked for. That is true of every website, and TeddyPDF is hosted by Cloudflare. What the host never receives from TeddyPDF is your file, because your file is never sent. The privacy notice has the details.

Who makes TeddyPDF

TeddyPDF is a trading name of Brian Rooney, who also makes FilePresto, a sister site with the same in-browser approach for photos, audio and video. Both use the same tested tool software; TeddyPDF simply concentrates on PDFs.

Built with open-source software

Several tools rely on excellent free software written by others. The licences page lists each one and where to find its source code.