The short version
UV pdfTool sets a few cookies of its own and nothing from anyone else: no advertising cookies, no tracking across sites, no social-media buttons that watch you. What is necessary for the site to work is stored without asking; the one optional thing, usage statistics, is collected only after you say yes in the privacy settings, and you can change your mind at any time.
What a cookie is
A cookie is a small piece of text a website stores in your browser and reads back on later visits. Browsers also offer other storage to websites: session storage, which lasts for one tab; local storage, which lasts until cleared; a database, for larger things such as unsaved work; and a cache for files, used by sites that work offline. The law that governs cookies (in Ireland, the ePrivacy Regulations of 2011, which carry the EU ePrivacy Directive into Irish law) governs those too, so this policy covers them all.
The categories
- Necessary. Storage without which the site cannot do what you asked: remembering your privacy choice, keeping you signed in, counting the free plan’s daily tasks for each browser, protecting a sign-in with Google, Apple or your company’s single sign-on, carrying the choices of the sign-up form to the emailed link, keeping the tools working offline on Pro, remembering a note or an announcement you already closed, and checking a sign-in to OneDrive in the cloud picker window. It needs no consent and cannot be turned off.
- Statistics. One random number for the sitting, kept in session storage, so that the usage statistics can count visits rather than pages. The statistics themselves record page views, tool runs and load times as events, with a visitor code that changes every day and cannot be turned back into your IP address; they are kept for 90 days and then only as daily totals. They never hold your files, your IP address or your name, and nothing from other sites. Off until you turn it on; off again the moment you turn it off. A browser that sends the Global Privacy Control signal keeps it off unless you say otherwise here.
There is no “advertising” or “functional” category because there is nothing in them: the site shows no advertising and keeps your settings (the language, the tools’ options) in the address of the page or in the page itself, not in storage. The only things it remembers for you are the ones listed below, each set by something you did.
Necessary storage, item by item
| Name | Kind | Purpose | Set when | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pdftool_consent | Cookie | Remembers the choice you made in the privacy settings, so you are not asked again on every page. | When you choose in the privacy settings. | 6 months |
| pdftool_client | Cookie | A random number that identifies your browser to us and to nobody else. It counts the free plan’s daily tasks for each browser and lets your browser see its own jobs. We keep only a keyed hash of it. | When you first open a tool or the account page. | 1 year |
| pdftool_session | Cookie | Keeps you signed in to your account on this browser. | When you sign in. | 30 days |
| pdftool_oauth | Cookie | Protects a sign-in with Google while it is under way, so that the answer from Google can only be accepted by the browser that started it. | When you press “Continue with Google”, and removed when the sign-in ends. | 10 minutes |
| pdftool_apple | Cookie | Protects a sign-in with Apple while it is under way, so that the answer Apple sends back can only be accepted by the browser that started it. It is sent only to the address that receives that answer. | When you press “Continue with Apple”, and removed when the sign-in ends. | 10 minutes |
| pdftool_sso | Cookie | Protects a sign-in through your company’s single sign-on while it is under way, so that the answer from your company’s sign-in page can only be accepted by the browser that started it. It is sent only to the address that receives that answer. | When you continue to your company’s sign-in page, and removed when the sign-in ends. | 10 minutes |
| pdftool_signup_choices | Session storage | The choices made on the form that creates an account (news by mail, and the invitation you came through, if any), kept until the emailed link creates the account. It is never sent to us on its own. | When you ask for the link that creates an account. | Until the account is created or the tab closes |
| pdftool-plan | Local storage | What your Pro allows and until when, as our servers last said, so that the browser tools give Pro’s limits offline too. Only Pro is kept. | When a signed-in account with Pro opens the site. | Until Pro ends, or you sign out |
| pdftool-ai-notice | Local storage | Remembers that you read the note on what the AI tools send to our servers, so that it is not shown before every use. It is shown again when the note changes. | When you press “I understand” on the note in an AI tool. | Until the browser clears its storage |
| pdftool-ai-masking | Local storage | Whether the AI tools hide personal details before any text is sent, and which kinds. The words you type to hide, such as names, are not kept. | When you change what the AI tools hide. | Until you change it, or the browser clears its storage |
| pdftool_announcement_dismissed | Local storage | Remembers which announcement you closed, so that it stays closed. | When you close an announcement at the top of the page. | Until the browser clears its storage |
| pdftool-comment-author | Local storage | The name you gave for the comments you add in the editor, so that readers show it as their author and you need not type it again. It is put in the comments you save, and sent nowhere else. | When you type your name in the editor’s Comments tab. | Until you clear the name, or the browser clears its storage |
| pdftool-dictionary | Local storage | The words you added to your dictionary in a spell check, such as names and terms of your trade, one list per language, so that they are not flagged again on Spell check PDF or in the editor. They are sent nowhere. | When you choose “Add to my dictionary” in a spell check. | Until you remove the words on Spell check PDF, or the browser clears its storage |
| uvpdftool.stamps | Local storage | The stamp words you chose to keep, so that Stamp PDF and the editor offer them again. They are sent nowhere. | When you keep a stamp’s words on this device. | Until you remove them, or the browser clears its storage |
| uvpdftool.my-details | Local storage | The details you saved to fill forms, such as your name, contact details, address and, if you chose, ID numbers, so that a form’s empty fields can be filled with them in Fill and sign PDF or the editor. They are sent nowhere. | When you save your details to fill forms. | Until you choose “Forget my details”, or the browser clears its storage |
| developers.language | Local storage | The programming language you chose for the examples on the developer pages, so that every page shows it. | When you pick a language on a developer page. | Until you choose another, or the browser clears its storage |
| pdftool-editor (unsaved work) | Browser database | Changes you have made in the editor and not yet saved, with the pictures you added, so that a closed tab or a crash does not lose them: they are offered back when you open the same file again. The changes can hold text and pictures of your document. They are found again by a fingerprint of the file (its SHA-256), never leave your device, and are removed when you save, when you choose not to restore them, or after 30 days. | While you have unsaved changes in the editor. | Until you save or discard the changes, or 30 days |
| msal.* (cloud picker window) | Session storage | While you sign in to OneDrive in the cloud picker window, Microsoft’s sign-in library keeps the request and a one-time secret there, on the picker’s own address, so that Microsoft’s answer can be checked. Nothing of your files, and no token that outlasts the window. | When you open from or save to OneDrive. | Until the picker window closes |
| Offline copy of the tools | Offline cache | The pages, scripts, fonts and language data the browser tools need: kept as they are opened, and, when you keep the tools offline with Pro, all of them, with a note of what you asked to keep and when it was last brought up to date. Nothing of yours is in it. | When a page is opened, if the browser supports it; the offline copy when you ask for it. | Until the site changes or the browser clears its storage; the offline copy until you remove it on the account page |
Every item is set by this site (uvpdftool.com) and read by this site only.
Statistics storage, item by item
| Name | Kind | Purpose | Set when | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pdftool_sid | Session storage | A random number for this sitting, so that the usage statistics can count visits rather than pages. It is not a cookie, is never sent with requests on its own, and is forgotten when the tab closes. | Only after you accept statistics in the privacy settings. | Until the tab closes, or 30 minutes without a page view |
Every item is set by this site (uvpdftool.com) and read by this site only.
What is not stored
- The language of the site is in the address of the page (for example /hi/ for Hindi), so no cookie carries it.
- Your files, their names and their contents are never put in storage. The browser tools hold a file in memory while the tab is open and forget it when the tab closes.
- Paying for Pro, a pass or an AI pack happens on a page of Paddle, our merchant of record; Paddle’s own cookie notice applies there, and nothing of it is set on this site.
- The sponsored card that Free’s tool pages may show stores nothing and follows no one: its showings and clicks are counted per day, with nothing about the visitor.
Your choice, and changing it
The first time you open the site you are asked whether statistics may be collected, with “Accept all”, “Reject all” and “Settings” given the same weight. Your answer is kept for six months in the cookie named above, after which you are asked again. “Privacy settings” at the foot of every page reopens the question at any time; turning statistics off takes effect at once and removes the number kept for the sitting. You can also delete every cookie of this site in your browser’s settings; the site then simply asks again.
Who is responsible
UV ResearchLabs, established in Ireland, operates the site and is the controller for the little personal data involved. The privacy policy describes everything else the site does with data, your rights, and the authority you can complain to.
Questions about this document can be sent to support@uvpdftool.com.