Privacy Policy

About this Privacy Policy

PDF Tools is an Android application that helps you create, merge, compress, split, password-protect, import, preview, share, delete, and organise PDF files, and recognise text in images and scanned pages, directly on your device.

This Privacy Policy explains what the app does with your information. For what each tool does, see the features page; for who builds and publishes the app, see About PDF Tools.

App name: PDF Tools
Package name: com.shahbaz.pdftools
Platform: Android
Developer: Syed Shahbaz Hussain

The short version

Every PDF and OCR feature runs on your device. Your documents, images, and recognised text are never sent to our servers.

Two things leave your device. The first is the Help & Support form, and only when you fill it in and tap send. The second is a small set of diagnostics that Google ML Kit, the text-recognition component used for OCR, sends to Google. Those diagnostics never include your images, your PDFs, or recognised text. See Third-party components.

The current version:

• Does not require account creation or login
• Does not show ads
• Does not include subscriptions or in-app purchases
• Does not use analytics or crash-reporting services of our own
• Does not use a server to create, merge, compress, split, protect, or read your PDF files
• Does not upload your PDF files, images, or recognised text
• Does not sell personal data

What stays on your device, and what leaves it

This is the most important distinction in this policy, so it is stated before the detail.

Images and PDF files you select for a PDF or OCR operation are read locally so the app can work on them. They are not uploaded to our servers, and they are not sent to any third party for processing.

What each feature does with your files

Every feature below reads only the files you select, and writes its result into the app's own private storage area on your device.

• Image to PDF. Reads the images you pick, compresses them at the quality you choose, and builds a PDF.
• Import PDF. Copies a PDF you pick into the app's private storage so it can be managed in My Files.
• Merge PDF. Reads the PDFs you pick and writes one combined PDF.
• Compress PDF. Reads one PDF you pick and writes a reduced copy as a new file.
• Split PDF. Reads one PDF you pick and writes each of its pages as a separate document.
• Password protection. Encrypts a PDF you pick with AES-256. See Password protection.
• OCR. Recognises text in images or scanned PDF pages on the device. See Text recognition.
• Preview, share, delete, and My Files. Opens a document for viewing, hands a file to the Android share sheet when you choose, removes a file, and lists the documents the app manages.
• Contact Support. The only feature that transmits anything. See Help & Support requests.

Android permissions and how files are selected

PDF Tools does not ask for broad access to your photo library, your media library, or device storage. Instead, you choose each file through the Android system picker, and the app receives only the items you picked.

The app's Android manifest explicitly blocks these permissions:

• CAMERA
• RECORD_AUDIO
• READ_MEDIA_IMAGES
• READ_MEDIA_VIDEO
• READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
• WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

In practice this means PDF Tools cannot take photos, cannot record audio, cannot browse your gallery, and cannot read files you have not handed to it. It has no way to see a document until you select that document yourself.

How OCR works

OCR recognises text in images and in scanned PDF pages. It runs on your device using the app's built-in text-recognition component, described in Third-party components. The recognition model ships inside the app, so OCR works without an internet connection. Your images, PDFs, and recognised text are never sent anywhere for recognition. Google ML Kit does send Google a small set of diagnostics about the component itself, described in Third-party components.

• The images and PDFs you select for OCR are not uploaded to our servers, and neither is the recognised text.
• Recognised text stays on the results screen unless you deliberately copy or share it.
• To read a PDF, the app renders each page to a temporary image in its private cache, recognises the text, and deletes that temporary image immediately afterwards.
• When you share recognised text, the app writes it to a temporary text file in its private cache, hands it to the Android share sheet, and deletes the temporary file afterwards.

Copying text. If you tap copy, the recognised text is placed on your device's system clipboard. Once text is on the clipboard, how it is stored, synced, or offered to other apps is governed by your device, your keyboard, any clipboard manager you use, and whichever app you paste into. That behaviour is outside the app's control.

How password protection works

Password protection encrypts a PDF you select using AES-256, following the PDF standard security handler defined in ISO 32000-2 (Revision 6). The selected PDF is read and encrypted entirely on your device.

• Your password is used only to produce the encrypted PDF, while the app is doing that work.
• The app does not store your password, does not upload it, does not log it, and does not keep a copy anywhere.
• There is no recovery mechanism. Neither we nor the app can unlock a protected PDF or recover a forgotten password.

What PDF Tools stores on your device

All of the following is stored in the app's own private storage on your device. None of it is transmitted to us.

Clearing history, deleting files, and removing app data

These are four different actions with different effects. The distinction matters, so it is spelled out.

Files you exported or shared to another app, or saved elsewhere on your device, are outside the app's storage and are not affected by any of these actions.

None of these actions deletes a support request you have already sent. To request that, see Deleting support data.

Information you send when you contact us

PDF Tools includes a Contact Support form you can use to ask a question, suggest a feature, report a bug, or send feedback. Using it is entirely optional. If you never open it, nothing in this section applies to you.

When you tap send, the form is transmitted over an encrypted HTTPS connection to our support service. This is exactly what it contains:

About the installation identifier

The installation identifier is generated at random on your device and stored in the device's secure storage. It is not an advertising identifier, and it is not your device IMEI, serial number, or MAC address. It is not used to build a profile of you or to track you across other apps or websites.

When a support request reaches our service, the installation identifier is converted into an irreversible cryptographic hash and only that hash is used, to count requests and apply limits. The identifier itself is not written into the support email we receive, and it is not stored in its original form.

What our service records

Our support service does not run a database of support requests. Your request is delivered to us as an email. Alongside that:

• Network address. Your IP address is read from the incoming request so that request limits can be applied. It is immediately converted into an irreversible cryptographic hash. The raw IP address is not stored by our service and is not written to our application logs.
• Request limits. Only hashed values are stored for this purpose, in a short-lived store. Those entries expire automatically, at the latest 24 hours after they are created.
• Duplicate suppression. A hash of your request is briefly held, for 10 minutes, so an accidental double submission does not reach us twice.
• Application logs. Our service writes technical log entries containing a request identifier, the event, a status code, how long the request took, and hashed values. Your email address, your message, your attachment, your raw IP address, and your raw installation identifier are deliberately excluded from these logs.
• Attachment handling. An image you attach is re-encoded on our service before it reaches the support mailbox. Re-encoding discards embedded metadata such as EXIF and GPS location that may have been present in the original file.
• Infrastructure records. Our hosting and email providers operate their own network and security logging, which is outside our control and may include network addresses, timestamps, and request headers. See Who processes support data.

Who processes support data

We use the following providers to receive and answer support requests. They act on our behalf and only for this purpose.

We do not sell this information, and we do not pass it to advertising or analytics providers.

International transfers

These providers operate infrastructure in multiple countries. Information you send through Help & Support may therefore be processed or stored outside the country you live in.

How long support information is kept

The short-lived values used for request limits and duplicate suppression expire automatically, as described in Help & Support requests, at the latest 24 hours after they are created.

Your support request itself is an email in our support mailbox. We keep it while we handle your request and while any follow-up is ongoing.

We delete it once it is no longer needed for that purpose, which means once your request is resolved and any follow-up has ended, unless we still need it to meet a legal obligation. There is no fixed retention period because there is no database of support requests: deleting a request means deleting that email and any attachment from the mailbox.

Uninstalling the app or clearing its storage removes app data from your device. It does not delete a support request you have already sent, because that request is an email we have already received.

Asking us to delete your support information

You can ask us to delete the support information associated with you. Email support@syedshahbazhussain.com and include:

• The support request ID shown in the app after you sent the request, if you still have it. The app keeps the ID of your most recent request on the Contact Support screen.
• The email address you used in the original request.

We match your deletion request against the email address the original request came from. If you write from a different address, or cannot supply the request ID, we may not be able to identify which messages are yours, and we may ask you for more detail before acting. We will not delete a third party's messages on an unverified request.

We do not operate a database of support requests, so deletion means deleting the relevant email and any attachment from our support mailbox.

Some records may survive a deletion request. Hashed values used for request limits and duplicate suppression cannot be linked back to you and expire on their own within 24 hours. Platform and security logs kept by the providers listed in Who processes support data are retained under those providers' own schedules and are outside our control.

Third-party software in the app

The current version of PDF Tools contains no advertising, crash-reporting, payment, or subscription SDKs, and we do not run analytics of our own.

It does include third-party software components that carry out work on your device. The most significant is Google ML Kit Text Recognition, which performs the OCR described in Text recognition. The recognition model is bundled inside the app, so text recognition runs locally and does not transmit your images, your PDFs, or the recognised text.

Diagnostics sent by Google ML Kit

ML Kit sends Google a limited set of diagnostic and usage information so that Google can measure how ML Kit performs and fix problems with it. According to Google's ML Kit data disclosure, this covers:

• Device information, such as the manufacturer, model, and operating system version
• App information, such as the package name and app version
• A per-installation identifier that is not intended to identify you
• Performance metrics, error codes, and the type of event, such as starting the component or running recognition
• The component's version and configuration, and the size of its input and output

It does not include the content of your images, your PDFs, or the recognised text. Google states that it sends this information over HTTPS and does not transfer it to third parties. It goes to Google, not to us, and we cannot see it. Google's handling of it is governed by Google's own privacy policy.

This information is declared in the Google Play Data safety section for PDF Tools, under App info and performance, and Device or other IDs.

The app also uses open-source libraries for building, reading, and encrypting PDF files, and for the app's interface. These run on your device and do not send your content anywhere.

If another third-party service that transmits data is added in the future, this Privacy Policy and the Google Play Data safety form will be updated before that release.

What PDF Tools never collects

Whether or not you contact support, PDF Tools does not collect:

• Your PDF files, documents, images, or recognised text, uploaded to a server
• Your PDF passwords
• Phone number
• Precise or GPS location
• Contacts
• Payment information
• Account or login information
• Text messages or chats stored on your device
• Device advertising ID
• Device IMEI, serial number, or MAC address
• A list of the other apps installed on your device
• Your photo or media library

Sharing you control

PDF Tools does not sell personal data, and does not share your PDF files or documents with third parties.

When you choose to share a PDF or recognised text, the Android share sheet lets you send it to another app. You control that action, and the receiving app's own privacy practices then apply.

Support information is handled only by the providers listed in Who processes support data.

How information is protected

Processing files on your device is the main privacy protection in PDF Tools: information that is never transmitted cannot be intercepted in transit or exposed by a server.

For support requests, the connection from the app to our service uses HTTPS, and the connection from our service to the mail server uses TLS 1.2 or higher with certificate validation. Identifiers used for request limits are hashed with a keyed cryptographic hash before storage.

We do not make claims about how our providers encrypt data at rest, because that is determined by those providers rather than by us.

No method of electronic transmission or storage can be guaranteed completely secure. Please avoid putting sensitive personal details in a support message or attachment, and be careful when sharing documents with other apps.

Information about children

PDF Tools is not directed to children, and the app does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

If you believe a child has sent us personal information through the support form, contact us so we can review and delete it.

No accounts, and no account deletion process

PDF Tools does not offer account creation or login, so there is no account to delete. If account functionality is added in the future, this policy will be updated and an account deletion method will be provided.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. Changes are posted on this page with a new Last updated date.

If analytics, crash reporting, ads, subscriptions, cloud backup, accounts, or server-side processing is added later, this policy and the Google Play Data safety form will be updated before the related app release.

Privacy questions

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, or want to exercise any of the rights described above, contact us. For product problems, the support page lists the usual causes first.