Privacy policy
What happens to your files (nothing leaves your device), what little this site stores and what advertising partners may collect.
The short version
Every tool on this site runs in your browser. The files you give them are read from your own device by code running in your tab, processed there and handed back to you. They’re never sent to us. We have no server that receives files, so there is nothing for us to store, sell, share or lose.
You can check this rather than take our word for it. Open your browser’s developer tools and watch the network tab while you use a tool: no file is uploaded. Or open a tool, switch off your internet connection and use it anyway. Once its code has loaded, it keeps working, because there was never anything on the other end.
That covers the tools. The site is funded by advertising and advertising partners may collect data of their own. Most of this page is about that distinction.
What the tools do with your files
Nothing leaves your device. That holds for every tool, including the ones where you might expect a server to be involved:
- Images, conversions and compression. Decoded, changed and re-encoded in your browser’s memory, then offered back as a download.
- PDF tools. Merging, splitting, compressing, signing, numbering, watermarking and extracting all happen in the tab. Your signature, whether drawn, typed or uploaded, exists only while the page is open and isn’t saved anywhere.
- Data tools. CSV, Excel and JSON files are parsed and rewritten locally. Nothing you paste into a text box is transmitted.
- Image to text and remove background. The recognition engine and the background model are downloaded to your browser and run there. Your image is never sent anywhere to be analysed, which is how most sites offering these features work.
- QR code scanner. If you choose Use camera, your browser asks for permission first. Video frames are read in the tab to look for a code and are never recorded or transmitted. The camera switches off as soon as a code is found or you press Stop. A scanned link is never opened automatically; you decide.
- QR code generator. The code is drawn in your browser. A WiFi password or contact card you enter isn’t sent to us.
- Redaction and metadata removal. Done locally. The output is a new file; the original is untouched on your device.
When you close or leave the page, the files and results held in its memory are discarded.
What is downloaded to your browser
Some tools need larger pieces of code and fetch them from this site the first time you use them: the HEIC decoder, the PDF engine, the spreadsheet reader, the text recognition engine with its language data and the background removal model. This is code and data arriving, not your files leaving. To save you downloading them again, your browser keeps the text recognition language data and the background model in its own storage (IndexedDB and Cache Storage). You can remove them at any time by clearing this site’s data in your browser settings.
What we collect
Server logs. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, records standard request information when your browser loads a page: IP address, browser user agent, the page requested, the referring page and a timestamp. This is used to keep the site running and secure and to investigate abuse. We don’t use it to build profiles of individuals.
One preference on your device. If you choose dark mode, that choice is stored in your browser’s local storage so the site remembers it. It is never transmitted.
Clipboard. Copy buttons write to your clipboard when you press them. Tools that accept a pasted image read the clipboard only when you paste.
Email. If you email us, we receive whatever you send and use it to reply.
We don’t offer accounts, newsletters or forms that collect personal information.
Advertising
This site is supported by advertising. Advertising partners are independent companies. When they serve an ad they may set cookies or use similar technologies to measure performance and, depending on your region and your consent, to show ads relevant to your interests.
That collection is theirs, not ours. We don’t receive your browsing history from them and we have nothing about your files to give them, because we never have your files.
Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this and other sites. You can opt out of personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings or opt out of third party vendors’ use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info. Google explains how it uses data from sites that show its ads.
Cookies
Strictly necessary cookies may be set by our hosting provider to protect the site from abuse. They don’t identify you and aren’t used for advertising.
Advertising and measurement cookies are set by advertising partners. In regions that require consent first, including the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, you’re asked through a consent message on this site before any are set and you can change your choice at any time from the same message.
Blocking or deleting cookies in your browser doesn’t stop any tool from working. None of them rely on cookies.
Your rights
European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland. You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its processing and to data portability. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. Our lawful bases are legitimate interests for server logs and security and consent for advertising and measurement cookies where consent is required.
California and other US states with privacy laws. You have the right to know what personal information is collected and how it is used, to request deletion or correction and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We don’t sell personal information for money. Some advertising cookie activity may count as “sharing” for cross-context behavioural advertising. You can opt out through the privacy message on this site or with the Google and aboutads.info links above.
We’ll not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights. To make a request, email the address below and say what you’re asking for. We may need to ask for information that lets us find the relevant records.
Children
This site isn’t directed at children under 13 and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we’ll delete it.
Retention
Server logs are kept only as long as needed for security and operations. Emails are kept as long as needed to deal with what they’re about. Advertising partners set their own retention periods, described in their own policies.
International transfers
Our hosting and advertising partners operate globally, so data such as server logs may be processed outside your country, including in the United States. Where the law requires it, those transfers rely on safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses.
Changes
We’ll update this page when our practices change and move the effective date at the top. Material changes will be stated on the page, not made quietly.
Contact
Questions about this page or requests under it, go to contact@ideaincubator.co. Idea Incubator, LLC operates Utility Mule and these terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, United States.