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Security & Privacy

Check a PDF for Personal Information

Check a PDF for personal information before it goes out: the ID numbers, emails and card numbers on its pages, plus hidden author names, comments, scripts and attachments. Then save a clean copy.

PDF Privacy Scanner

Settings appear once you add a PDF.

Remove metadata and earlier versions
Remove scripts and automatic actions
Remove attached files
Remove comments and review notes

Ctrl + Enter runs it ·

Bytes sent anywhere: 0 B

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  • 100% private Your PDF never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
  • No limits No file-size cap, no watermark, no sign-up and no daily quota. Free.
  • Works offline Once this page has loaded, the tool keeps working without a connection.

How to check a PDF for personal information

  1. Add your PDF: Drop the PDF you’re about to send.

  2. Check the settings: Read the report: personal data on the pages, and what’s hidden in the file — metadata, comments, scripts, attachments, old versions.

  3. Save the result: Save a clean copy with the hidden parts removed. For personal data printed on the pages, redact it.

Why it doesn’t upload

A privacy check that uploads your file is a privacy problem in itself. This one reads the PDF in your browser, and the report never leaves your screen.

Check it in your browser’s Network tab

Worth knowing

  • Only text the PDF contains can be checked for personal data; scanned pages need OCR first.
  • The clean copy removes hidden data but not what’s printed on the pages — use redaction for that.
  • Pattern matching is a strong first pass, not a guarantee. Read the result before sending anything sensitive.

Under the hood

What happens to your file

The scan reads what a PDF carries besides its pages: metadata in the Info dictionary and XMP, attached files, JavaScript, form data, comments, hidden layers, and personal details in the text itself found with pattern matching. It reports each finding and can write a clean copy with the hidden parts removed.

Runs on pdf.jspdf-libqpdf

Reference: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

Why check a PDF for personal information before it goes out?

Most leaks from PDFs aren’t hacks. They’re a tender with the author’s name in its properties, a contract with old tracked comments still attached, a form that quietly carries a spreadsheet inside it. The privacy scanner reads the whole file and lists what it gives away: personal data on the pages, and the hidden data around them.

It runs entirely in your browser, which is the only sensible way to check a file for secrets — you don’t send the secrets somewhere to find out whether they’re there.

When to run a PDF privacy check

  • Before posting a PDF publicly

    Reports, menus and brochures can carry the author’s name, internal comments or file paths.

  • Before sending a document to a client

    Find leftover review notes, hidden attachments or scripts before they do.

  • When you’ve received a strange PDF

    See whether it carries JavaScript or embedded files before you open it in a desktop reader.

  • Data-protection reviews

    List the emails, phone and ID numbers a file contains before deciding how to share it.

  • Job and visa applications

    Check what your CV or supporting documents say about you beyond what’s printed.

Tips for a clean, safe PDF

  1. The clean copy removes hidden data, not what’s printed on the pages. For that, redact or auto-redact.
  2. Scanned pages can’t be checked for personal data until they have text; run OCR PDF first if that matters.
  3. Remove attached files unless the recipient needs them — they’re easy to forget and can hold anything.
  4. A digitally signed PDF loses its valid signature when cleaned. Clean before signing.
  5. Read the result as a strong first pass, not a guarantee, and look through anything sensitive yourself.

Questions

What can a PDF reveal without me knowing?

Your name and company in the metadata, the software and computer that made it, reviewers’ names on comments, earlier versions with deleted text, attached files, and text placed off the visible page. None of it shows when you look at the pages.

Is my PDF safe to share?

Scan it here. If the report shows nothing in red, the hidden parts are clean — then check that what’s printed on the pages is what you mean to send.

How do I remove what the scan finds?

Hidden data goes with Save a clean copy. Personal data printed on the pages needs Auto-Redact or Redact PDF, which remove it from the page itself.

Why do old versions matter?

Many editors save changes by appending them, keeping the earlier file intact inside. A deleted paragraph can still be sitting in there. The clean copy rewrites the file without them.

Read more about this

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