Privacy Policy

1. Scope and who is responsible

This policy explains how PDFeather handles personal data on pdfeather.com, api.pdfeather.com, the dashboard, and the API. It applies to visitors, account holders, and developers calling the API.

The controller for that data is [Company legal name], [Registered address]. For privacy questions and requests, write to privacy@pdfeather.com.

There is one important split. For your account (your email address, keys, ledger, and job history) we are the controller and this policy governs. For personal data inside the documents you send us to render, you are the controller and we act as your processor, on your instructions only, under the terms of our Terms of Service.

2. What we collect

Account data

Your email address, how you signed in (magic link or Google), the Google account identifier and email address if you use Google sign-in, your plan, and your account settings.

API keys

We store the key prefix and a SHA-256 hash of the key. The full key is shown to you once at creation and is never stored, so we cannot recover it, read it, or resend it.

Billing data and ledger

Your subscription status, your billing country and any VAT number for tax calculation, invoices, and a ledger of transactions: top-ups, promotional bonus credit, spend, overage, and refunds. Card details are entered with Stripe and never reach our servers.

Render job metadata

For each job we record the type of operation, its status, how long it took, what it cost, and an error code if it failed. This is metadata about the job, not the contents of your document.

Technical and email data

Request metadata such as IP address, timestamp, and user agent, processed for rate limiting, abuse prevention, and security logging. Delivery status for the transactional emails we send you, such as sign-in links and receipts.

3. What we do not collect or keep

• We do not store your PDFs. Rendered output is streamed back in the API response and is not written to durable storage.
• The source HTML you submit is discarded once the render completes. Where you give us a URL, we fetch the page to render it and do not keep a copy.
• We do not run advertising or cross-site tracking technology, do not sell personal data, and do not share it with ad networks or data brokers.
• We never receive or store full card numbers; Stripe handles those and shares only the limited information we need to show and reconcile a charge.
• We do not ask for special category data such as health or biometric information. Please do not put it in a support email.

4. Why we use data, and our legal bases

Under the GDPR and UK GDPR we rely on the following legal bases:

• Running your account, authenticating you, issuing keys, rendering documents, and tracking your balance: performance of a contract, Article 6(1)(b).
• Taking payment, maintaining the ledger, issuing invoices, and applying VAT: performance of a contract and compliance with a legal obligation, Article 6(1)(b) and 6(1)(c).
• Sending transactional email: sign-in links, receipts, quota and payment notices, incident notifications, and notice of changes to these policies: performance of a contract, and our legitimate interests in keeping you informed, Article 6(1)(f).
• Keeping the platform secure, enforcing rate limits, and detecting or investigating abuse and fraud: our legitimate interests in a service that stays up and is not misused, Article 6(1)(f).
• Understanding aggregate usage such as request volume and error rates to improve reliability: legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(f).
• Meeting tax, accounting, and other legal obligations, and responding to lawful requests: legal obligation, Article 6(1)(c).

Where we ever ask for consent, for example to send occasional product email, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting anything we did before you withdrew it.

5. Sub-processors

We use a small number of providers to run the service. Each is bound by a data processing agreement and may only process data on our instructions.

• Cloudflare: hosting, CDN, and compute for the website, the API, and the rendering workers.
• Neon: the managed PostgreSQL database holding accounts, hashed keys, the ledger, and job metadata.
• Stripe: payment processing, subscription billing, and tax calculation.
• Resend: delivery of transactional email such as sign-in links, receipts, and service notices.
• Google: sign-in only, and only if you choose Google as your authentication method.

We keep this list current. If we add or replace a sub-processor in a way that materially affects your data, we will update this page and, where required, tell you by email before the change takes effect.

6. How long we keep data

• Rendered documents and source HTML: not retained. They exist only for the duration of the request.
• Account data: for as long as your account is open, then deleted or anonymised within 30 days of closure, apart from records we are required to keep.
• API key records, meaning the prefix and hash: until you delete the key or close the account.
• Render job metadata: while your account is open, so that you can audit your spend. It is deleted with the account.
• Transactions, invoices, and tax records: for as long as tax and accounting law requires us to keep them, which is longer than the life of the account.
• Security and request logs: a short period for abuse investigation and incident response, after which they are deleted or reduced to aggregate counts.

7. International transfers

Our providers operate globally, so personal data may be processed outside the EEA and the UK, including in the United States. Cloudflare serves and renders requests from infrastructure near the caller, which means the processing location depends on where the request comes from.

Where data leaves the EEA or the UK, we rely on an appropriate transfer mechanism: an adequacy decision where one covers the provider, or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses with the UK addendum where it does not, along with supplementary measures such as encryption in transit and at rest. Write to privacy@pdfeather.com for details of the safeguards that apply to a specific provider.

8. Security

• Traffic to the website and the API is encrypted in transit with TLS.
• API keys are stored only as a prefix and a SHA-256 hash, so a database copy does not yield working keys.
• Access to production systems is limited to the people who need it for their work.
• Not storing documents removes the largest category of risk in a rendering service entirely: there is no archive of your PDFs to breach.

No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your key or account has been compromised, or you have found a vulnerability, tell us at support@pdfeather.com. If a personal data breach occurs, we will notify the competent supervisory authority within 72 hours where the law requires it, and tell affected users without undue delay where the breach is likely to present a high risk to them.

9. Your rights

If you are in the EEA or the UK you have the following rights, and we extend them to all users as a matter of practice:

• Access: a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification: correction of data that is wrong or incomplete.
• Erasure: deletion of your data, subject to records we must keep for tax and accounting.
• Restriction: a pause on processing while a dispute about accuracy or legitimacy is resolved.
• Portability: your account data and ledger in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection: to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
• Withdrawal of consent: where processing rests on consent.

Use the dashboard where the action is available there, or email privacy@pdfeather.com. We reply within one month, and will tell you if a complex request needs up to two months more. We may ask you to confirm control of the account email address before we act. Requests are free unless they are manifestly unfounded or excessive.

You can also complain to a supervisory authority. That is the data protection authority in the EU or EEA country where you live or work or where the issue arose, or the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK. We would rather you told us first at privacy@pdfeather.com so we can try to fix it.

We do not make automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Automated rate limiting and fraud checks can block a request; email us and a person will look at it.

10. Cookies and browser storage

We set strictly necessary cookies only: a session cookie that keeps you signed in and a token that protects forms against cross-site request forgery. Your theme preference is kept in your browser's local storage and never sent to us.

There are no advertising cookies, no cross-site trackers, and no third-party analytics cookies on this site. Because everything we set is strictly necessary for a service you asked for, we do not show a consent banner. Stripe and Google may set their own cookies on their checkout and sign-in pages, which their privacy policies govern.

You can clear cookies in your browser at any time. Doing so signs you out.

11. Children

PDFeather is a developer tool and is not directed at children. You must be at least 16 to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16, and if we learn that we have, we delete it. If you believe a child has given us data, write to privacy@pdfeather.com.

12. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when the service or our providers change. The date at the top shows the current version. For material changes we give at least 30 days' notice by email to the address on your account, or before the change takes effect if that is sooner. Continuing to use the service after that means you accept the updated policy.

13. How to contact us

[Company legal name], [Registered address]. Our representative for data protection purposes in the EU and the UK, where one is required, is [EU/UK representative].

• Privacy questions and data subject requests: privacy@pdfeather.com
• Legal notices: legal@pdfeather.com
• Account, billing, and security reports: support@pdfeather.com

See also our Terms of Service and Refund Policy.