PDF Security and Privacy Tools

PDFSahl’s PDF security and privacy tools run in your browser, so your file is never uploaded to a server. They cover what you do before you send a file or after you receive one: find out what it carries that the screen doesn’t show, take out what shouldn’t reach anyone else, and lock it with a password or open it with one you know. Free, with no sign-up and no limits.

Tools in this group

Start with Check PDF for hidden data. It lists the older saved versions inside the file, attachments, form answers, notes and hidden pages, removes the kinds you choose and checks the new file again. If something on the page itself must not be read, such as an ID or account number, Redact PDF removes it from the file under a black box instead of only covering it.

Edit PDF metadata changes or clears the author, title and program name a file reports about itself. When the whole file is confidential, Protect PDF adds a password with AES-256 encryption, and Unlock PDF removes a password you know so the file opens everywhere.

One honest limit: no tool can promise that a file holds nothing else, so ours say what they checked and what they found. And if a file is digitally signed, saving a changed copy makes the signature invalid, so keep the original.

Common mistakes

Covering a number with a black box in an ordinary editor. The box hides it on screen, but the number is still underneath and can be copied or found by searching. Redact PDF removes the text and images under the box from the file itself, then checks the result.

Sending the password in the same email. Protect PDF locks a file with AES-256, but the lock is only as good as the way you share the password, so send it by phone or another chat.

Forgetting what a file says about itself. A PDF keeps an author and a title that the reader may see. How to change the author of a PDF shows where to find them and how to clear them with Edit PDF metadata. What sits deeper, such as older versions and attachments, shows up in Check PDF for hidden data.

Assuming a deleted page is gone. Some programs leave a removed page inside the file, as are deleted PDF pages really gone? explains.

Guides

If a bank statement or a salary slip asks for a password, what is my bank statement PDF password explains where it usually comes from and what to do when it fails.