Privacy policy

In short

• Your files never leave your device. Our tools run in your browser; we never receive, see or store your documents or photos.
• We count page visits and tool uses as daily totals only - no cookies, no IP addresses, no visitor IDs.
• If you write to us, we keep your name, email and message so we can reply.
• We don't sell personal information.
• The site may show ads from Google. If it does, Google and its partners may use cookies, as described below, and you can turn personalised ads off.

1. Your files

When you choose a file in one of our tools, your browser reads it and does all the work - converting, merging, compressing - in your device's memory. The result is handed straight back to you as a download. Your files, their names and their contents are never sent to our servers or to anyone else. Technically, every page is locked by a security policy that stops it from sending data to other websites, and our automated tests check on every change that no file data leaves the page.

This applies to every tool on this site: document and image processing happens in your browser. The site still makes network requests for its own pages, code and assets, and for the services described in this policy - usage counts, tool switches and the contact form - but none of these carry your files or anything from them.

When you take photos with Scan to PDF, your phone's camera app hands each photo to the page on your device; the site never controls your camera. When you press Start over or close the tab, everything is cleared from memory. Nothing is saved between visits.

2. Information we collect

Usage counts. When a page opens, or a tool finishes, the page sends us only the page or tool name and whether the tool worked. Our hosting provider adds the visitor's country, worked out from the connection. We store daily totals - for example, “Merge PDF, used 40 times from Sri Lanka on 16 October” - and nothing that could identify you. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, nothing is counted.

Contact messages. If you use our contact form, we store your name, email address, the topic you choose, your message and your country. To limit spam, a scrambled (salted, one-way hashed) form of your connection address is kept for one hour and then deleted.

Technical information our hosting provider handles. Like every website, our pages are delivered by a hosting provider (Cloudflare), which receives the technical details every web request carries - such as IP address, browser type and the page requested - to deliver the site and protect it from attacks. We don't store these details ourselves.

3. How we use information

• Usage counts: to see which tools are useful, find problems, and plan improvements.
• Contact messages: to answer you, and for nothing else.
• Technical information: to deliver the site, keep it secure and prevent abuse.

Where data-protection laws such as the GDPR apply, we rely on our legitimate interests (running, securing and improving a free service, and replying to messages you send us) and, for personalised advertising, on your consent.

4. Cookies

SentrueFile itself sets no cookies for visitors and uses none to count visits. (Advertising cookies are covered in the next section.)

If you choose a language, or dismiss the offer to switch language, your browser remembers that choice in its own storage (local storage) so you aren't asked again. It stays on your device and is never sent to us.

So the site opens and the tools work without a connection, your browser also keeps a copy of SentrueFile's own pages and code. It never includes your files, and you can clear it in your browser settings.

5. Advertising

To keep SentrueFile free, the site may show ads provided by Google AdSense. Ads are never placed next to the upload or download buttons, and your files are never available to advertisers - they never leave your device. When ads are shown:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your previous visits to this website 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/or other sites on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info (or youronlinechoices.eu in Europe).
• Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will be asked for consent, through a Google-certified consent tool, before personalised ads are shown. Without consent, only non-personalised ads are shown.
• Learn more in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

6. Who we share information with

We don't sell personal information. We use these service providers to run the site:

• Cloudflare, Inc. - hosting, content delivery, security, and the database that stores usage totals and contact messages. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• Google - advertising, when ads are shown. See Google's privacy policy.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of users and the service.

7. Where information is processed

Our service providers operate worldwide, so information may be processed in countries other than yours. They protect it with safeguards required by law, such as standard contractual clauses.

8. How long we keep information

• Your files: never received, so never kept.
• Usage totals: kept as anonymous statistics; they contain no personal information.
• Contact messages: kept while we deal with your message, and deleted within 12 months after that - sooner if you ask.
• Spam-limit hashes: deleted after one hour.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live - for example under the EU and UK GDPR, Sri Lanka's Personal Data Protection Act, or US state laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act - you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal information we hold about you, to object to or limit its use, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a data-protection authority. In practice, the only personal information we can hold about you is a contact message you sent. To use any of these rights, contact us using the details below. We won't treat you differently for doing so.

We don't sell personal information. If ads are personalised, California law may consider this “sharing”; you can opt out through Google Ads Settings, and we honour Global Privacy Control signals.

10. Children

SentrueFile is a general-audience service and is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Security

The site is served only over encrypted connections (HTTPS), with strict security policies on every page. Access to our dashboard and database is limited to authorised staff and protected by email-based sign-in. No system is perfectly secure, but the most sensitive things you handle with SentrueFile - your files - never reach us at all.

12. Changes to this policy

We will update this page if our practices change - for example, before ads are first shown - and change the “Last updated” date at the top. Significant changes will be highlighted on the site.

13. Contact

For questions about this policy or your information, contact Sentrue Labs: