Privacy
PDF Bench — nothing leaves your browser
On PDF Bench — Merge, reorder, sign, strip metadata — the quick fixes, done on your machine.
The PDFs you most need to fix are the sensitive ones: the signed contract, the passport scan, the tax form, the medical letter. Online PDF tools ask you to upload exactly those files to their server. PDF Bench opens them in your browser and never sends them anywhere.
The upload you should not make
Every 'merge PDF online' and 'sign PDF free' site works the same way: your document goes up to their machine, gets processed, and comes back down. For a meeting agenda, fine. For a contract with your counterparty's terms, or a scan of your ID, you have just handed a stranger's server a copy.
The Bench removes the upload from the sentence. The file is opened by code running in your own browser tab.
How it behaves
No account. No cloud. No third-party service in the middle. The pdf.js and pdf-lib engines that do the work are inlined into the Knife itself, so the whole operation happens on your device.
You can prove it: open your browser's network panel, merge a file, and watch nothing leave.
Metadata is a privacy tool, not a footnote
Strip-metadata is here because the quiet fields inside a PDF — author, producer software, timestamps, sometimes a file path that names your computer — are a privacy leak that rides along on documents people send every day. Clearing them before the file goes out is the kind of hygiene a private bench should make easy.
What the file avoids
- No upload.Your document is never sent to a server to be processed.
- No account.Nothing to log into, nothing to breach.
- No analytics.We do not know what you merged, signed, or opened.
- No residue.There is no server-side copy to be retained, subpoenaed, or leaked.
Questions people ask
How do I know the file is not uploaded?
Open your browser's developer tools, go to the Network tab, and run a merge or a sign. You will see no request carrying your document. Offline confirms it too: unplug the network and the Bench still works.
Can Offline.Ltd see my documents?
No. The Bench makes no request to us, ever. The engines that read and write the PDF are inside the Knife on your machine.
Is signing here as private as printing and scanning?
More private — there is no printer memory, no scanner cloud, and no email round-trip. The signature is placed on your device and the file is yours the whole time.
The most private way to fix a document is to never upload it.