PDF security and privacy tools

Passwords: Protect PDF and Unlock PDF

Protect PDF adds AES-256 encryption using QPDF in your browser. You can set an open password, which is required to view the file, and an owner password with permissions for printing, copying and editing. The two do different things: an open password stops people reading the file at all, while permission restrictions only ask cooperating PDF software to behave, so they discourage casual copying rather than prevent it.

Unlock PDF removes protection from files you are entitled to open. Enter the password to get an unprotected copy, or remove owner restrictions from a file that already opens without one. It does not guess or crack unknown passwords. We cannot recover a lost password either, so keep it somewhere safe before you protect an important file.

Cleaning: metadata, hidden content and redaction

Every PDF carries document properties such as title, author, creator software and dates, plus an XMP metadata stream. PDF Metadata Editor lets you view and change these fields, and Remove PDF Metadata clears them in one step. Neither changes what is visible on the pages. Sanitize PDF goes further in one click: it removes metadata, embedded JavaScript, file attachments and open actions, and can also remove annotations, with a report of what was taken out.

None of these tools removes text or images that appear on the page. If a name or number must not be readable at all, that is a job for Redact PDF in the editing category, which burns black boxes into re-rendered page images. A sensible order for a sensitive document is to redact first, then sanitize, then protect with a password.

• Stop strangers from opening the file: Protect PDF with an open password.
• Open a file whose password you know without typing it each time: Unlock PDF.
• Hide the author and software details: Remove PDF Metadata.
• Fix a wrong title or author: PDF Metadata Editor.
• Strip scripts, attachments and metadata in one go: Sanitize PDF.

What browser processing means for privacy

Passwords and files never leave your device: the encryption, decryption and cleaning all happen in your browser, and the results are created in memory and downloaded. That matters here more than anywhere, because a security tool that uploaded your file would defeat its purpose.

Two limits are worth knowing. A protected file is only as strong as its password, so avoid short or guessable ones. And before you send a cleaned file, open it and check the result: Sanitize PDF clears the file's properties, but it does not change visible page content, and Protect PDF encrypts a copy, leaving your original unprotected.