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Privacy
PDF Overlay processes your documents entirely in your browser. Here is exactly what that means, and what is and is not collected.
Your documents are never uploaded. PDF Overlay opens, edits and saves your files entirely inside your browser, on your own device. No copy is ever sent to us or to anyone else — there is no server that could receive one. Nothing you stamp, and no font or image you add, leaves your machine.
Your documents
When you choose a file, your browser reads it into memory on your own device. Every subsequent step — rendering the preview, drawing the overlay, producing the stamped output — runs as code in that browser tab. The saved file is generated locally and handed to your browser’s normal download mechanism.
We never receive your document. Not a copy, not a thumbnail, not a filename, not the number of pages. There is no upload endpoint in this product.
The same is true of anything you add to a document: images you place, and font files you upload for use in a stamp.
What stays on your device
A small amount of state is stored locally so the tool remembers your preferences between visits. All of it lives in your own browser’s storage, on your device, and none of it is transmitted anywhere.
| What | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Saved stamp configurations | localStorage | so you can reuse a stamp on the next document |
| Recently used colours | localStorage | so the colour shortcuts are useful |
| Your default font choice | localStorage | so new documents start where you left off |
| Fonts you upload | IndexedDB | so an uploaded font survives a reload |
| Your analytics choice | localStorage | so the banner is asked once, not on every page |
Clearing your browser’s site data removes all of it. There is no account, so there is no copy of any of it anywhere else, and nothing to request the deletion of.
Your documents are not in that list, and never are. They exist only in memory while the tab is open.
Analytics and cookies
This site uses Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages are useful. It is off until you say otherwise.
- Nothing loads until you accept. On your first visit a banner asks. Until you press Accept, no Google script is fetched, no request is made to any Google analytics domain, and no cookie is set. This is stricter than the usual arrangement, where the tag loads immediately and is merely told not to store anything.
- Decline is remembered and you are not asked again on this device. Nothing is loaded, ever.
- If you accept, Google Analytics sets its own cookies to recognise a returning browser, and records the pages you view, the site that referred you, your approximate location and your browser and device type. IP addresses are truncated by Google before storage and cannot be turned back on. Advertising features, ad personalisation and Google Signals are switched off.
- It is deleted after 14 months. That is the retention period set on the property, and it is the longest Google Analytics offers; event-level data older than that is removed automatically.
- You can change your mind. Clearing this site’s data in your browser resets the choice and the banner returns.
- Your documents are not involved either way. Analytics measures page visits. It has no access to the file you open, its name, its size or its contents, for the same reason nothing else does — the file never leaves your device, so there is nothing to send.
Hosting logs: the site is served by Firebase Hosting, which records standard web-server request data — IP address, timestamp, requested URL and user agent — regardless of the choice above.
Where this site is operated from
PDF Overlay is operated from Switzerland and this page is written against the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (revDSG, in force since September 2023).
Analytics data accepted above is processed by Google LLC in the United States.
What the analytics actually measure
Three things: that a document was opened, that an overlay was added, and that a stamped file was downloaded. Alongside each, only fixed labels — the kind of overlay, on top or behind, all pages or a selection — and the document size as one of four bands, never the actual page count.
Nothing from your document or your typing is ever included: no filename, no stamp text, no Bates prefix, no dates. There is no parameter capable of carrying them.
What the page loads
- Firebase Hosting (Google) serves the pages and static files.
- The PDF libraries the tool runs on (pdf-lib, fontkit and pdf.js) are served from this site, not from a CDN, so opening a document contacts nobody.
- googletagmanager.com and google-analytics.com serve and receive Google Analytics — only if you accepted the analytics banner. Decline, or ignore it, and neither is ever contacted.
- Fonts are self-hosted — no Google Fonts request, so no font-CDN call carrying your IP address.
There are no accounts
There is no sign-up, no email collection and no user account.
Don’t take our word for it
You do not have to trust this policy. Open your browser’s developer tools, go to the Network tab, and stamp a document. You will see the page and the libraries load, and then nothing — no request carrying your file, because there is nowhere for it to go. Disconnect from the network after the page has loaded and the tool keeps working.