See What's Hidden in a PDF Before You Share It
See what's hiding inside a PDF — author, hidden metadata, scripts, attachments and comments — before you share it.
Select a PDF to check
Click to choose, or drop a file here
You can also paste (Ctrl+V / Cmd+V)
Most tools run entirely on your device
Scanned entirely in your browser — the file is never uploaded, even to check it.
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About checking a PDF's privacy
Before sharing a PDF outside your organization, it's worth knowing what's actually inside it beyond the visible pages — the author name and software recorded in its metadata, whether it contains embedded JavaScript, whether other files are attached inside it, and whether previous editors left comments or annotations that never got removed. Any of those can leak information you didn't mean to share.
This tool reads the PDF's internal structure in your browser and checks each of those categories, reporting what it finds with a plain severity rating — clear, worth a look, or a real concern — rather than a wall of raw technical fields. If it finds something worth removing, the report links straight to Sanitize PDF, which strips metadata, scripts, attachments and annotations in one pass.
Supported files
Accepts a PDF. Produces an on-screen report — nothing to download unless you follow through to Sanitize PDF.
Is my file uploaded?
No. The PDF is inspected entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded, which matters more than usual for a tool whose job is finding what a file leaks before you share it.
How to use the PDF Privacy Checker
- 1
Add your PDF
Drop in the file you're about to share.
- 2
Review the report
See its author, hidden metadata, scripts, attachments and comments in plain English.
- 3
Clean it if needed
One click hands the file to Sanitize PDF to strip anything you don't want to send.
PDF Privacy Checker — frequently asked questions
Does this fix the problems it finds?+
No — it only reports them. Click "Clean this PDF" on the result to send the same file straight to Sanitize PDF, which removes what it can.
Is the scan itself uploaded anywhere?+
No. Like every tool on the site, the PDF is read entirely in your browser — checking it never sends the file anywhere either.
Can it read GPS coordinates from a scan?+
It flags when a document carries an extended XMP metadata block, which is where that kind of detail can live, without trying to parse every possible field — that's a plain-English early warning, not a forensic report.
What counts as "exposed" vs "worth a look"?+
Embedded JavaScript, auto-run actions, and attached files are flagged as exposed — they carry real risk if opened in a full desktop PDF reader. Author names, dates, comments and form fields are flagged as worth a look — usually harmless, but not always what you'd want a stranger to see.
Is there a free way to see what's hidden in a PDF before sharing it?+
Yes — this tool scans for hidden metadata and risks entirely in your browser, free and with nothing uploaded.
Do you upload my files to a server?+
No — every tool here processes your files entirely on your device, and nothing is uploaded to a server. The only exception is the AI tools, which send the extracted text (not the file) to Claude to do their work.
Is there a file size limit?+
There's no artificial limit we impose, but since processing happens in your browser, very large files (500+ MB or 1,000+ pages) are limited by your device's memory rather than by us.
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