How we handle your documents and AI
Last updated: October 20, 2026
Your documents are often personal: contracts, payslips, tax returns, IDs. Here is, in plain words, what happens to them from upload to deletion.
This page complements the privacy policy (/en/privacy). All durations shown come from the settings currently applied by the service.
In short
- Many tools run entirely in your browser: your file never leaves your device.
- Files processed on our servers are deleted automatically, 1 hour at most without an account.
- Nobody, neither us nor our AI providers, trains a model on your documents.
- Your files are encrypted, stored privately and isolated from other users.
- You can delete a file, a conversation or your whole account at any time.
The journey of a file
When you choose a tool, we first tell you whether it runs in your browser or on our servers, and which limits apply. Then your file follows one of two paths, described below. In both cases, the result is yours to download, and nothing is kept longer than needed.
Tools that run in your browser
These tools process your file directly on your device. The file is never sent to our servers. We only check a usage counter to apply your plan's limits.
- Merge PDF
- Split PDF
- Rotate PDF
- Delete PDF pages
- Organize PDF pages
- Crop PDF
- Add a watermark
- Add an image to PDF
- Add page numbers
- Sign PDF
- Edit PDF
- JPG to PDF
- PNG to PDF
- PDF metadata
Tools that run on our servers
Some processing needs dedicated software (conversion, OCR, advanced compression). For these tools:
- Your file is uploaded directly to private storage, through a signed link that is only valid for a short time.
- It is scanned by an antivirus before any processing.
- It is processed in an isolated container. Office documents are converted by LibreOffice with no network access and with macros disabled.
- The result is available through a temporary download link.
- The source file and the result are then deleted automatically.
The tools concerned are:
- Compress PDF
- Compress image
- OCR: make a PDF searchable
- PDF to Word
- PDF to Excel
- PDF to PowerPoint
- PDF to JPG
- PDF to PNG
- PDF to text
- Word to PDF
- Excel to PDF
- PowerPoint to PDF
- HTML to PDF
- Protect PDF
- Unlock PDF
How long we keep your files
| Plan | Your files (uploaded and generated) | Download link valid for | History |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visitor (no account) | Deleted at the latest 1 hour after upload | 1 hour | No history |
| Free (verified account) | Up to 7 days, or until you delete them | 1 hour | 7 days of history |
| AI | Up to 30 days, or until you delete them | 48 hours | 30 days of history |
| Pro | Up to 90 days, or until you delete them | 48 hours | 90 days of history |
With a 24-hour pass, your files follow the same rules: up to 30 days, or until you delete them, with a download link valid for 48 hours.
Expired files are deleted every 15 minutes. A daily report checks that no file has stayed beyond its deadline.
Our AI providers
| Provider | Role | Policy |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Assistant language models (chat, summaries, translation, rewriting, generation, form filling) | Paid API. No training on your data. |
| OpenAI | Document indexing for chat (embeddings) and fallback model | Paid API. No training on your data. |
| Google (API Gemini, offre payante uniquement) | Smart OCR and visual data extraction, fallback model | Paid offer only (billing enabled); the free tier is excluded. No training on your data. |
Under their API terms, these providers may keep data temporarily for security and abuse detection only (retention periods to be checked with each provider).
Our rules for AI
- No training on your documents, neither by us nor by our providers.
- Only the passages needed to answer your request are sent to the provider.
- When you chat with your document, answers cite the pages they rely on.
- AI pages are counted only when an operation succeeds. A failure is refunded automatically.
- The assistant is a helper, not an expert. Always check its results.
What we log
| Logged | Never logged |
|---|---|
| User, task and tool used | The content of your files |
| AI provider and model | Your prompts and questions |
| Number of tokens, cost, AI pages counted | The assistant's answers |
| Duration and status (success or failure) | File names in plain text |
Encryption
All exchanges with the service are encrypted (HTTPS). Files and data are encrypted at rest by our storage provider.
The most sensitive data (conversations, form values, form-filling profile) is additionally encrypted by our application before it is stored.
Chat index and conversations
To chat with your document, we split it into passages and index them, so the assistant can find the relevant ones.
This index and your conversations are stored encrypted. They are deleted together with the source file, at the same deadline (on the AI plan: up to 30 days, or until you delete them), unless you delete them earlier.
You stay in control
- Delete a file or a conversation at any time, without waiting for the automatic deletion.
- Export your data or delete your account from your account area (/en/account).
- Delete your optional form-filling profile whenever you want.
Your rights
Your rights over your personal data (access, correction, erasure, portability and more) are described in the privacy policy (/en/privacy).
For any question, write to contact@eflypdf.com.
Independence
eFlyPDF is an independent service, not affiliated with any public authority. Official forms are available free of charge from the authorities that issue them, and you remain responsible for what you declare.