Privacy Notice

This notice comes from WhyUpload ("we", "us") and covers the website at whyupload.com. It explains what data the site handles, why, and the choices you have.

Files you open, passwords you type, text extracted from documents, signatures, and the results the tools produce are processed in your browser. They are not sent to us or to anyone else, and the site has no server endpoint that accepts documents. The same applies to camera images used by the scanning tools and to what you type into Ask WhyUpload.

A file leaves your browser only when you do something with it yourself, such as saving a download and then sending it on. Where it goes after that is outside our control.

Cloudflare is our service provider. It provides the site's hosting, DNS, Workers (the small server programs that run the site), database and analytics storage.

Like any website host, Cloudflare processes ordinary connection data when your browser loads a page or sends data to the site, including your IP address, browser details, the address requested and the time. It handles this data under its own terms and privacy policy, which you can read at cloudflare.com/privacypolicy. Logging is turned off on our own Workers, and they do not log what is sent to them.

To learn which tools people use and where they fail, the site sends a few anonymous events. These are the only events:

• a page was viewed, with the name of the page or tool from our own fixed list;
• a file was added to a tool, with the tool name (only the fact that it happened);
• a result was downloaded from a tool, with the tool name and a time range (under 10 seconds, 10 to 30 seconds, 30 seconds to 2 minutes, 2 to 10 minutes, or over 10 minutes);
• a tool showed an error, with the tool name and one of five categories (invalid file, encrypted, too large, cancelled, or other);
• feedback was sent, with the tool name if there was one.

Every event also carries the app version, a screen-size class (mobile, tablet or desktop) and the theme (light or dark). When an event arrives, our server adds a two-letter country code, which comes from Cloudflare's location lookup for the connection.

If the link that brought you here has a utm_source tag, which says where the link was posted, events from that visit also carry that source. It is recorded only as a name from our own fixed list, such as instagram or email, and any other tag is recorded as "other". Your browser keeps that name until you close the tab, so later pages of the visit can include it.

Events never include your files, file names, file sizes, page counts, document text, passwords, error messages, full web addresses, any other part of a link, or the referring site. We create no identifier for you or your device. Our collector does not receive your IP address with these events and stores none.

Usage statistics are on by default. You can turn them off at any time with the switch below or the one in the site footer. They are also off automatically if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal. Your choice is saved in your browser, so clearing your browser data resets it.

Feedback is sent only when you press Send, whatever the usage statistics switch says. We receive what you chose and typed: the star rating, the category, the tool, your comment, and an email address only if you add one for a reply. We also store the time, app version, screen-size class, theme and two-letter country code. Your comment and email address can identify you, so please leave personal and document details out of comments.

To limit abuse, we allow at most five messages per hour from one connection. To count them, your IP address is passed to our collector and turned into a keyed hash (HMAC-SHA-256 with a secret key). The collector keeps only the hash and a counter, not the address.

Only we can read feedback, through an operator page protected by Cloudflare Access.

Mail sent to our contact addresses is forwarded through Cloudflare Email Routing to the operator's mailbox. We use it to answer you. Messages stay in that mailbox until we delete them, and you can ask us to delete yours.

A daily job deletes our stored data once it reaches these ages:

• Daily usage totals in our database: 90 days.
• Daily traffic source totals in our database: 90 days.
• Feedback, including any comment and reply email: 180 days.
• Rate-limit hashes: 48 hours.

Individual anonymous usage events in Cloudflare's analytics storage are kept for about 3 months. Cloudflare sets that period, and we cannot delete them sooner.

We use connection data to deliver and protect the site, usage statistics to improve the tools, and feedback and email to read and answer what you send. Where the law asks for a legal basis, we rely on our legitimate interest in running and improving a free service and, for feedback and email, on your decision to send it to us.

The site's code sets no cookies, and we use none for tracking. If Cloudflare's security systems need to check a connection, Cloudflare may set a security cookie of its own.

A few preferences are kept in your browser's local storage and never sent to us: your light or dark theme, your usage statistics choice, the scanner's shutter sound setting, and a note that the camera worked before. None of them identifies you. If you arrived through a tagged link, session storage also holds its source name until you close the tab or turn usage statistics off. Open documents are held in memory while you work.

To remove these preferences, clear the site data for whyupload.com in your browser's settings. That does not delete files you have already downloaded.

The site has no advertising and no accounts, and its security policy does not allow scripts from other sites to load. We do not sell personal information or share it for advertising.

Cloudflare runs a global network, and we may read feedback and email from a different country than the one you are in. Your connection data, feedback and email may therefore be processed outside your country, where privacy laws can differ from your own.

WhyUpload is not directed at children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information through feedback or email, contact us and we will delete it.

Depending on where you live, laws such as Canada's PIPEDA, the GDPR and UK GDPR, and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act may give you rights over your personal information. These can include the right to ask for access to it, have it corrected or deleted, object to or restrict its use, and withdraw consent. To make a request, email privacy@whyupload.com.

To find feedback you sent, we need something to search for, such as the reply email you gave and roughly when you sent it. Usage counts are anonymous and cannot be tied to a person, so we cannot find, correct or delete one person's usage counts. For connection data that Cloudflare handles, Cloudflare's privacy policy explains your options.

You can also complain to your privacy regulator, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, your local data protection authority in the EU or UK, or the Data Protection Board of India.

Processing files on your device reduces their exposure, but it cannot protect them from a compromised device or a malicious browser extension. Our Security page explains the design and its limits.

If what we collect changes, we will update this page and its effective date before the change takes effect. Please check back from time to time.

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@whyupload.com

Everything else, including accessibility and security reports: support@whyupload.com