Privacy
Last updated 6 October 2026
Wattle PDF is run from Brisbane, Australia. This page explains what happens to your files and your information. The short version: most tools never see your files at all, the ones that do delete them within two hours, and the AI tools send your document's text to Google's Gemini to write the answer.
Your files
- Tools marked “On your device” (merge, split, sign, edit, protect and most others) run entirely in your browser. Your files are never sent to us.
- Tools marked “Deleted within 2 hours” (compress, OCR, Office conversions and similar) upload your files over an encrypted connection to storage run by Cloudflare. Our servers, run by Railway in the United States, process them and store the result the same way. We delete the files and the result within two hours, or straight away when you press “Delete now”.
- AI tools (summarise, chat, translate and PDF to Markdown) need an account. The text of your document is sent to Google's Gemini API, which writes the summary, answer, translation or Markdown. Translate uploads the file like the server tools above, with the same two-hour deletion. We don't keep the text or the answers; we record the tool, how much text was used and a fingerprint of the document, to count your allowance. Google handles the text under the Gemini API terms.
- Nobody at Wattle PDF opens or reads your files, and we never use them to train AI or for anything other than the task you asked for.
- We keep a short record of each server task (the tool, file names, sizes and times) for 30 days, to run limits and fix problems.
Signature requests
When you send a document for others to sign, we keep the document, the signatures and the finished copy until 30 days after the request is completed, declined, cancelled or expires, then delete them. For the signature certificate we record each signer's name, email address, IP address, browser, and when they opened and signed the document. That record is part of the finished PDF.
Information we collect
- Without an account: a random cookie that links server tasks to your browser, and a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address to apply daily limits and stop abuse.
- With an account: your email address, your name if you give it, and sign-in records (time, IP address, browser) to keep your account secure.
- Payments: handled by Stripe. We see your plan and billing status, never your full card number.
- Signatures: a signature you draw or type is kept only in your browser, so you can reuse it. It isn't sent to us.
Cookies
We use only the cookies the site needs: your sign-in session and the anonymous task cookie above. Cloudflare Turnstile may set a cookie while checking that a visitor is human. Cloudflare Web Analytics counts page visits without cookies or tracking you across sites. There are no advertising or tracking cookies, and no ads on any plan.
Who else handles data
- Cloudflare (file storage, bot checks, network)
- Railway (servers and database, United States)
- Stripe (payments)
- Resend (sign-in emails)
- Google (the Gemini API, for the AI tools)
We share data with them only so they can provide their service to us. We don't sell personal information.
Your choices and rights
You can ask to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you, or close your account, by emailing [email protected]. We handle personal information under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, and give the same rights to people in the UK and EU. If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).
Children
Wattle PDF isn't aimed at children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their information.
Changes
If we change how we handle data in a way that matters, we'll update this page and, for account holders, send an email first.