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Privacy Policy

The short version: the files you open and the values you type into our tools are processed on your device and are not sent to us.

Last updated: 18 October 2026

1. Who we are

SomethingTools (somethingtools.com) provides free online utilities. You can contact us at [email protected].

2. Local processing — what stays on your device

Our tools are built to run inside your web browser. When you use them, the following are processed on your own device and are not uploaded to SomethingTools' servers:

  • PDF files and images you open in the PDF Converter, PDF Editor and Image Compressor, and the files these tools produce;
  • signatures you draw in the PDF Editor;
  • scanned pages read by the PDF Editor's text recognition (OCR), and the text it recognises;
  • photos you open in the Background Remover, the cut-outs it makes and any background photo you add;
  • the camera image and photos used by the Scanner, the pages it makes and the text it recognises. The camera is only turned on when you choose Scan with camera and is turned off when you leave; nothing is recorded or uploaded;
  • text you check with the AI Content Detector, and its results;
  • text you type or paste into the Word Counter and QR Code Generator, including Wi-Fi passwords and contact details;
  • numbers, prices, dates (including dates of birth) and amounts you enter into calculators and converters.

We do not have accounts, a database of user content, or file storage. Files are held in your browser's memory only while the page is open. The website itself is delivered by our hosting provider, which, like any web host, processes technical request data such as IP addresses to serve pages and protect against abuse.

3. Data stored in your browser

We use your browser's local storage, which stays on your device, for:

  • st:consent:v1 — your cookie choice, if analytics or advertising are enabled;
  • st:currency-rates:v1 — the most recent exchange-rate table, so the currency converter doesn't download it on every visit (kept up to one hour, then refreshed).

If you edit a scanned PDF, your browser also keeps a copy of the English text-recognition data (a public language file, not your content) in its IndexedDB storage, so it doesn't need to be downloaded again. Likewise, the Background Remover's and AI Content Detector's AI model files are kept in your browser's Cache Storage (st-ai-models-v1). These are public program files, downloaded from SomethingTools, and contain nothing about you.

You can clear these at any time through your browser settings.

4. External services

Exchange rates

The Currency Converter downloads official central bank exchange rates from Frankfurter. Your browser requests the full table of rates against the euro and the list of currency names; flag images are served by SomethingTools itself; like any website, the provider receives your IP address and browser details with that request. The amount you enter and the currencies you choose are calculated locally and are not sent to the provider.

Analytics (Google Analytics with Consent Mode)

We use Google Analytics to understand which tools are used and whether they work. The Google tag loads on every page in Google's Consent Mode: until you accept optional cookies, it sets no cookies and stores no identifiers on your device, and Google receives only cookieless signals (such as that a page was viewed, with browser and approximate region) that it uses to estimate overall traffic. If you accept, analytics cookies are used to measure visits more accurately. We send events such as "tool opened", "file processed" or "result copied", with the tool name, a coarse file type (for example "pdf"), a size range (for example "1–10 MB") and processing time. We never send file contents, file names, extracted text, typed text, amounts or dates. IP anonymisation is enabled and Google signals are disabled.

Advertising (Google AdSense with Consent Mode)

We show ads through Google AdSense. The AdSense script loads on every page in Google's Consent Mode: until you accept optional cookies, Google does not use advertising cookies or personalise ads, and may show limited, non-personalised ads. If you accept, Google may use cookies to serve and measure ads. Learn more in How Google uses information from sites that use its services. Ad scripts never get access to the files or inputs in our tools beyond what any script on a web page could technically observe, and we do not pass that data to them.

You can change your choice at any time with the "Cookie settings" link in the footer. See the Cookie Policy for details.

5. Legal bases (EEA and UK visitors)

  • Delivering the website and keeping it secure: our legitimate interest in operating a reliable service.
  • Analytics and advertising cookies: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

6. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or object to the processing of personal data, and to complain to a data protection authority. Because tool data stays on your device, we generally hold no personal data about you beyond what our hosting, analytics and advertising providers process. Contact us at [email protected] with any request.

7. Children

Our tools are general-audience utilities and are not directed at children under 13.

8. Changes

We will update this page if our practices change, for example if a future tool needs server-side processing. Any such tool will explain, before you use it, what is sent, why, how long it is kept and how it is deleted.

Tools covered by this policy