OTL

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 24, 2026

Overview

Open Tools Library ("OTL", "we", "us") provides free, browser-based tools for working with files. This policy explains what happens to your files, what limited data the site itself collects, and how third-party services we use (or plan to use) handle data. The short version: your files never leave your device, and the website around them collects far less than most sites.

Your files

Every tool on this site — merging PDFs, signing a document, converting an image, and everything else — runs entirely inside your browser using JavaScript. When you select or drop a file into a tool, it is read directly into your browser's memory and processed there. It is never uploaded to our servers, never sent to a third party, and we never see it.

Because of this, we have no record of what files you've processed, what they contained, or that you used a particular tool at all — that information simply doesn't exist anywhere outside your own device. Closing the browser tab is enough to clear any in-memory data a tool was holding.

Data we collect

We don't require an account, a login, or any personal information to use any tool. The data below covers what's collected simply by operating a website:

  • Standard server logs. Our hosting provider automatically logs basic technical information for every request (like IP address, browser type, and page requested) for security and reliability purposes, the way virtually all web hosts do.
  • Usage analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand overall traffic — which pages and tools get used, roughly where visitors come from, and general device/browser information. It does not know which files you processed or what a tool did with them, since that never leaves your browser. See Cookies & advertising below for detail and how to opt out.
  • Information you send us directly. If you email us through the Contact page, we receive whatever you choose to include in that message (typically your email address and message content).

Cookies & advertising

None of the tools themselves use cookies — they don't need to, since nothing is uploaded or tracked across a session. This site uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies to distinguish visitors, and we intend to add Google AdSense to support the site financially, which will set its own advertising cookies once enabled. See our full Cookie Policy for a detailed breakdown of what those cookies do and how to opt out of analytics and personalized advertising.

Third-party services

The tools themselves are built on open-source libraries that run entirely on your device — none of them phone home. One exception: our OCR feature (used as a fallback in the PDF to Word tool) downloads a language model from a public CDN (jsDelivr) the first time you use it, so that it doesn't have to ship with every page load. That download is the OCR engine itself, not your file — your document is still never uploaded.

Beyond that, the services referenced in this policy — Google Analytics and Google AdSense — are operated by Google LLC and governed by Google's own Privacy Policy.

Children's privacy

This site is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we'll remove it.

Your rights

Because we collect so little tied to any individual, there is rarely anything to access or delete. If you've emailed us and would like that message deleted from our inbox, or have any other question about data we might hold about you, contact us and we'll act on it promptly.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site evolves — most likely to reflect analytics or advertising services being switched on. We'll update the "Last updated" date above whenever we do. Material changes will be reflected here; there's no separate notification since we don't collect an email address to notify you with.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach us at opentoolslibrary@gmail.com or via the Contact page.