Privacy & file retention

Your documents

When you run a tool, your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection (TLS) to our server, processed there, and returned through a signed, unguessable download link. Original uploads are removed as soon as processing finishes. Results are deleted automatically after 2 hours for guests and 24 hours for signed-in users, and every result screen has a "Delete now" button. We do not read, index, analyse, sell or share the contents of your documents.

The one exception is the AI tools (summarise, translate, chat with a PDF). They are available to signed-in users only, and they send the text of your document to OpenAI, which generates the answer. OpenAI does not use data sent through its API to train its models. Papermint does not store that text or the answers. No other tool sends your documents anywhere.

Your account

An account holds your name, email address, password (stored only as a bcrypt hash), plan, saved signatures, and the history of tasks you ran: tool, file names, sizes and times, shown on the My files page, where you can delete it. We also keep a usage record for your Analytics page (which tool you used, when, and how long it took, with no file names or content) for up to 400 days.

You can download everything held about you from Account → Download my data, and delete your account from Account → Danger zone. Deletion is immediate and removes the account, history, signatures and usage records.

Signature requests

When you ask other people to sign, we store their names and email addresses, the document, and an audit trail of who opened and signed it and when. Requests and their documents are deleted after 30 days, or earlier if you cancel them. Papermint does not email signers; you send them their links.

Payments

Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and never reach our server. We keep your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, your plan, and the amounts and dates of your invoices. Stripe sends payment receipts and failed-payment notices.

Who else handles data

We use a small number of providers to run Papermint, and share only what each one needs:

• Railway hosts our server and database, in the United States.
• Stripe processes payments.
• Resend delivers our emails: confirming your address and resetting your password.
• OpenAI processes document text, only when you use an AI tool.
• Cloudflare runs our domain name and forwards email sent to our addresses, and provides our visitor statistics (below).

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use advertising or tracking networks.

Cookies and visitor statistics

Signing in sets one cookie that keeps you signed in. It cannot be read by scripts, is sent only to Papermint, and expires after 30 days. Your browser also remembers a few preferences on your own device, such as dark mode and your favourite tools; these never leave it.

We count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and does not identify or follow you. We see totals only, such as how many people visited a page and which site they came from.

Papermint also counts, itself and without cookies, a few steps people take on the site (for example opening a tool, adding a file or creating an account) together with the website or campaign that brought them and the page they arrived on. These are daily totals; they contain no IP address, no account and nothing else that could identify you. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, nothing is counted.

When you create an account, we note where your first visit came from as a general label, such as "Google search" or the name of an ad campaign, so we can tell which channels bring people who find Papermint useful. We never record ad click identifiers or your browsing history.

Search. The search box runs in your browser. If you are signed in, it looks through the file history you can already see on the My files page, which only ever comes from your own account. Your browser remembers your last five searches on your device (you can clear them in the search box); searches that found one of your files are never remembered. To learn what people look for and cannot find, we count short searches per day, for example "compress pdf", and whether anything was found. These counts have no IP address or account attached, leave out any search with numbers or an "@" in it or that matched one of your files, are not sent at all when your browser asks not to be tracked, and are deleted after 90 days.

Rating prompt

Now and then, after a task has gone well, we may ask whether you would like to rate Papermint. Your browser remembers whether it has asked, so it does not keep asking. We count how often the question is shown, dismissed or answered, per day and without any information about who you are, and we never record a rating.

Messages

If you contact us, we keep your name, email address and message so we can reply.

Backups and security

The account database is backed up daily. Backups are kept for about two months and then deleted, so something you delete may remain in a backup until it expires. Passwords are hashed, links in our emails expire and work once, and changing your password signs out every other device. The Security page has more.

Questions and requests

To ask what we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted, use the Contact page. A person reads every message.