I built a PDF merger that never uploads your files — here's how published: false

<p>Hey DEV community! 👋</p> <p>As a developer and digital marketer, I got sick of using random, ad-stuffed websites every time I needed to quickly format JSON, calculate a margin,

<div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight markdown"><code>privacy webdevEvery time I uploaded a file to an online PDF tool, I wondered: what happens to it

<p>Last year I needed to merge two PDFs before sending them to my landlord. I Googled "merge PDF online," clicked the first result, and uploaded my lease agreement and bank

<p><strong>1. The constraint</strong><br /> Why a screenshot tool uploading your screenshot is a bad default, and what changes if you refuse to.</p> <p><strong>2. The wrong first

<p>I used to shrug at "just upload it to that free merge site" notes in internal wikis. Then I watched an onboarding checklist tell new hires to combine their passport scan and

<p>The number of services that want you to upload a signed contract to their servers is wild. Every lease, every freelance agreement, every school form — and the "free e-sign"

<p><strong>The Privacy Problem with Online PDF Tools</strong></p> <p>We’ve all been there: you need to merge two PDFs or edit a quick detail, so you Google "PDF editor." You find

<p>If you've ever tried building a SaaS or a tool aggregator, you know the drill: file uploads equal server costs. Processing PDFs or stripping image backgrounds usually requires