How We Handle Your Data

Last updated: June 4, 2026

How it works

When you drop a PDF into docscrubber, here’s what happens, all on your machine:

• Text extraction: your browser reads the text from the PDF.
• Detection: a machine learning model (running locally in your browser) scans the text for personal information like names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses.
• Redaction: detected personal information is removed from the PDF content and replaced with black rectangles. When you hit the download button, the redacted file is generated in your browser and downloaded directly to your computer.

At no point does your document, the extracted text, or any detection results leave your browser. There is no server-side processing of your files.

What gets downloaded to your browser

The app downloads a small machine learning model from Hugging Face the first time you use it. This is what powers the personal information detection. After the first download, the model is cached in your browser for fast repeat use.

What we do store

The only data we store on our servers is your account information (email and name), managed by our authentication provider, and a monthly count of how many documents you’ve redacted (to enforce the free-tier limit). Everything else stays on your device.

Why this approach

Most document redaction tools upload your files to a server for processing. That means your sensitive documents, the ones you’re trying to protect, travel across the internet to someone else’s infrastructure.

We built docscrubber differently. By running everything in the browser, we eliminated the least private part of most apps: the network transfer. Your files stay on your device, under your control.

Can I verify this?

Yes. Open your browser’s developer tools and watch the Network tab while processing a document. You’ll see that no document data is sent to any server. Detection and redaction happens locally in your browser.