What happens to your file when you use i40x

“Is my file safe?” is the question we are asked most. The honest answer depends on the tool, because i40x has two kinds of tools and they treat your files very differently. This page explains both.

Tools that never upload anything

Most of the site works entirely in your browser: word counter, case converter, JSON formatter, password generator, calculators, colour tools, the image tools (compress, resize, convert, crop, watermark, metadata) and PDF-from-images. Your text and files are processed by your own device. We cannot see them, because they never reach us.

Tools that use our server

Some jobs cannot be done in a browser: working with PDF pages, converting Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and recognising text in scans. For these the file is sent to our server over an encrypted connection and the tool says so before you start. Here is what happens next:

1. The file waits in a private folder that only the processing service can read.
2. A separate worker process, locked down so it cannot reach the internet, makes the result.
3. The original is removed as soon as the job finishes.
4. The result is available to download for about 30 minutes, then it is deleted automatically.

We do not open, read, index or share your files, and we do not add watermarks.

What we do keep

To keep the service running and fair we keep short technical records: which tool was used, the size of the file, how long it took, whether it worked, and the country the request came from. We never store file names or contents. The IP address attached to a server job is erased after 30 days. The full detail is in the privacy policy.

Dynamic QR codes are the exception

A dynamic QR code has to be stored on our server, because that is how you can change where it points later. We store the destination and count scans. A free account is needed, and we do not record the IP address of the people who scan.

Practical advice

• For anything sensitive, prefer a browser tool when one exists.
• If a PDF contains secrets, protect it with a password before you share it, not just before you upload it.
• Remove location data from photos before posting them with the metadata remover.