Privacy Policy — BigPDF

1. Introduction

BigPDF is a browser extension with 15 PDF tools. 14 of them (edit, annotate, redact, watermark, page numbers, compress, merge, split, extract pages, PDF → JPG/Word/Excel/ PowerPoint, sign) process your files entirely inside your browser — your PDF is never uploaded anywhere for these tools. The 15th tool, AI Assistant, is the one deliberate exception and is described separately in section 4.

This policy explains exactly what data BigPDF touches, where it goes, and why.

2. Your PDF files — not collected

BigPDF does not upload, transmit, or store the content of your PDF files on any server for the 14 offline tools. Files are read into browser memory (and, for the merge/split/extract-pages tools, into a local WebAssembly module — pekka-core, compiled from Rust, running entirely in your browser), processed, and the result is handed back to you as a download. Nothing about the file's content — text, images, page count, filenames — leaves your device for these tools.

Exception: the AI Assistant tool. See section 4 — it is opt-in, clearly labeled in the UI, and requires you to supply your own API key before anything is sent anywhere.

3. Data stored locally in your browser

BigPDF stores the following using chrome.storage.local. This data stays on your device:

• Account email — the address used for license/quota lookups (see section 5). Read silently via chrome.identity.getProfileUserInfo on Chrome (not available on Firefox — you type it manually there), or entered by you on the Account screen.
• Weekly free-quota counter — how many of your 5 free uses (all tools share one pool, reset every ISO week) you've used, and the reset date.
• Cached premium/license status — whether your account is on a paid plan, refreshed periodically against our license server.
• AI Assistant connection settings — the Ollama-compatible endpoint URL, model name, and API key you configure (see section 4). Stored locally only; never sent anywhere except the endpoint you configured.
• UI preferences — theme (dark/light) and language selection.

You can clear all of this at any time via chrome://extensions → BigPDF → Clear data, or by uninstalling the extension.

4. AI Assistant — the only tool that leaves your browser

The AI Assistant tool (summarize / ask questions about a PDF) is not offline, by design, and this is disclosed inside the tool before you use it:

• What is sent: text extracted from your PDF (not the original file) and your question, sent as a chat request to an Ollama-compatible endpoint.
• Where it's sent: an endpoint you configure — the default suggestion is Ollama Cloud (https://ollama.com/api/chat), but you can point it at any self-hosted Ollama server you control.
• Bring your own key: BigPDF does not provide, proxy, or bill for this service. You supply your own API key, stored locally (section 3) and sent only as a Bearer token to the endpoint you configured.
• Nothing is sent automatically. The request only fires when you type a question and press send, after you've entered an API key yourself.
• We have no visibility into, and do not receive, the content of your questions or the AI's responses — that traffic goes directly from your browser to the endpoint you chose.

5. License & quota verification

To enforce the free weekly quota and unlock paid plans, BigPDF talks to our backend at https://api.gethogrider.com:

• What we send: your account email, plus a machine-generated request to check or redeem a license/quota. No PDF content is ever included.
• What we receive back: your plan status (free / Monthly / Yearly / Lifetime) and quota remaining.
• Fail-open: if the network is unavailable, BigPDF keeps your last cached status rather than locking you out.

Paid plans are purchased through Creem (creem.io) — payment details are handled entirely by Creem; BigPDF never sees your card number.

6. Analytics — none

BigPDF does not collect analytics or telemetry, and does not record your session.

Earlier versions sent anonymized usage events to PostHog and could screen-record BigPDF's own tool pages via session replay. Both were removed entirely on 15 August 2026. The tracking functions the code still calls are no-op stubs, kept only so the other extensions sharing that library didn't all need editing — they send nothing.

This is verifiable in the shipped build: the packaged extension contains no PostHog SDK, no rrweb, and no analytics endpoint. The only network requests BigPDF makes are the license/quota check in section 5 and, if you choose to use it, the AI Assistant call in section 4.

7. What BigPDF does NOT do

• Does not sell your data to anyone.
• Does not run content scripts on other websites — BigPDF has no content_scripts and no <all_urls> host permission; it only reads files you explicitly choose via a file picker.
• Does not track your general browsing history.
• Does not require account creation to use the free tier.

8. Permissions used

storage (local preferences/quota), identity (Chrome-only, silent email lookup for license binding), and host permissions limited to api.gethogrider.com (license/quota) and ollama.com (AI Assistant only, and only if you use that tool).

9. Children's privacy

BigPDF is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.

10. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, we'll update the effective date above and note it in the extension's changelog.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy: blackwitch145@gmail.com