D DocScalar
← Back to Home

Privacy Policy

Privacy by Design: Your documents are transmitted over secure TLS 1.3 encrypted connections. File processing is isolated, transient, and automatically purged within 30 minutes. All core document utilities are 100% accessible to guest users with no account or login required.

1. Introduction & Security Commitment

DocScalar Inc. ("we", "our", "us") operates the website and services at docscalar.com. We are committed to unyielding transparency and security-by-design. Our core architectural invariant is simple:

Your documents are transmitted over secure TLS 1.3 encrypted connections. File processing is isolated, transient, and automatically purged within 30 minutes. We never inspect your document contents or use your files for machine learning or AI model training.

2. Categories of Data We Collect

We adhere strictly to the principle of Data Minimization. We collect only what is strictly required to provide our document tools:

  • Uploaded Document Files: Documents uploaded for conversion, OCR, compression, editing, or signing are held in encrypted, temporary directories on our processing workers. Documents are accessed strictly by automated background worker processes to execute your requested task. They are never viewed by human personnel and are permanently purged within 30 minutes.
  • Registered Account Data: If you choose to create an account, we collect your email address, an encrypted one-way cryptographic password hash (bcrypt), account creation timestamp, and subscription status tier.
  • Guest Usage & Network Metadata: For guest users accessing document tools without logging in, we maintain transient, in-memory IP address counters solely for DDoS mitigation and daily fair-usage rate limiting (e.g. 3 operations per day). These IP counters reside in volatile memory and are never written to disk or linked to personal identities.
  • Support Inquiries: When you submit a message via our Contact form, we collect your name, email address, inquiry category, and message text. This data is retained for a maximum of 90 days solely to investigate and resolve your ticket, after which it is purged. We never use support communications for marketing or promotional campaigns.
  • Payment & Billing Data: Our order processing is conducted by our authorized Merchant of Record, Paddle (Paddle.com Market Ltd, UK). DocScalar never stores or accesses your raw payment card numbers, bank account numbers, or CVVs. All billing credentials are tokenized directly through Paddle's PCI-DSS Level 1 certified environment.

3. Document Processing Lifecycle & 30-Minute Purge SLA

We implement deterministic, automated file lifecycle rules to safeguard your documents:

  • Secure Ingest: All file uploads are transmitted over TLS 1.3 HTTPS with strict MIME type and magic-byte verification.
  • Isolated Sandboxes: Conversions execute inside memory-restricted, sandboxed processes (e.g. Ghostscript with -dSAFER flags).
  • 30-Minute Automated Purge SLA: Output files are retained in temporary storage for a maximum of 30 minutes to allow you to download them. Our automated cleanup worker runs continuous sweeps, permanently unlinking and wiping all temporary files, scratch profiles, and directories immediately upon expiration.
  • Zero AI Training: We explicitly warrant that no user documents, OCR outputs, form entries, or images are ever stored, indexed, or utilized to train or fine-tune artificial intelligence models or neural networks.

4. Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR Article 6)

If you reside in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, our processing of your personal data is grounded in the following legal bases under Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

  • Performance of a Contract (Article 6(1)(b)): Processing documents requested by users, providing account authentication, and delivering Pro subscription benefits.
  • Legitimate Interests (Article 6(1)(f)): Maintaining service security, mitigating abusive traffic/DDoS attacks, enforcing tier usage boundaries, and preventing fraud.
  • Compliance with Legal Obligations (Article 6(1)(c)): Preserving transaction receipts and financial records as mandated by applicable tax and accounting laws through our Merchant of Record.
  • Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): When you voluntarily submit customer support inquiries or explicitly consent to optional notifications.

5. Cookies, Storage & Tracking Technology Inventory

DocScalar does not use third-party tracking, advertising pixels, or cross-site fingerprinting scripts. We respect your browser's Do Not Track (DNT) and Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals. We utilize client storage exclusively for essential operational purposes:

  • Strictly Necessary Authentication Cookies (access_token): A secure, first-party HttpOnly session cookie deployed exclusively when you sign in or register to maintain your authenticated account session across visits. This cookie contains no advertising telemetry, is never shared with third parties, and is automatically cleared upon logging out. Under the EU ePrivacy Directive (Article 5(3)) and GDPR, strictly necessary authentication cookies are exempt from prior consent requirements because they are indispensable to deliver the authenticated account service you explicitly requested.
  • Local Storage (localStorage): Stores your UI theme preference (light/dark mode) and JWT authentication token when you log in.
  • Session Storage (sessionStorage): Temporarily retains non-PII referrer attribution parameters (such as campaign source) and active tool workspace parameters during your browser tab's active session.
  • IndexedDB: Caches local offline drafts and canvas state in your browser for the Stitch Canvas and Document Studio tools. This data never leaves your device unless you explicitly initiate an export or cloud operation.
  • Merchant of Record Cookies: During checkout, Paddle (Paddle.com Market Ltd) may deploy strictly necessary, fraud-prevention and session cookies required to complete your payment in compliance with PCI-DSS standards.

6. Your Rights Under GDPR & CCPA/CPRA

Regardless of your geographic location, we respect your fundamental data protection rights:

  • Right to Erasure (Right to Be Forgotten): You can delete your account and all associated conversion history instantly via your Account Settings. Upon triggering account deletion, our backend immediately purges your database records and unlinks any associated physical disk files.
  • Right of Access & Rectification: You may review and update your account details at any time from your profile dashboard.
  • Right to Data Portability: You may request an export of your stored account data by contacting us.
  • Non-Discrimination: We will never discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights. Guest access remains 100% free with no registration requirement.
  • Zero Data Selling: We do not "sell" or "share" personal information or document data as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA).

7. International Data Transfers & Safeguards

DocScalar operates globally. Where personal data is transferred across international borders, we ensure adequate protection through standard contractual clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission, modern transport encryption (TLS 1.3), isolated compute partitions, and edge proxying via Cloudflare.

8. Children's Privacy Notice

DocScalar is a general-audience document productivity platform. Our services are not directed to children under 13 years of age in the United States (in compliance with COPPA) or under 16 years of age in the European Union (in compliance with GDPR). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under these age thresholds. If we discover that an account has been registered by a minor below the minimum age, we will immediately terminate the account and purge all associated records.

9. Merchant of Record & Commercial Transactions

Our order process is conducted by our authorized online reseller and Merchant of Record, Paddle (Paddle.com Market Ltd, Judd House, 18-29 Mora Street, London EC1V 8BT, United Kingdom). Paddle handles payment processing, merchant underwriting, currency conversions, customer service inquiries, and international sales tax, VAT, and GST calculation and remittance. Purchases of DocScalar Pro are subject to Paddle's Checkout Buyer Terms and Privacy Policy.

10. Google User Data & OAuth Disclosure

DocScalar provides an optional "Sign in with Google" feature for user convenience. When you authenticate using Google OAuth, we access your basic public profile information:

  • No Login Required for Document Tools: DocScalar does NOT require users to log in or create an account to use our document conversion, compression, editing, or signing tools. All core document utilities are 100% accessible to guest users without any authentication. Google authentication is entirely optional and provided solely for users who wish to persist session history across devices or manage an optional Pro subscription.
  • Information Received: When you voluntarily sign in with Google, we receive only your Google account email address, full name, and avatar profile image URL as authorized by Google's standard OAuth consent screen.
  • How We Use This Data: This data is utilized solely and strictly to create and authenticate your DocScalar account, display your username and avatar in your personal workspace header, and secure your session. We do not request or access your Google Drive files, Google Docs, contacts, calendar, or any sensitive private scopes.
  • Zero Third-Party Sharing or Selling: We do not sell, rent, lease, trade, or transfer your Google user data or personal information to any third parties, advertising brokers, data aggregators, or external entities under any circumstances.
  • No Human Access or AI Model Training: We do not permit human employees or contractors to read or inspect your personal user data or uploaded document files. Furthermore, we never use Google user data, document contents, or user session data to train, fine-tune, or improve artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) models.
  • Account Deletion & Data Retention: You retain complete ownership and control over your account. When you delete your DocScalar account via your profile settings or upon request, all associated Google user data, email identifiers, profile information, and conversion logs are immediately and permanently erased from our databases.
  • How to Revoke Google Account Access: You can revoke DocScalar's access to your Google account data at any time via Google Account Security Settings at https://myaccount.google.com/permissions. Additionally, you may permanently delete your DocScalar account and all stored profile data at any time directly through your account dashboard or by contacting us.
  • Limited Use Disclosure: DocScalar's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

11. Third-Party Service Providers

  • Google Identity Services: Optional single-sign-on authentication.
  • Paddle.com Market Ltd: Online reseller and Merchant of Record, billing, global sales tax/VAT compliance, and PCI-DSS Level 1 payment processing (London, United Kingdom).
  • Cloudflare, Inc.: Anycast edge proxy, DNSSEC, DDoS mitigation, and SSL/TLS transport encryption (San Francisco, CA, USA).

12. Data Protection Contact & Inquiries

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your statutory rights (such as data erasure or access), or need to submit a data protection inquiry, please contact our Data Protection Officer and compliance team: