Every PDF you create carries invisible passenger data: who made it, with what software, when, and sometimes a trail of edits. Before a document goes to a court, a counterparty, or the public, that metadata should be inspected and removed. The PDF Metadata Viewer does both in your browser — see everything the file carries, strip it with one click, nothing uploaded, free.
What your documents are saying behind your back
Open any PDF's properties and you may find:
- Author — usually the operating-system login or licensed user name of whoever created the file. In a law firm, that's often a specific associate; in a company, a specific employee.
- Creator and Producer — the exact software and version. "Microsoft Word 2016" tells a reader the document is a Word export, inviting requests for the original .docx with its tracked changes.
- Timestamps — creation and modification dates that can contradict a document's claimed timeline. A "January report" with a March creation date is a story.
- Title, subject, keywords — frequently inherited from templates or earlier drafts. A settlement agreement carrying the title of a different client's matter is a real and recurring leak.
None of this shows on the printed page, which is exactly why it survives review. People proofread what they can see.
Who needs to care
Filers. Several courts explicitly warn that filed PDFs should be free of metadata and hidden content. A filing that leaks the drafting attorney's identity or revision history is a self-inflicted wound.
Anyone sharing "anonymous" documents. Whistleblower submissions, anonymous reports, tender documents — the author field defeats anonymity instantly.
HR and procurement. Documents circulated outside the company carry employee names and internal software fingerprints.
Journalists and sources. Publishing a leaked document without stripping it can identify the leaker via author, timestamps, and software trail.
How to inspect and strip, step by step
- Open the Metadata Viewer.
- Drop your PDF in. It's parsed locally — your browser, your memory, no transmission. The tool displays every document-information field the file carries.
- Read what's there. This step matters: knowing what leaked into the file tells you whether other copies need attention too.
- Strip and download. The cleaned file is identical on screen and paper — the invisible fields are simply gone.
- For belt and suspenders, verify: drop the cleaned file back into the viewer and confirm the fields are empty.
Metadata is half the job
Stripping metadata removes the invisible data about the document. It does not remove sensitive content in the document — names, account numbers, and confidential passages need real redaction, which destroys content rather than hiding it. For filings, the complete pre-submission routine is:
- Redact sensitive content (destructively — see the court filing guide).
- Strip metadata.
- Verify both: search for redacted strings, re-inspect metadata.
Why this tool doesn't upload your file
A metadata-stripping service that requires uploading your document is a contradiction: you're transmitting the sensitive file to remove signs of sensitivity. PDF Cloak parses and rewrites the file entirely in your browser using open-source engines (pdf-lib, PDF.js). The network tab shows zero requests with your data; the tool works offline. The document you're cleaning never exists anywhere but your machine.