Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 13, 2026

Your PDFs are yours. We do not read them, store them on our servers for later, sell them, or use them to train anything. This page explains, in plain language, exactly what the app does and does not do with your information.

Who this policy is from

This policy covers Tornado PDF for iPhone and iPad, published by the Tornado PDF team. If you have questions about anything on this page, email privacy@tornadopdf.com and a real person will answer.

What we collect and why

Files you process

Most tools run entirely on your iPhone or iPad. Merging, splitting, rotating, cropping, adding text, signing, and previewing all happen on the device, and the file never leaves your phone.

A few advanced tools, such as Word or Excel conversion, OCR, and watermark removal, need a little more processing power. When you use those tools, the app sends the file to a Tornado PDF backend service, the service performs the operation, and the result is sent back to your device. The file is kept just long enough to process, then deleted. It is never saved for training, analytics, or any kind of advertising.

Photos and camera

If you import a photo or scan a document with the camera, the image is read only when you pick it and used only to build the PDF you asked for. We never access your camera roll in the background.

Push notifications

We ask for push permission so we can notify you when a long running tool finishes while the app is in the background. You can say no at the prompt, and you can change your choice later from the iOS Settings app.

Analytics

We use Firebase Analytics to record which tools get opened, which ones succeed, and which ones fail. These events carry no file contents and no identifiers that can be tied to you personally. The goal is simple: know which tool broke yesterday, fix it by tonight.

Crashes

We use Firebase Crashlytics so when the app crashes we get a stack trace instead of a shrug. Crash reports include technical information about the crash and the device model, never the document you were working on.

Advertising in the free version

The free version shows ads served by Google Mobile Ads. When the app first becomes active, iOS shows the standard App Tracking Transparency prompt. If you allow tracking, Google may personalize the ads. If you say no, you still see ads, but they are not personalized. Premium removes all ads.

Purchases and subscriptions

Apple handles every Premium purchase through StoreKit. We receive a receipt that tells us whether your subscription is active, not your payment details. Your card number, Apple ID password, and billing address never touch our systems.

Support email

If you write to us, we keep the email thread and any attachments you choose to send for long enough to help you. We do not use support emails for marketing, and you can ask us to delete them at any time.

What we do not collect

• We do not collect the contents of your documents for any purpose other than running the tool you asked for.
• We do not sell or rent your data.
• We do not fingerprint or track you across other apps or websites.
• We do not train machine learning models on your files.

Where the processing happens

On device work happens on your iPhone or iPad. Server side tools route through our backend, hosted in data centers that meet modern security standards. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the legal basis for processing is the performance of the tool you asked us to run.

How long we keep things

• Files sent for server processing: deleted promptly after the result is returned, typically within minutes.
• Crash reports and analytics events: retained by Firebase for as long as Firebase retains them under their defaults, typically a few months.
• Support emails: kept for as long as the conversation is active, then archived and removed within a year unless you ask us to keep them longer.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete the personal information we hold. Send any request to privacy@tornadopdf.com and we will confirm within a reasonable time. We do not require an account or a password to use Tornado PDF, so most of the time the most meaningful deletion is simply uninstalling the app.

Children

Tornado PDF is not directed at children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that meaningfully affects you, we will update the date at the top and, if the change is significant, mention it inside the app. Continued use of Tornado PDF after a policy update means you accept the new policy.

Contact

Email privacy@tornadopdf.com for anything on this page.