Privacy policy
Last updated 14 October 2026
This policy explains what personal data PaperMend collects, why, and what happens to it. PaperMend is run by Steve Austen, trading as Violet Pixels, Unit 17 Joseph Wilson Industrial Estate, Whitstable, Kent CT5 3PS, United Kingdom, who is the data controller. Contact: hello@violetpixels.co.uk.
The short version: we keep as little as we can. Your documents are deleted after 7 days and are used only to edit them for you, or, if you send us a page when you report a problem, to put that problem right. We do not sell data, and there are no advertising trackers.
What we collect and why
| Data | Why we have it | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address | To sign you in (we email you a link instead of using a password), to run your account, and to tell you about changes to the service or your subscription. Lawful basis: performing our contract with you. | While your account exists. Email us to close it. |
| Documents you upload, the images made from them, the text read from them, and your edits | To do what you asked: read the page, let you edit it, and make your PDF. Lawful basis: performing our contract with you. | Deleted automatically 7 days after upload, or sooner if you delete them. They are not included in our backups. |
| Usage counts (pages and AI corrections this month) and your plan | To apply the allowances of your plan. | While your account exists. |
| Subscription details: your Stripe customer and subscription references, plan, status and renewal date | To know whether you are on Pro and to let you manage your subscription. We do not receive or store your card number. | While your account exists. |
| A sign-in cookie | To keep you signed in for 30 days. It contains only a random token and is essential to the service; there are no advertising or analytics cookies. | 30 days, or until you sign out. |
| A list of your recent documents, stored in your browser | So the start screen can show them without a round trip. It stays on your device. | Until you clear your browser's storage. |
| Server logs: your IP address, the pages requested and the time | To keep the service running securely, to limit abuse (for example, too many sign-in requests from one address) and to diagnose faults. Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in running a secure service. | Up to 14 days. |
| Problem reports you send from the editor (Report a problem, under More) | What you write, your email address, the document's name and the page you were on, your browser and window size, and any errors the editor met, so we can find the problem, put it right and reply to you. If you tick the box to send the page, a picture of it, the text read from it and your changes to it are sent too; otherwise they are not. Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in fixing faults you tell us about, and, for the page, your choice to send it. | Up to 90 days. They are not included in our backups. |
| Error reports | If PaperMend hits a fault, a report of the error may be sent to an error-monitoring service so we can fix it. Reports do not include your documents or their text. | Up to 90 days. |
Who else sees your data
We use a small number of suppliers to run PaperMend. Each acts only on our instructions and only with the data needed for its job.
- KnownHost hosts our server, in the Netherlands. Your documents and account data are stored there. Sign-in and service emails are sent from our own mail server on the same host.
- Anthropic provides the AI service used for "fix reading errors and find handwriting with AI". When you turn it on, the image of each page and the text recognised on it are sent to Anthropic's API, in the United States, so the AI can correct misread words, keep each paragraph or address in one piece, and find handwriting. With the same tick box on, when you remove a stamp from text, the image of the part of the page around it and the text read there are sent in the same way so the AI can suggest the words the stamp covered. Under Anthropic's API terms, data sent this way is not used to train its models. If you leave the tick box off, nothing is sent to Anthropic.
- Stripe takes payments for Pro and acts as the seller of record. Stripe receives your email address, name, billing address and payment details directly from you on its payment page, and handles them under Stripe's privacy policy. Stripe may also contact you about a payment or refund.
- Sentry receives error reports as described above.
Where data leaves the UK (Anthropic in the United States, Stripe's group companies), the transfer is covered by the supplier's standard contractual clauses or an equivalent legal safeguard. We do not sell personal data or share it with advertisers.
Documents that contain other people's data
Documents you upload may contain personal data about other people, such as a letter or invoice with someone's name and address. You are responsible for having the right to process that data. We process it only to provide the service to you, for at most 7 days, and we do not read it unless you send us the page with a problem report.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to our processing of it, or ask for it in a portable form. Email hello@violetpixels.co.uk. We will reply within one month. You can delete your documents yourself at any time from the start screen. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk; if you are in the EU, to your local data protection authority.
Security
Connections to PaperMend are encrypted (HTTPS). Sign-in links work once and expire after 15 minutes. The server is kept updated automatically, access is by key only, and account data is backed up nightly to encrypted storage. Uploaded documents are excluded from backups so that deletion means deletion.
Children
PaperMend is not aimed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data.
Changes
We will post changes to this policy here and, for changes that matter, email the address on your account.