Cordleaf PDF Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 22, 2026 · Updated November 10, 2026 for asking questions about a document (and the new name, formerly Pagelark) · Applies to Cordleaf PDF for Windows

The short version

Cordleaf PDF works on your device. It has no account, no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and it does not send your documents anywhere on its own. It goes online only when you ask it to translate selected text, or ask a question about a document, with a service you have set up.

Your documents

PDF, EPUB and Markdown files you open are read and edited on your device. Signing, adding and changing text, highlighting, merging, printing, exporting to Word, Markdown or EPUB, and text recognition (OCR) all happen on your device. Text recognition uses the engine built into Windows and works offline. We never receive your files.

Translation (only when you use it)

Translation is off until you choose a service in Settings and enter your own key. When you select text and choose Translate, that selected text is sent directly from your device to the service you chose:

• Tencent Cloud Machine Translation
• Google Gemini
• a service with an OpenAI-compatible API that you configured, such as DeepSeek, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (Qwen), Moonshot AI (Kimi), Zhipu (GLM), SiliconFlow, ModelScope, OpenRouter, OpenAI, or a server of your own
• Ollama running on your own computer, in which case the text does not leave your device

The text goes to that service, not to us, and is handled under that service's own privacy policy and terms, which you accepted when you obtained your key. Some services may use what you send to improve their products. Please check before translating confidential documents. Looking up a single English word uses a built-in offline dictionary and sends nothing.

Asking questions about a document (only when you use it)

In the side panel's Ask tab you can ask a language model about the open document. It uses the service you set up for translating (Google Gemini, or an OpenAI-compatible service such as those listed above; Tencent Cloud Machine Translation can't answer questions). The first time, the app asks whether you agree before anything is sent. When you ask, your question, the conversation so far and the document's text (all of it, or for a long document the parts most related to your question) are sent directly from your device to that service. The line under each answer shows which pages were used.

As with translation, that service handles the text under its own privacy policy and terms. With Google Gemini's free tier, Google may use what you send to improve its products, and people may review it. Don't use this for confidential documents; to keep everything on your device, choose Ollama running on your own computer. Conversations are kept in memory only and are gone when you close the document.

What is stored on your device

• Your settings: interface language, eye-care colour, translation service and model, the list of recently opened files, and where you stopped reading in each document.
• Your API keys, encrypted with Windows Data Protection so that only your Windows account can read them.
• Signatures you save to your signature library.

These are kept in your user profile, for example %APPDATA%\Cordleaf. They are never uploaded. Uninstalling the app, or deleting that folder, removes them.

Links and pictures

Web links in documents open in your browser only when you click them. Pictures on the web that are referenced by Markdown files are not downloaded.

Children

Cordleaf PDF does not collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about privacy: Jian Zhu, sunsunzhu@gmail.com

竹简 PDF 隐私政策