What happens if your signed PDF document expires in Smallpdf? Learn all about file retention and signature security.
What happens if your signed PDF document expires in Smallpdf? Learn all about file retention and signature security.
Smallpdf prioritizes privacy and ensures the safety of your files. We aim to be as transparent as possible, which is especially important when it comes to how your data is processed and what happens with your file from the moment you upload it until you have completed the tasks you need to do. Once you share a file with others, the aspect of security becomes even more important. But first, let us walk you through Smallpdf’s security policy and document storage.
Smallpdf & eSign Security
We’re serious about data protection and privacy, so we do our utmost to ensure that everyone’s personal information is both safe and secure by adopting a host of security measures.
Our site is protected with HTTPS (or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), but what does this mean? Most websites you visit will have an “https” prefix in their URL. While you only type “www.google.com”, once the page loads, the full URL will read “https://www.google.com/”. You’ll also find a little padlock on the left of the URL. What this means is that the website you’ve accessed uses secure data transfer protocols, ensuring encrypted data transmission to prevent outsider access to the website. Of course, Smallpdf also uses this security measure.
We’re both GDPR compliant and ISO/IEC 27001 certified, and all our tools carry a bunch of other security features. Your documents are furthermore protected by secure European servers and TLS encryption, which guarantees the safety and security of your data. Whatever tool you’re using, you’re in absolute control of your files as well as who can access, edit, or see them.
When you upload a file to our servers to, for example, compress it, we keep it there for a set period of one hour. Once that time has run out, we automatically delete the file. Within this hour, you can download the file or continue working with it on Smallpdf.
There are only two exceptions: Sharing the file (via email or link) with others, or requesting signatures from third parties through our eSign service. In both cases, we keep the file on our servers for 14 days. That should give everyone involved plenty of time to answer your request and sign the document. It goes without saying that only you and the rest of the signees will have access to your files. You can cancel the sign request at any time via our eSign tool page.
How Long Is an eSign Document Saved to Smallpdf?
When you use our eSign tool, the signed PDF will be stored online for 14 days before it’s deleted. We want to ensure that all signees have adequate time to process these documents, so whenever you sign a PDF document with our eSign tool and share it with other parties, every document signee will receive an email including a link to download the final signed version of the document.
The 14-day clock will restart if the file is accessed within 14 days. If no one accesses the file and the 14 days expire, we permanently delete the document form our servers. That means no one, not even you, can access the file on Smallpdf any more.
Should you open an account with Smallpdf—whether it’s paid or unpaid— and choose to use the file storage, your files will remain on our servers for as long as you want. If you do choose to delete a file, it will take an hour for it to be permanently deleted from our servers—just to be on the safe side. We don’t want you do permanently delete the wrong file. So, in short, any eSign documents not uploaded to the file storage will be deleted from our servers after 14 days of inaction.
Recovering an Expired Document
Once an eSign document has expired from our servers, it cannot be reinstated. That would defeat the purpose of safety and data protection. But, using the eSign platform, you can quickly and easily upload a new PDF to send for signing. We also encourage you to download your signed documents before the 14-day expiration, so you can store it for safekeeping. It would be a shame if your final document, signed by all parties, ended up getting deleted automatically before you download it. Just to reiterate, though: After the signee accesses and signs the file, the period of 14 days will start over.
We know how important it is to consider the safety and security of your PDFs and to manage them efficiently. Remember, if you’re ever unsure or have any questions, we’re only an email away!
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