Delete Pages From a PDF Before You Share It (Especially the Private Ones)

A friend recently asked me to look at her bank statement to help her budget. She sent the whole 14-page PDF. Pages 1 to 4 were her current month. Pages 5 to 14 were her previous statements, with old transactions, old balances, even the address of her ex-roommate.

She didn't think about it. She just attached what was on her laptop. That's how most accidental data leaks happen — not through hacking, but through over-sharing.

Real situations where I delete pages before sharing

Sending only the relevant pages of a long contract to a colleague who only needs to review one clause. Trimming a 50-page report down to the 5-page summary section before posting it in a team chat. Removing the personal information page from a CV scan before forwarding it as a sample. Cutting out the cover letter pages from a combined application before sending the actual application form to a different department.

Each of these saves time for the reader and reduces what I share to only what's needed. That second part is what privacy people call "data minimisation," and it's a really good habit.

Why "send the whole file, they'll find what they need" is a bad idea

It puts the burden on the reader. It exposes information that didn't need to be shared. It increases the chance of someone forwarding the file with sensitive content still inside. And in regulated industries — finance, healthcare, legal — it can be an actual compliance issue.

Two minutes of trimming pages saves hours of explaining later.

How I do it in practice

Open the PDF. Identify which pages are essential. Delete the rest. Save under a new name (something like "contract-section-3-only.pdf") so I don't accidentally overwrite the full original. Send.

Always keep the original full file backed up. The trimmed version is for sharing; the original is for your own records.

Doing this without uploading anywhere

I deliberately don't use online tools that upload the whole document just to delete two pages. That defeats the entire point. The whole reason I'm trimming is because I don't want certain content out in the world. Our delete-pages tool runs in your browser. The PDF you load is processed on your computer. Pages get removed locally. Save the new version, and the original cloud-hosted file is the same one you started with — your own copy.

Try it on the next "FYI, attached" email you're about to send. Send only what's needed. Your future self (and the recipient) will thank you.