Privacy

The short version

iHateFiles has no accounts and no upload endpoint. Every conversion runs inside your own browser tab, on your own processor, using your own memory. Your files never leave the device you are reading this on.

The site does measure its own use. Microsoft Clarity records which pages are opened and where people click, so we can tell which tools are worth the work. That is about the site rather than about your files, which are never uploaded and never will be.

Why it works this way

Most converters take your file, send it to a server, convert it there and send it back. That means your file sits on somebody else's disk, however briefly, and you are trusting a privacy policy about what happens to it next.

Browsers can now do this work themselves. Image decoding and encoding is built in, and FFmpeg compiles to WebAssembly, so the conversion that used to need a server runs in the page. Once that is true, the server stops being a feature and becomes a liability, so there is not one.

What is stored, and where

• Your files: nowhere. They are read into memory and released when you close the tab.
• Your settings: in your browser's local storage, on your device. Output formats, saved recipes and recent tools.
• Cookies: two, set by Microsoft Clarity, to tell one visit from the next. Nothing else on the site sets a cookie.
• Analytics: Microsoft Clarity. Pages opened, clicks, a recording of how the page was used, and a few named steps — a file added, a conversion finished, a download — so we can see where people get stuck. Those steps carry which tool was used and nothing about the file. Filenames are masked and the files themselves are never uploaded, so neither can appear in it. Microsoft's privacy statement covers what they do with it.
• Server logs: ordinary web server request logs for the pages and code themselves, which never contain your files because your files are never sent.

How to verify it

Do not take this on trust. Open the Network tab in your browser's developer tools and convert a file: you will see the page load, a request to Clarity, and nothing at all carrying your file. Better still, load the site, disconnect from the internet, and keep converting. It works offline, which it could not do if a server were doing the work.

Questions

Are my files uploaded?

No. There is no upload endpoint on this site, so there is nowhere for a file to go. Your browser reads the file from your disk, converts it in the page, and gives it back to you.

How can I check that for myself?

Open your browser's developer tools, go to the Network tab, and convert something. You will see the page and its code load, a request to Clarity for the analytics, and after that nothing carrying your file. You can also disconnect from the internet after the page loads and keep converting, which only works because the conversion is genuinely local.

Do you use cookies or analytics?

Analytics, yes. The site uses Microsoft Clarity to see which pages and tools people actually use, which sets a cookie and records the pages you visit and where you click. It is about how the site is used, never about what you convert: your files are read and converted inside the tab and are not sent anywhere, and filenames are masked so they cannot appear in a recording either. There is no advertising and nothing is sold to anyone.

Do you store anything at all?

Only your own settings, and only in your browser. Your preferred output format, saved recipes and recently used tools live in local storage on your device. Clearing your browser data removes them and nothing else is affected.

Is there an account?

No. There is nothing to sign up for, no email address to give, and no limit that an account would lift.

What about the conversion engine?

Video and audio work uses FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. It is served from this site rather than a third-party CDN, downloaded once, then cached by your browser. It runs inside the page with no network access of its own.