What recruiters can see that you cannot
Many applicant systems and preview panes surface document properties. A resume that looks anonymous on the page can still say Author: your legal name, or Creator: the laptop account you used at your current job. Sanitizing a resume PDF is about those fields and leftover revision objects, not about rewriting your work history.
Tracked changes and “I deleted that paragraph”
If you edited a CV in a way that produced an incremental PDF, old bullets can still live behind the page. We rebuild the file so those objects are not sitting in the download. Always open the download and read it. Metadata cleanup is not a substitute for a final proofread.
Emails and phone numbers in the file
If you want a public CV without a personal email, we can flag addresses and phone numbers in text we can extract. Visible name, photo, and LinkedIn URL on the page will still be there. Decide what the document should say, then strip what it should not carry in the properties.
How to sanitize a resume PDF
01
Export to PDF
Word and Pages files are not accepted. Export PDF, then drop that file. Max 25 MB on this page.
02
Review identity leaks
Check Author/Creator, hidden revisions, and any emails or phone numbers we can read in the text.
03
Attach the download
Use the rewritten PDF on the job site. Your original export can stay on disk with the tags if you want them.
Questions
Should I sanitize my resume for every application?
If the PDF came from Word, Pages, or Google Docs export, yes — at least once per export. Re-exporting usually writes metadata again, so scrub the file you actually attach.
Will this remove my name from the resume text?
No. It removes metadata and optional contact patterns we can read. Your name in the heading stays unless you edit the document yourself.
Can I clean a resume on my phone?
Yes, in the mobile browser, as long as you have a PDF (not a Word attachment). No account is required for one file.