

When you create and share a PDF, anyone can access its contents and metadata. Now that the PDF is an open standard, there are many apps available to create, manage, and protect PDFs. Why protect PDFs with a password?Īdobe invented the PDF, or “Portable Document File”, in the early days of the internet and controlled the format as a proprietary file type until 2008. This article explains the four simplest ways to password protect a PDF for free on both PC and Mac.

There are dozens of ways to protect your PDFs, but not all of them are easy. If you’re sending a PDF that contains sensitive information, you should try to prevent it from being accessed by unauthorized parties. When you’re emailed an important document, like a completed contract or a bank statement, it usually comes as a PDF.
