CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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jojoduffy
jojoduffy

Reputation: 9

Is there a way that a web developer can code an app to prevent a user from downloading, saving, printing, or taking a screenshot of a PDF?

I am wondering if there is a way to ensure that a PDF is "read-only" in the browser regardless of the permission settings tied to the PDF itself. Here is a possible scenario. Someone uploads a PDF to my site that is wide open in terms of permissions. As a developer, do I have a way to prevent users from downloading, printing, saving, or taking a screenshot of it? In other words, I want the user to be able to "read" the PDF in the browser, but not have the ability to download, print, or save, or screenshot it.

(I am using C#.Net in an MVC environment.)

Upvotes: 0

Views: 90

Answers (1)

Nasreddine
Nasreddine

Reputation: 37838

No there's no way to prevent copying the data from the PDF files. If it's on screen then the user can screenshot it and even if somehow you disable that they can run the browser inside a VM and use that to take a screenshot and if somehow you find a way to prevent that they can take a picture of their monitor.

There will always be a way to copy the data if it is presented to the user's browser.

Upvotes: 7

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