It's a record, delivered with your finished job, that states what was done to your file and when it was destroyed — carrying a SHA-256 hash of the exact file you received, which you can verify yourself in seconds.
The problem with just taking a vendor's word for it
Almost any service will tell you "your data is deleted after processing." Almost none of them give you a way to check that claim against anything. A sentence in a privacy policy isn't evidence — it's a promise.
What you can actually verify, and what you're trusting
The certificate carries the SHA-256 hash of your delivered file. Run that hash yourself (one command, no special software) — if it matches, you're holding precisely the file the certificate describes, byte for byte, not a substituted or tampered copy. The hash proves the file's identity. The deletion itself is what the certificate and the job record state took place — that part, like any destruction claim from any vendor, is attested, not independently provable by you after the fact.
Where this breaks down — said plainly
- The hash doesn't prove deletion happened — it proves the file you're holding is genuine. Those are different claims; this page is being direct about which one you can check yourself.
- It covers the job's own copies. It can't speak to copies you made yourself before or after the job.
Related guides
Where this fits on the site: this is part of how every job runs here, across all services. See Services & Pricing for what's actually sold, or go straight to Choose your job.