Can PDF Authors Steal Implemented Data From Fillable Forms?

Report · Jan 30, 2018

Hi all. I am trying to solve a mystery and would love some help. Here is the rundown.....

I sell a product and the company that I work for is a very small mom and pop type shop on which I was hired to get us online. Before me we did not even accept credit cards, did not have a website and had zero selling methods using e-commerce. Shortly after I was hired I created us a website, an online store and entered us into the world of e-commerce. We are now nationwide and get calls daily from all over the country. We are dealers for larger manufacturers (7 to be exact) and act like brokers in that we deal directly with the customers, design and price their product to their satisfaction, take and write up their information on the manufacturers ORDER FORMS and make the sale while taking a down payment (our cut) and then faxing the signed order in to the manufacterer who then ultimately fulfills the order. We use seven different order forms from seven different manufacturers and each was all third and created by someone with in that particular company. These are fillable PDF forms that they provide us dealers with to take the orders. We also use them to send our customers quotes before they have decided to order. We frequently make changes until they’re happy with the price and decide to actually purchase. We never submit the forms through Adobe reader and typically just print them out and fax them in to whichever manufacture that we have sold the product from. My question is, can the content that we fill in these quotes or order forms be accessible to our manufacturers before we have submitted them? Can they view say a customers name and phone number that I fill-in plus they’re proud of interest that I am quoting them on? I have been told dozens of times by customers that we are the only company that they reach out to for this product only to then be called back to back with solicitors and sellers of the same product. They offer it at a lower price and or a shorter delivery time and I’m sure have stolen many customers from us. I was flat out accused today of selling a customers information to larger online companies that also are partnered with my manufacture. Since our entire system was created by myself I know that I am not selling any information nor would even consider giving this information to our competitors. The only thing that I can possibly think of is that my manufacture is selling the info from these fillable PDF’s and which were used to quote our customers. Is this possible? I have recently created our own quote form using a fillable PDF however I am worried that they are now just into my system completely and can access my customer logs etc. Please advise and would appreciate any and all comments and/or advice. Thank you!!

Kind Regards, Amy

Report · Jan 30, 2018

Sentence is supposed to read...

We use seven different order forms from seven different manufacturers each authored and created by someone within that particular company.

Sorry and shouldve proofread before submitting.

Report · Jan 31, 2018

Short answer: Unless you explicitly approve it, no. Be cognizant of the location of the files you're working on, though. If you work on a file that's located on "the cloud" then it might also automatically save any changes you make to it to the cloud, making them available to the author. But if you download a PDF file to your local computer, fill it in and save it, it's not going to be shared with anyone, unless you submit it (in which case you'll be asked to approve of this action) or it's a part of a distributed shared review, which should also be quite clear.

In Response To try67 · Jan 31, 2018

You may have been hacked. There are many ways. Doesn’t need to be the PDFs. For example, is your email secure? Do you always use the same PC, which could have a keylogger?

One strategy you could try is to try sending a fake quote email with a friend’s details. See if they are contacted. Don’t discuss this on your computers in any way, just talk.

In Response To Test Screen Name · Jan 31, 2018

I actually did that yesterday. Only to myself with my own cell phone number. I did not use my name though in a different city and state and zip. We will see what happens. It’s pretty crazy to think that companies would hack little old me however we do pop up first and Google listings when people search for our product. I actually did that yesterday. Only to myself with my own cell phone number. I did not use my name though in a different city and state and zip. We will see what happens. It’s pretty crazy to think that companies would hack little old me however we do pop up first and Google listings when people search for our product. Thank you for your comment.

In Response To try67 · Jan 31, 2018

I was afraid of this answer. Since my job is commission based only I use one drive and Google Drive to make sure that if I start working on quote at the office I can finish it at home on my laptop and that all the changes are present on both my PC and laptop. I guess I will just have to start saving up to each desktop or not really sure of the solution to this quite yet. I also use Adobe document cloud sometimes. I’m all over the place and constantly busy I really need to revamp my system. Thank you for the input.