How We Protect Your Data

How Inherit Vault protects your data

Locked on your device, not ours

Everything you put in your vault is locked on your own device first. Your password makes the key. What reaches our servers is a locked box, and we cannot open it. This is not a promise about how we behave. It is how the system is built. We hold no master key and no back door. Nobody here can read your vault. Nor can anyone who breaks into our servers. Nor can anyone who orders us to hand it over.

The Recovery Certificate, how your family gets in

When you set up your vault we print you a Recovery Certificate. It carries your recovery phrase. Keep it with your will. Your solicitor can hold it in the same packet. Keep a second copy somewhere safe. It is the only way into your vault apart from your password. If you lose your password and your certificate, the vault is gone for good, for everyone. That is the price of real privacy. Once a year we ask you to confirm you still know where your certificate is.

What happens when you die

Your executor sends us the death certificate and proof of who they are. We check both. Then we wait 14 days. We have to. During that time we tell you and any other executors, so a false claim can be challenged. After that we hand over the vault, still locked. Your executor opens it with the recovery phrase from your printed certificate. Someone using forged papers would get a locked box they cannot open. The paper certificate kept with your will is the second key.

You do not need us

You can download your whole vault at any time. It stays locked. We also publish a small free tool at www.inheritvault.com/decrypt.html that opens it offline, using only your recovery phrase. The code is open for anyone to check, and the QR code on your certificate points to it. Your family does not need Inherit Vault to exist to get in.

Other protections

Every account has a second check at sign-in. You cannot store anything until it is switched on. Executors, partners and our own staff always need it. Get the password wrong too often and the account locks, and each time it locks for longer. We record every failed attempt and look at them. Every action that touches security is written to a log nobody can edit. Backups are locked as well, and kept in a different data centre from our servers.

Questions? Contact support@inheritvault.com.