Somewhere Safe terms of use (draft for legal review)

Status: draft v0.1. Not to be published as final until reviewed by a solicitor.

1. Who we are and what this is

Somewhere Safe is a service from STNC LTD (company no. 14679419, England and Wales) for keeping encrypted copies of documents and notes, finding them again, and, if you choose, letting people you trust reach them when you cannot. These terms are a contract between you and STNC. English law applies and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

2. What Somewhere Safe is not

• Not a will and not legal advice. Naming someone you trust does not give them any legal authority over your affairs, property or accounts. It lets them read what you stored. If you want someone to act for you, speak to a solicitor about a will, a lasting power of attorney or similar.
• Not a password manager. Do not store passwords in it. Store where your passwords are.
• Not a backup of last resort for originals. Keep original documents.
• Not a safeguarding, emergency or medical service.

3. Your passphrase and recovery words

Your vault is encrypted with a passphrase you choose and a recovery phrase we show you once. We never receive either. If you lose both, and nobody you trust has been granted access, your vault cannot be opened by anyone, including us, and we cannot restore it. You accept this is how the service works and is part of what makes it safe.

4. Someone you trust

When you name a person as someone you trust:

• They must have their own Somewhere Safe account. You confirm their identity by comparing six words on your two screens. Do not confirm if the words differ.
• They can ask for access to your vault at any time. We notify you at once and again while they wait. You may decline with one tap, or let them in sooner.
• If you do not decline within the waiting period you chose (at least 7 days), we release our half of a split key to them and they can read your vault. We cannot judge whether the request is justified; the waiting period and your ability to decline are the safeguard.
• Once released, access cannot be un-seen. You can re-key your vault ("Lock everyone out"), which stops further access and requires every trusted person to be confirmed again.
• STNC staff cannot grant, speed up or bypass this process.

You are responsible for choosing people you trust and for keeping your notification email and phone current so you receive our notices.

5. Sharing

You may share individual items with other account holders. They can read the item until you or they stop the share. A copy they have already downloaded remains with them.

6. Household vaults

Members of a household vault can read, add and change everything in it. Add only people you would hand the paper copies to.

7. Acceptable use

Do not store anything unlawful to possess, use the service to harm or coerce another person, attempt to access another person's vault without the protocol above, or interfere with the service. We may suspend accounts that do.

8. Fees

The free tier is free. Paid plans are billed through the App Store, Google Play or our website at the price shown when you subscribe, and can be cancelled at any time; access to paid features ends at the end of the paid period. If we withdraw the service we will give at least 90 days' notice and keep export available throughout.

9. Our responsibility

We will run the service with reasonable care and skill. Because we cannot read your data, we cannot check it, recover it or judge who should see it. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss caused by a lost passphrase or recovery phrase, by a person you trusted, by your device being compromised, or for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death, personal injury, fraud, or anything else that cannot be limited by law. Our total liability to you is limited to the fees you paid in the previous 12 months.

10. Changes

We will email account holders at least 30 days before material changes to these terms.