Terms of Service

1. What deadkey.net is

deadkey.net is a zero-knowledge dead-man switch. You ("the Owner") use it to escrow access to a secret you already hold — a PIN, code, or password — by splitting it, using a one-time codebook, between what you keep in your head and a coordinate sequence we hold as encrypted data we cannot read. You designate one or two trusted people, each of whom receives a printed Recovery Sheet.

If a trusted person believes you have died or become incapacitated, they may start a 10-day countdown. We notify you (by email, and by SMS if you opted in) with a one-tap link to cancel the countdown. If you do not cancel within 10 days, we release the encrypted coordinate sequence to the trusted person, who decodes it using the codebook they were given at setup.

We never see your secret, your codebook, or the plaintext of your release message. We do not verify, and cannot verify, whether you have actually died or become incapacitated — the entire design intentionally avoids giving us or anyone else that power. A trigger reflects only that a trusted person took an action; it is not proof of anything, which is why the cancel window and notifications exist.

This is inherently a service with real consequences if it fails to work as intended — either by releasing a secret that shouldn't have been released, or by failing to release one that should have been. Please read Sections 6 and 7 (Your responsibilities) and Sections 9–10 (Disclaimers and limitation of liability) carefully.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create a record, act as a trusted person, or otherwise use deadkey.net. By using the service, you represent that you meet this requirement.

3. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Use deadkey.net for any unlawful purpose, or to store or transmit anything you do not have the legal right to store or transmit;
Attempt to interfere with, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to the service, its infrastructure, or other users' records;
Attempt to circumvent, probe, or reverse-engineer the service's security or cryptographic design for malicious purposes (responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities is welcome — see our Security page for how to report them);
Use the trigger mechanism in bad faith — for example, triggering a countdown on someone you have no genuine reason to believe is deceased or incapacitated;
Submit false, misleading, or another person's contact information without their knowledge and consent, where such consent is legally required (see Section 8, SMS terms, for phone number consent specifically).

We may suspend or terminate access to the service for anyone who violates these terms.

4. Your responsibilities as the Owner

deadkey.net is a tool you configure and operate largely on your own — its design deliberately limits what we can see or do on your behalf. As the Owner, you are responsible for:

The secret you escrow. You choose what PIN, code, or password to protect. We have no way to evaluate whether it is strong, appropriate, or wise to escrow, and no way to recover it if you forget it or lose the paper materials needed to reconstruct it.
Choosing trusted people carefully. A trusted person who triggers a countdown starts a process that, if not cancelled, ends in release of your encrypted material. Choose people you genuinely trust to act appropriately and only when warranted.
Keeping your contact information accurate. Your ability to cancel a countdown depends entirely on us being able to reach you at the email (and phone, if provided) you registered. There is currently no way to update contact details after setup — if they become outdated, your ability to cancel a mistaken or malicious trigger may be compromised.
Safeguarding your printed materials. The Owner Receipt and any other printed materials from setup contain information relevant to your record. Store them appropriately.
Not relying on deadkey.net as your only copy of anything irreplaceable. deadkey.net is designed so that we cannot recover your secret or your record for you under any circumstance — not by customer support, not by court order, not by any means — because we genuinely do not have the ability to decrypt it. Do not treat deadkey.net as a substitute for your own backups, your own memory, or professional estate planning. If you lose the materials needed to reconstruct your secret, or if your trusted people all lose their Recovery Sheets, that information may be permanently and irrecoverably lost. This is an inherent feature of a zero-knowledge design, not a malfunction.

5. Trusted people

If you are acting as a trusted person, you are responsible for keeping your Recovery Sheet secure and using it only when you have a genuine, good-faith basis to believe the Owner has died or become incapacitated. Triggering a countdown notifies the Owner and starts a 10-day window; it does not immediately release anything. If the Owner cancels, no release occurs and no further action is needed from you.

6. Payment and refunds

Price. deadkey.net records are $3.00, one time, per record, covering one or two trusted people at your choice, and valid for 3 years from creation. There is no subscription and no recurring charge.
Beta/promo codes. During the current beta period, a valid beta or promo code may allow you to create a record at no charge. This is a temporary program, not a permanent discount, and may be limited, changed, or discontinued at any time without notice.
Payment processing. All payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store your card details.
Refunds — unused tokens. If you paid but never completed setup (for example, you closed your browser before finishing), you may request a refund by emailing support@deadkey.net with your Stripe receipt. Unused payment tokens expire 90 days after purchase and are not refundable after expiration.
Refunds — completed records. Once a record has been created, no refund is available. This is a deliberate consequence of the service's anonymity design: we cannot identify which record corresponds to your payment without breaking the separation between payment data and record data that keeps your record anonymous, and the service has already been rendered at the point of record creation.
Free (beta/promo) records. No refund applies to records created at no charge via a beta or promo code, since no payment was made.

7. SMS terms

If you opt in to SMS notifications during setup, the following terms apply:

Opt-in required. SMS notifications are off by default. You must affirmatively check a box and provide your mobile number to enable them. This consent is not shared with, sold to, or used by any third party for marketing or promotional purposes.
Message types. You will receive, at most: (1) a one-time phone verification code at setup, and (2) if a trusted person triggers a countdown on your record, countdown-alert messages containing a one-tap cancel link, sent roughly every 3 days across the 10-day countdown (about 4 messages total, only if a trigger occurs). We do not send marketing messages by SMS.
Frequency. Low and event-driven. Most owners will only ever receive the one-time verification message, since most records are never triggered.
Message and data rates may apply, depending on your mobile carrier and plan.
Opt-out. Reply STOP at any time to stop receiving SMS messages from us. Reply HELP for help, or contact support@deadkey.net. Opting out of SMS does not affect your email notifications, which remain the primary and required notification channel.
Carrier disclaimer. Message delivery is not guaranteed and depends on your carrier and device. We are not responsible for delayed or undelivered messages caused by your carrier, device, or network conditions. Given this, and given that a cancel link may be time-sensitive, we strongly recommend not relying on SMS as your only notification channel — keep your registered email address accurate and monitored as well.

8. Intellectual property

The deadkey.net name, branding, and the software that operates the service belong to us or our licensors. Nothing in these terms grants you rights to our intellectual property beyond what is necessary to use the service as intended. You retain all rights to your own secret and any content you choose to escrow.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

deadkey.net is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Without limiting the above, we do not warrant that:

The service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;
Notifications (email or SMS) will always be delivered, or delivered promptly enough for you to cancel a countdown before it completes;
A release will occur when expected, or will not occur due to error, misuse, or a trusted person's mistaken or bad-faith trigger;
Any secret, once lost through your own forgetfulness or loss of printed materials, can be recovered by us in any way.

This is not legal advice, financial advice, or estate-planning advice. deadkey.net is a technical tool for escrowing access to a secret. It is not a substitute for a will, a power of attorney, a trust, or advice from a qualified attorney or financial planner regarding your estate, your assets, or your affairs. If what you are protecting has legal or financial significance, consult a qualified professional in addition to, not instead of, using this service.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of data, secrets, access, opportunity, or goodwill, arising from or related to your use of deadkey.net — including, without limitation, damages arising from a countdown that completes when it should have been cancelled, a countdown that fails to complete or notify when it should have, a secret that becomes permanently unrecoverable, or any third-party provider's failure to deliver a notification.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim arising from these terms or your use of the service will not exceed the amount you paid us for the record giving rise to the claim (or, for records created at no charge via a beta/promo code, will be limited to a nominal amount, as permitted by applicable law).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages or warranties, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you in full.

11. Termination and record deletion

There are no user accounts to terminate. You may permanently delete a record at any time using your owner email and delete code at /delete. We may suspend or remove a record that we reasonably believe violates Section 3 (Acceptable use) or applicable law.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the effective date above. Continued use of deadkey.net after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising from these terms or your use of deadkey.net will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Florida, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

14. Severability and entire agreement

If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect. These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding use of deadkey.net.