Terms & Conditions

1. The service

Notenz is an automated check-in service that stores your encrypted notes and files and delivers them to your chosen recipients if you stop checking in. By creating an account you agree to these terms.

Notenz is not a substitute for a notarized will, testament, or other legally binding testamentary disposition. Delivery of vault content does not effect any legal succession and does not replace inheritance-law arrangements. You are solely responsible for the legal validity of any declarations contained in your vault content.

2. Your account

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure. Use a strong password or the email-code login option. You must be at least 18 years old to use Notenz.

One account per person. Do not create accounts on behalf of others without their consent.

3. Your content

You own everything you store in your vault. We don't claim any rights over your content. We just encrypt it and store it on your behalf.

For your default vault, Notenz holds the encryption key needed to deliver your content automatically. We don't read it in normal operation, but we technically could. Sealed Vault (Guardian) is encrypted with a key only you know, which we never have. See our Security page for the full explanation.

Sealed Vault password (Guardian). If you turn on the optional separate Sealed Vault password, it becomes the only way to unlock your Sealed Vault secrets. If you forget this password, Notenz cannot recover your Sealed Vault secrets under any circumstances. There is no reset, no backup key, and no support process that can get them back. Resetting your normal account login password does not affect this.

Shared-Key Vault Item (Guardian). This item type is encrypted in your browser using a key that you generate yourself. Notenz never receives or stores this key. Before your vault executes, you are solely responsible for sharing that key with your recipient through a separate channel of your choosing (for example, telling them in person or sending it via a messaging app). If you lose the key, or never share it with your recipient, your recipient will still receive the encrypted item when your vault executes, but they will have no way to open it, and Notenz cannot help recover or decrypt it. This outcome is the result of how the feature works, not a failure of Notenz to deliver your vault.

You must not store content that is illegal or that would harm your recipients. You are responsible for the content you designate for delivery.

4. Vault execution

Notenz will attempt to deliver your vault when your check-in timer expires. We cannot guarantee delivery in all circumstances: email delivery may be delayed, rejected by spam filters, or fail for technical reasons outside our control.

Notenz is a best-effort service, not a legal instrument. It is not a substitute for a will, legal power of attorney, or any formal legal arrangement. For matters of legal significance, consult a qualified professional.

Your vault content is automatically deleted 30 days after execution. See Section 11.

Staged/timed release (Guardian): Guardian plan subscribers may configure a delivery delay (immediately, or 7, 30, 90, or 365 days after vault execution) for each recipient on a vault item. Items with a delivery delay are held encrypted on our servers and delivered automatically once the configured delay has elapsed. Staged/timed release does not change how your content is encrypted or retained; it only changes when a recipient receives it. Staged/timed release is not available for Two-Person Secret items. A vault recall (Section 14) cancels any staged deliveries that have not yet gone out.

File delivery links: When your vault executes, each recipient receives a secure, personal download link for any files you have stored. This link is valid for 90 days from the date of delivery for Free and Pro plan accounts, or 365 days for Guardian plan accounts. Recipients may re-download the file as many times as needed within that window. After the expiry period, the delivery link expires and the stored delivery copy is permanently removed. Recipients should save the file locally before the link expires.

Two-Person Secret file delivery: When you use the Two-Person Secret feature with a file vault item, Notenz splits a short access token among the recipients you select for that item (2 or more), such that any 2 of those recipients can combine their shares to reconstruct it. A single share reveals nothing on its own. Any 2 of the assigned recipients must combine their shares at the reconstruct page to initiate the download. Once the file has been downloaded, the download window is limited to 24 hours from first access, after which the recipients must redo the reconstruction to download again. The access token and encrypted file copy are stored for up to 365 days from the date of vault execution to allow time for recipients to coordinate, after which they are permanently deleted.

5. Free, Pro and Guardian plans

Free plan: 1 vault note, 1 recipient, email notifications only.

Pro plan: unlimited notes, files up to 20 MB each, up to 3 recipients, email, Telegram, and SMS notifications, staged delivery to recipients. 12-hour vault recall window. Delivery links valid for 90 days. Billed monthly or annually. You can cancel any time, and your vault remains active until the end of the billing period.

Guardian plan: Everything in Pro, plus Shared-Key Vault Items (vault items you encrypt yourself with a key Notenz never sees), Sealed Vault (zero-knowledge encrypted secrets, with an optional separate Sealed Vault password), per-item phrase encryption (4-word passphrase, browser-side only), Two-Person Secret (Shamir 2-of-N secret sharing), Trusted Contact alerts, Staged/Timed Release (per-recipient delivery delays of 0/7/30/90/365 days), QR-Vault deliveries (a printed QR code and 6-digit PIN the vault owner sets; access is controlled entirely by the PIN and activates only after the vault executes; Notenz stores a bcrypt hash of the PIN and the associated vault items), unlimited recipients, files up to 250 MB each, 24-hour vault recall window, delivery links valid for 365 days. Billed monthly or annually. You can cancel any time, and your vault remains active until the end of the billing period.

Prices may change with at least 30 days notice to existing subscribers; see Section 8 (Price Changes).

6. Service availability

We endeavor to provide the Service with as little interruption as possible but do not guarantee 100% average annual uptime. Downtime may result in particular from: (a) scheduled maintenance, which we announce with reasonable advance notice where possible; (b) outages or disruptions at third-party hosting, payment, email, SMS, or other infrastructure providers we engage, over whose operational reliability we have no direct control (see our Privacy Policy for the current list of processors engaged); (c) force majeure within the meaning of the following paragraph.

For the Service's core function — reliably recording check-ins and timely executing vault delivery when a check-in is missed — we implement reasonable technical safeguards (including redundant scheduling, automated resumption after interruptions, and external uptime and heartbeat monitoring). We cannot, however, guarantee execution at the exact scheduled moment under all circumstances.

Force majeure means events outside our sphere of influence that we could not have averted even with reasonable effort, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, governmental measures, strikes, pandemics, widespread internet outages, or large-scale outages of central infrastructure providers not caused by us. Ordinary, foreseeable operational risks (e.g., routine maintenance windows of our vendors, ordinary server load) do not constitute force majeure.

7. Your responsibilities and data backup

You are solely responsible for the accuracy and currency of the vault content, recipient information, and contact details you store.

You are obligated to independently maintain regular backup copies of particularly important, irreplaceable content outside the Service, to the extent reasonably possible for you technically and practically. This applies in particular to content encrypted exclusively client-side under the Sealed Vault or Shared-Key features using a key unknown to us (zero-knowledge encryption): if you lose the key or password you alone hold, we are technically unable to recover the affected content.

If you breach this obligation, any resulting contributory negligence within the meaning of § 254 BGB will be taken into account when assessing any claim for damages. This does not exclude our liability for data loss caused by our own intentional or grossly negligent conduct (see Section 9).

8. Pricing, payment, price changes

The prices stated on this website at the time of order apply. As a small business within the meaning of § 19 UStG (German VAT Act), we do not currently show VAT separately.

Paid plans automatically renew for the selected billing period unless cancelled before the end of the period. Cancellation is available at any time via account settings, effective at the end of the current billing period.

Price changes for ongoing contracts will be communicated with at least 30 days advance notice before taking effect, in text form (e.g., by email). Price increases do not apply retroactively to already-billed periods. If you do not object to a price increase within the notice period, this shall not be construed as consent; instead, you have a special right of termination effective as of the date the increase takes effect. If you exercise this special right of termination, we will refund the pro-rata share of any pre-paid fees not yet used as of the date of termination.

9. Limitation of liability

Unlimited liability. We are liable without limitation under statutory provisions (a) for damages arising from injury to life, body, or health, even from simple negligence; (b) for damages resulting from intent or gross negligence; (c) in the case of an express guarantee; (d) under the mandatory provisions of the German Product Liability Act; (e) where we have fraudulently concealed a defect.

Cardinal obligations. For slightly negligent breach of a material contractual obligation (cardinal obligation), our liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for contracts of this type. Cardinal obligations include, in particular: properly storing your server-side encrypted vault content, correctly recording and processing a timely check-in, triggering vault execution upon a missed check-in after the grace period has elapsed, and delivering vault content to your correctly designated recipients.

In all other cases — slightly negligent breach of a non-material ancillary obligation — our liability is excluded. Subject to the paragraphs above, claims for indirect damages, lost profits, lost savings, and other unforeseeable consequential damages are excluded to the extent legally permissible.

Data loss. For data loss, we are liable within the framework above only to the extent the damage could not have been avoided even with reasonable independent backup measures under Section 7. For content stored exclusively via zero-knowledge encryption, our liability for data loss due to your own loss of your key or password is excluded, as recovery is technically impossible for us.

Vicarious agents and engaged service providers. For fault on the part of our vicarious agents within the meaning of § 278 BGB — including third-party processors we engage — we are liable on the same basis as for our own fault. We are not responsible for outages outside the sphere of influence of both us and our vicarious agents (force majeure, Section 6).

Important notice: This limitation of liability applies solely between us and the contracting User. It does not extend to claims by third parties (in particular recipients or trusted contacts) who are not parties to these Terms.

10. Right of withdrawal for consumers

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period will expire fourteen days from the day the contract was concluded.

To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us (Klarschritt – Ahmed El Taweel, Irmtraud-Morgner-Straße 11, 10318 Berlin, Germany, email: [email protected]) of your decision by an unambiguous statement (e.g., a letter or email). You may use the model withdrawal form below, though it is not obligatory. To meet the deadline, it is sufficient to send your communication before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal: If you withdraw, we shall reimburse all payments received from you without undue delay and no later than fourteen days from the day we received notice of your withdrawal.

Early performance. If you expressly agreed at purchase that we begin performance of the contract before the withdrawal period expired, you shall pay us an amount proportional to what had already been performed up until your withdrawal notice, compared with the full scope of services provided for in the contract.

Model Withdrawal Form
To Klarschritt – Ahmed El Taweel, Irmtraud-Morgner-Straße 11, 10318 Berlin, Germany, email: [email protected]:

I/We hereby give notice that I/we withdraw from my/our contract for the provision of the following service: Notenz subscription
Ordered on: __________
Name of consumer(s): __________
Address of consumer(s): __________
Date: __________

11. Refunds and cancellations

Cancellation. You may cancel your Pro or Guardian subscription at any time from the billing page. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Your vault and all features remain fully active until then.

Monthly plans. Monthly subscriptions are not eligible for partial-month refunds. If you cancel mid-month, you retain access until the period ends, and no refund is issued for unused days.

Annual plans. If you cancel an annual Pro or Guardian subscription within 14 days of purchase and your vault has not executed during that period, you may request a full refund (this is separate from, and runs alongside, the statutory 14-day right of withdrawal in Section 10). After 14 days, no refund is issued for the remainder of the annual term.

Post-execution accounts. If your vault has executed during the subscription period, delivering content to your recipients, no refund will be issued for that billing period, regardless of cancellation date.

Billing disputes. All payments are processed by Lemon Squeezy, Inc., our Merchant of Record. If you believe you were charged in error, contact [email protected] first. We resolve most billing issues within 2 business days. For unresolved disputes, you may contact Lemon Squeezy directly or initiate a chargeback with your card issuer.

To request a refund, email [email protected] with your account email and order reference. Approved refunds are processed within 5 to 10 business days to the original payment method.

12. Subscription freeze and data retention

If your Pro or Guardian subscription expires or payment fails, your account enters a frozen state. In this state, you retain read-only access to your vault and your files and notes are preserved, but you may not add, edit, or delete vault items. While your account is frozen, check-in monitoring is paused and your vault will not execute on a missed check-in. Your vault is delivered to your recipients only if you have selected the delivery option as your frozen-account expiry preference (see below).

Frozen accounts and all associated data are retained for at least 30 days from the subscription expiry date. What happens after those 30 days depends on the expiry preference in your account settings. The default is Hold: your account and vault data are kept, and we send you a renewal reminder every 7 days until you renew or choose otherwise. You can instead opt to have your vault delivered to your recipients, or to have your account and all stored data (including vault items and uploaded files) permanently deleted. If you have chosen deletion, we will send a reminder email 7 days before deletion.

To reactivate your account, renew your subscription via the billing page at any time while your account is held, or within the 30-day window if you have chosen delivery or deletion.

13. Post-execution data retention

When your vault executes and your information is delivered to your recipients, Notenz retains your vault content for a 30-day grace period. During this window, you may recall the execution (within 12 hours for Pro, or 24 hours for Guardian. Free plan users cannot recall a vault execution.) or contact us if there are any issues.

After 30 days from the date of execution:

• All files uploaded to your vault are permanently deleted from our storage systems.
• All note content is permanently cleared.
• Your account and personal data are permanently deleted.
• A minimal audit record is retained indefinitely (containing only: your email address, the date of execution, the date of deletion, and the number of items delivered). This record serves as proof of execution and cannot be deleted.

This policy fulfils our obligations under GDPR Article 5(1)(e) (storage limitation). Vault content is not kept beyond what is necessary for delivery.

14. Vault recall window

When your vault executes, we send you a recall notification immediately to your registered email address. You have a 12-hour window (Pro) or 24-hour window (Guardian) to recall the execution and invalidate all delivery links sent to your recipients.

The recall window is available to Pro and Guardian subscribers. Free plan users cannot recall a vault execution once it has been triggered.

A recall permanently revokes all delivery tokens generated by that execution, including any Two-Person Secret share and file access tokens. Recipients who have not yet completed reconstruction and accessed their download will be unable to do so after a recall. Recipients who have already downloaded their content may have saved it: a recall cannot remove content that has already been downloaded. Items configured for staged/timed release that have not yet been delivered are also covered by a recall and will not be sent out.

Important limitation for text notes: Text note content is included in the delivery email sent to recipients at the time of execution. A recall revokes the delivery link and blocks access to the delivery page, but it cannot remove content that was already delivered via email. If your vault contains text notes, recipients may have already received that content in their inbox before you initiate a recall. Recall is most effective for file attachments, which are never sent by email and are only accessible via the delivery link.

The recall window is a safeguard for accidental triggers only. It cannot be used to selectively revoke individual recipient deliveries.

15. Audit log and record-keeping

All key account actions are recorded in an immutable Activity Log, including check-ins, vault changes, recipient confirmations, test drills, and vault execution events. This log cannot be edited, deleted, or altered.

The Activity Log is visible to the account owner. In the event of a dispute or claim regarding vault execution, Notenz may share relevant log entries with designated recipients as evidence of the timeline of events.

16. Right to modify

We may modify the Service's feature scope, individual features, and these Terms with effect for the future, to the extent necessary to adapt to technical developments, legal requirements, security requirements, or to improve the Service, and provided the change is reasonable for you.

Material changes to these Terms or to the core feature scope of a paid plan that disadvantage you will be communicated with at least 30 days advance notice before taking effect, in text form. If you do not object within this period, this shall not be deemed consent to the amendment itself; instead, you have a special right of termination effective as of the date the change takes effect, exercisable by simple declaration in text form or via account settings. Changes that are purely beneficial, clarifying, or editorial in nature, or that address a security vulnerability, may be made without this notice period.

17. Account termination

You can delete your account at any time. This permanently deletes all vault content, and it cannot be recovered.

Given the particular nature of the Service — the reliable custody and timely delivery of content upon a User's death or prolonged unreachability — we will only terminate a User account for good cause or after a reasonable advance notice period of at least 30 days communicated in text form. We ensure that a working export mechanism for your vault content is available to you throughout the notice period. Good cause includes, in particular, a material breach of these Terms, abusive use of the Service, or a legal obligation to suspend the account immediately. This is without prejudice to the separately governed retention timelines for frozen (Section 12) and executed (Section 13) accounts.

18. Intellectual property

All rights in the software, design, and trademarks of Notenz remain with us. You are granted a simple, non-transferable right to use the Service for the duration of the contractual relationship.

You retain all rights in the vault content you upload. We do not claim any right to use your content beyond the technical processing necessary to provide the Service (in particular encryption, storage, and delivery to designated recipients).

19. Data protection

The processing of personal data is governed by our separate Privacy Policy and the overview on our Security page. These Terms do not govern data protection obligations and do not limit the data protection rights of data subjects.

20. Cancel your contract here

In addition to cancelling via your account settings, we provide a publicly accessible cancellation option that does not require login, as required under § 312k BGB: Cancel your contract here. You'll also find this link in the footer of every page on this website.

21. Governing law and jurisdiction

Governing law. The laws of the Federal Republic of Germany apply, excluding the CISG. As against consumers, this choice of law applies only to the extent it does not deprive the consumer of the protection afforded by mandatory provisions of the law of their country of habitual residence (Art. 6 Rome I Regulation).

Jurisdiction. If the User is a merchant, a legal entity under public law, or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction is Berlin, Germany. As against consumers, this applies only to the extent legally permissible; in particular, the consumer's right to sue or be sued at their place of residence remains unaffected (§ 38 ZPO; Art. 17 et seq. Brussels Ia Regulation).

22. Consumer dispute resolution

We are neither obligated nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board within the meaning of the German Consumer Dispute Resolution Act (VSBG).

23. Final provisions

Should any provision of these Terms be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected; the invalid provision shall be replaced by the applicable statutory provision. These Terms are provided in German and English; in the event of any discrepancy, the German version shall prevail.

24. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email [email protected].