Question 1

What happens to my passwords and accounts if I die or become unreachable?

Accepted Answer

Without a plan, your family typically can't get into your email, bank, or crypto accounts, each provider has its own slow recovery process, often weeks. Notenz solves this by storing your passwords and account details in an encrypted vault that automatically delivers to your chosen heirs or recipients if you stop checking in.

Question 2

How do I leave my passwords to an heir or beneficiary?

Accepted Answer

Create a Notenz account, choose Guardian protection, add your accounts and passwords to your encrypted vault, and name one or more recipients. If your check-ins stop (because you're no longer able to confirm you're okay), Notenz notifies you across multiple channels, waits through a grace period, then delivers the vault to your chosen heirs.

Question 3

Is Notenz a digital will?

Accepted Answer

Not a legal will, but it serves a similar practical purpose for digital accounts: passwords, crypto wallets, bank logins, and final instructions, delivered automatically to the people you choose, without a lawyer, notary, or probate process.

Question 4

What is a dead man's switch, and how does it relate to inheritance?

Accepted Answer

A dead man's switch is a mechanism that triggers automatically if someone fails to respond within a set time. Notenz uses this for digital inheritance: you check in on a schedule (e.g. weekly), and if you stop, your vault is delivered to your heirs after a grace period and reminder attempts.

Question 5

How does password recovery work for a family member after someone passes away or becomes incapacitated?

Accepted Answer

Each account provider (Google, banks, exchanges) has its own slow, document-heavy recovery process. Notenz avoids this entirely: the account owner pre-loads passwords and recovery details into an encrypted vault while alive, so the named recipient gets direct access without going through each provider's recovery flow.

Question 6

How do I pass on a crypto wallet seed phrase securely to an heir?

Accepted Answer

Use the free Seed Splitter tool to split the phrase into three paper backups (any two reconstruct it), or store the phrase directly in a Notenz vault item for automatic delivery to your chosen heir.

Question 7

How do I securely share passwords and final wishes with family without exposing them while I am still alive?

Accepted Answer

Store them in a Notenz vault, encrypted at rest and decrypted only after your check-ins stop and the grace period passes. For content Notenz can never read, use Guardian's Sealed Vault, which encrypts in your browser with a key we never hold.

Question 8

Can I do digital estate planning without a lawyer or notary?

Accepted Answer

Notenz covers the digital side (passwords, accounts, crypto, instructions) without legal paperwork. Our digital estate planning checklist is a 15-minute starting point.

Question 9

How do I share a password or secret one time without it living in chat history or email?

Accepted Answer

Use Burn-After-Reading, a free, browser-only tool that creates a self-destructing encrypted link, destroyed after one view.

Question 10

How do I encrypt a file locally before sending it, without installing software?

Accepted Answer

Use File Armor, AES-256-GCM encryption entirely in-browser.

Question 11

How do I remove hidden location or metadata from a photo before posting it online?

Accepted Answer

Use Metadata Bleacher, it strips EXIF, GPS, and author data locally, in your browser.

Question 12

What does "zero-knowledge encryption" mean, and how does Notenz's Sealed Vault use it?

Accepted Answer

Zero-knowledge means the data is encrypted client-side with a key Notenz never has, so Notenz cannot read it under any circumstances. Guardian's Sealed Vault uses this for the most sensitive items.

Question 13

What is per-item phrase encryption?

Accepted Answer

Guardian users can encrypt individual vault items with a memorable 4-word passphrase, for example, swift-ocean-purple-flame. The phrase is generated in your browser using PBKDF2 and AES-256-GCM, and Notenz never stores it. When your vault executes, recipients receive a link and must enter the phrase to read the content. If the phrase is lost, the content cannot be recovered by anyone, including Notenz.

Question 14

What is a QR-Vault?

Accepted Answer

A QR-Vault is a physical delivery option for Guardian plan users. You generate a QR code and a 6-digit PIN, print the code, and hand it to a trusted person. When your vault executes, the code activates and your trusted person can scan it, enter the PIN, and see your vault contents. There is also a 9-digit short code as a manual fallback. The access window is 90 days after the vault executes.

Question 15

What happens if someone scans the QR code before my vault executes?

Accepted Answer

Nothing is exposed. The vault stays sealed and shows a 'not yet accessible' message. The vault owner receives an alert email so they know the code was scanned.

Question 16

What happens to my vault if Notenz shuts down?

Accepted Answer

Notenz has no plans to shut down, but it's a fair question for anything holding your passwords and final wishes. You can export your full vault as a plaintext file from your account settings at any time, so your data is never locked inside Notenz. If Notenz ever did wind down, every user would be notified by email with time to export everything before any deletion.

Question 17

What is Contract Guardian?

Accepted Answer

Contract Guardian reads a German contract you upload to your vault and gives you a plain-English summary: the cancellation notice period, the likely date you need to cancel by and how confident the reading is, the renewal terms, and any auto-renewal traps, flagged in plain language. Once you're on Guardian, it sends you one email alert before your cancel-by date.

Question 18

Which contracts does Contract Guardian support?

Accepted Answer

This first version covers German gym or fitness contracts, mobile or phone contracts, and DSL or internet contracts. Anything outside that scope, another contract type, a non-German document, or a file that isn't clearly one of these, is returned as unsupported rather than a guess.

Question 19

Is my uploaded contract kept anywhere besides my Notenz vault?

Accepted Answer

Your contract file is stored in your vault the same way as any other document: encrypted. To produce the translation and extracted dates, a copy is sent once to Anthropic to be read, and only the structured result, dates, terms, and a short summary, is saved back to your account. Notenz does not publish a retention term for Anthropic, so we cannot tell you how long a copy exists on their side.

Question 20

Is Contract Guardian legal advice?

Accepted Answer

No. It is informational only, not legal advice. For a normal gym, mobile, or DSL contract it tells you what it says and when you need to act. If your situation is unusual, disputed, or has significant money on the line, talk to a lawyer or a consumer-protection body such as the Verbraucherzentrale.

Question 21

What languages does Contract Guardian support?

Accepted Answer

The current version reads German contracts and translates the summary to English. Support for other source and target languages may follow later.

Question 22

How much does Contract Guardian cost, and who is it for?

Accepted Answer

Contract Guardian is included with Guardian at no extra cost, there is no separate fee or plan. It's built for expats and anyone in Germany who doesn't want to rely on reading legal German to catch a cancellation deadline before it passes.

Question 23

How much does Notenz cost?

Accepted Answer

Guardian is €3.99/month or €29.99/year (€2.50/month billed annually). It includes complete digital estate protection, Shared-Key Vault Item, the zero-knowledge Sealed Vault, Two-Person Secret, QR-Vault, Trusted Contact alerts, timed release, extended grace period of up to 30 days, and unlimited recipients. There is no free trial period, but your first contract check is free before you pay. Guardian includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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