How can my Beneficiary access my LegacyApp notes without my PIN, fingerprint or password?

Below, we have set out the steps that allow your Beneficiary to access your LegacyApp notes (assuming they are unable to log into your phone using your PIN or fingerprint and password):

1. Setup: When you set up LegacyApp on your smartphone, you'll need to enter the Beneficiary's email address under which we can contact them.

2. Backup and Encryption Key: As part of onboarding process you will be asked to back up your notes on your personal cloud with Google or Apple. We encourage you to do this each time you add to or change your LegacyApp notes. Whenever you save a new backup copy of your notes, you will be asked to create an Encryption Key. LegacyApp requires the Encyption Key to consist of at least 8 characters, one of which must be capitalised and one must be a special character. 

3. Hint to Encryption Key: As part of setting an Encyption Key, you will be be able to enter a hint, which will be shown to your Beneficiary when they try to restore your LegacyApp notes (nb: this hint will also be shown to you, if you ever need to restore your notes, for example because you lost your phone or if you buy a new one).  The hint should be written in a way that allows your Beneficiary to guess, remember or find the Encryption Key. It could state the location of where the Encryption Key is written down (e.g. "The Encryption Key is written on the back of our wedding photo in the living room"), or provide a hint that only your Beneficiary is able to guess (e.g. “The name of the town in which we first kissed + the year we met + @ (symbol)". All written together, and all letters capitalised.”). It is your job to ensure that your Beneficiary is able to guess, remember or find the Encryption Key using the hint they will be shown -  otherwise they will not be able to restore your notes.

4. Notification of Beneficiary: Once you stop responding to LegacyApp's notifications (and, if you use the Trusted Friends function, only after two of your Trusted Friends confirm that you are not OK in response to the email or SMS message we send them), your Beneficiary will receive an email from us (which we will resend if the original email is not actioned by your Beneficiary) containing a unique link and instructions to create a new password for your account.

5. Downloading the App: Your Beneficiary will need to download LegacyApp and log in using your app credentials, which we'll provide to them. They'll use the password they created in step 4 above.

6. Encryption Key and Access: When the Beneficiary is logged into your account, they'll be shown the hint to the Encpryption Key. Once they are able to guess, remember or find the Encryption Key (based on the hint they are shown, which you created under step 3 above), they will need to enter it in the app. After your Beneficiary enters the correct Encyption Key, LegacyApp will automatically locate the encrypted backup file with your notes on your personal cloud account and decrypt it in the app. The Beneficiary will see your notes in a view-only format – no edits or deletions will be possible.