Security: how Kinsake protects your family’s information

The short version

Here is what that means, what we can and can’t see, and the one limit you should know about.

• Your File is end-to-end encrypted. It can be read only on your devices and by the people you choose, after a handover you control.
• To remind you about things, we keep a title and a date. Everything else is sealed.
• Nothing opens without a request and a wait you set, and you can stop it. The one exception is what you mark Shared now, for the people you pick.
• No ads, no trackers. We never sell your data, and it’s never used to train AI.

What’s sealed

Everything you put in your File: the details of each item, documents, photos, voice notes, passwords and device codes, For later messages, and the call log your family keeps. It is encrypted on your device before it’s uploaded. Photos, videos and voice notes are made smaller on your device first and then sealed the same way, and photos lose their location data when you add them. Nothing is saved unsealed in your browser or on our servers. We store only the sealed copy, and the keys that open it are themselves locked so that only you, and the people you choose, can use them.

What our servers can see

We’d rather tell you exactly:

• For each reminder, a title and a date, like “Car registration · Nov 30”. You can seal the title too; it then shows as “Sealed item”.
• Who is in your household and your Circle, and each person’s role.
• Which handover level each item is in, whose it is or whether it’s shared, when it changed, and roughly how large its files are (sizes are rounded up). We need this to send reminders and to release only what you’ve chosen.
• Handover requests, wait times and confirmations, and the log of who opened what.
• Your email address, and the fact that you use Google to sign in, if you choose Google.

Reminder emails and notifications carry only a title and a date.

We also keep simple counts to improve Kinsake, on our own servers and without cookies: how many people visit, where they came from, and how many households use each feature. They never include what’s in your File, your reminder titles or your email address.

Our Privacy Policy puts all of it in one table, with why we need each part.

Signing in and your keys

• Sign in with Google, or with your email and either a password or a 6-digit code.
• If you use a password, it’s turned into keys on your device. We never receive the password itself.
• If you use Google or a code, you also set a passphrase that unlocks your File. Google confirms who you are; it can’t open your File.
• Where your device supports it, you can unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your fingerprint.
• When you set up, you get a Recovery Kit to print and keep somewhere safe. If you forget your password or passphrase, the Recovery Kit is how you get back in. We can’t reset it for you, because we can’t read your File.

Use it only on this device

• You can start without an account. Your File then stays in your browser, sealed with a key that never leaves your device, and nothing in it is sent to us.
• Lock it with your device’s own Face ID, fingerprint or passcode.
• Backups you download are always sealed with a passphrase you choose.
• Your browser can clear stored data (Safari may do so after 7 days without a visit), so keep backups. Turn on sync any time to add your partner, reminders by email or a handover.

How a handover works

• You choose your Circle and what each person can open: Emergency, Incapacity, After death. Each level opens on its own. Opening one never opens another.
• When someone in your Circle asks, we tell you right away, again halfway through the wait, and a day before it ends. Tap “I’m OK” in the app or in the email to stop it.

• You set the wait for each level, and for each person if you like. For example: 24 hours, 7 days, 14 days.
• After death also needs a second trusted person to confirm. It’s never the person asking.
• If you share a File with your partner, a handover about one of you opens only that person’s items and the ones you marked as shared.
• What opens can be read, not changed. Every opening is logged, and you can see the log.
• If you stop checking in, we let your Circle know. Nothing opens on its own.
• Shared now: items you mark, like how to turn off the water, open right away for the people you pick. Passwords and device codes can never be shared this way.
• When someone in your Circle asks you how to do something, the question is sealed. We only know that a question was sent.
• A For later message is passed on through a private link. The key is in the link itself, so we can’t open the message.