Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

These Terms govern your use of IfNeeded websites, applications, and related services. By using IfNeeded, you agree to these terms.

You must be at least 18 years old, or the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction, to use IfNeeded.

Acceptable use

• Do not use IfNeeded for unlawful activity or to violate third-party rights.
• Do not upload exploitative, abusive, fraudulent, or malicious content.
• Do not attempt to bypass security controls or disrupt service availability.
• Do not treat IfNeeded as legal, financial, medical, or emergency-response advice.

Service boundary

IfNeeded is designed for continuity planning, including guidance on what to do and where to look. It is not a password vault and should not be used to store seed phrases or full credential sets.

Use a dedicated password manager for secrets, and use IfNeeded for scoped instructions, context, and release controls.

Waiting period and release control

A stop-release link may not prevent access after the waiting period has ended or after release has already been recorded. Release can happen if you are safe but offline, traveling, unable to access email, missing notifications, or otherwise unavailable.

• An Emergency Note is controlled through the owner email address you verify when saving it.
• A trusted person can request access only from the private request link created for that Emergency Note.
• When access is requested, we email the owner address with a stop-release link and start the waiting period.
• If the owner does not stop release before the waiting period ends, the trusted person may open the same request link to view the Emergency Note.
• Release is pull-based: we do not automatically send the Emergency Note content when the waiting period ends.
• After release, we may email the owner address to confirm that access was released.
• You are responsible for keeping the owner email and trusted-person details current.

Fees, suspension, and termination

Paid plans, when offered, are billed under the pricing terms displayed at checkout. Unless required by law, fees are generally non-refundable after paid access begins.

IfNeeded may suspend or terminate access for legal, abuse-prevention, security, or integrity reasons.

Disclaimers and limitation of liability

IfNeeded is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent allowed by law, we disclaim implied warranties and limit liability for indirect, incidental, special, and consequential damages.

Disputes and governing law

If a dispute arises, contact us first and allow 30 days for informal resolution before formal proceedings.

These terms are governed by the laws of the operator's principal place of business, excluding conflict-of-laws rules.

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how IfNeeded collects, uses, stores, and protects personal information across the website, app, and support channels.

Private instructions remain private by default. Access to Emergency Note content is controlled through email verification, a trusted-person request link, an owner stop-release link, and the waiting-period release flow.

You own the content you submit. You give IfNeeded permission to store, process, send, and release that content only as needed to operate the service according to your settings.

If you add a trusted person, we may store their name and email address and send service-related messages, including setup, request, stop-release, and release emails.

Request and stop links include one-time tokens. We store token hashes for verification; raw tokens are delivered in emails and links so the release flow can operate.

Data controller and contact

The data controller is the legal entity operating IfNeeded on this domain.

For legal notices, privacy requests, or data-rights questions, use our contact page.

Information we collect

• Account and contact details, including email and related support metadata.
• User-submitted continuity notes, Emergency Note content, release settings, and form entries.
• Trusted-person details, including name and email address when you provide them.
• Verification, request, stop, release, deletion, token-hash, status, and timestamp records needed to operate the release flow.
• Usage and diagnostics data, including events, device/browser signals, and IP logs.
• Operational security logs and abuse-prevention telemetry.
• Payment metadata from billing processors when paid plans are used.

How we use information

• Deliver and maintain requested service features.
• Verify owner email addresses, send service emails, enforce waiting periods, stop release when requested in time, and release Emergency Note content when the configured flow allows it.
• Support users and respond to product inquiries.
• Protect service integrity, prevent abuse, and investigate incidents.
• Measure reliability and improve product quality.
• Send internal operational summaries, such as created, requested, stopped, deleted, or released events, to monitor MVP usage without including Emergency Note content.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce these terms.

Processors and cross-border transfers

We use third-party processors only as needed to operate IfNeeded, such as infrastructure, analytics, customer support, and payment providers.

Your data may be processed outside your country with contractual and technical safeguards appropriate to the service.

Retention and deletion

We keep personal data only as long as needed for service operation, support, legal compliance, and security. We then delete or de-identify it on rolling schedules.

Emergency Note owners can request deletion through the verified owner email flow. Deletion may de-identify the owner email, clear Emergency Note content, remove trusted-person details, and reset release state while preserving minimal operational records needed for abuse prevention, security, and legal compliance.

• Support requests and contact submissions: retained up to 24 months after last interaction.
• Analytics and product telemetry: retained up to 14 months.
• Security logs: retained up to 12 months unless a longer legal hold is required.
• Backups: overwritten or deleted within 90 days of production deletion events.

Your rights and requests

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or export your data. Submit requests through our contact page and include enough context for verification.

We aim to acknowledge requests within 10 calendar days and respond within 30 days, unless a longer period is allowed by law.

Children's privacy

IfNeeded is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this legal page

We may update this legal page from time to time. Material updates are reflected by revising the effective date shown on this page.