Getting your papers in, keeping them findable, and knowing what belongs here versus in a bank locker.
The card inside holds scans and PDFs — insurance policies, ID copies, property papers, medical records, school certificates, warranty bills. Everything on it is encrypted, so a card taken out of the device and put in a laptop reads as noise. How much fits depends on the model you bought — see Storage in Chapter 01. If you have the Passwords model with no card, this chapter does not apply to you yet; you can add a card whenever you like.
The card arrives with folders ready: Identity, Property, Financial, Medical, Insurance, Education. Use them or make your own.
| Keep here | Keep in a bank locker |
|---|---|
| Scans and photographs of documents | Original property deeds and registry papers |
| Policy numbers, account details, contacts | Original share certificates and bonds |
| A note of where each original is kept | The physical will |
| Medical history, prescriptions, reports | Anything with legal force in its paper form |
A scan of a property deed is enormously useful in an emergency — it has the numbers, the dates and the registry details. It is not the deed. Keep originals where you always kept them, and use this to record what exists and where it lives. That index is often more valuable than the documents themselves.
Documents open in your browser when you are connected, and are decrypted only for as long as you are looking. We save no permanent copy on your computer.
We do not write a copy to your disk. But once a document is on your screen, your browser and your operating system may keep traces of it in memory, in swap files, in preview caches, or in a screenshot you take yourself. We cannot reach into those, and anyone claiming otherwise is overstating it.
If you are opening something sensitive on a machine that is not yours, assume it leaves a trace, and prefer having the device type a password rather than displaying it.
Memory cards are the least reliable part of any device. Yours is encrypted, which protects it from strangers, but nothing protects it from simply failing one day. Documents are the one thing that cannot be reconstructed from memory. Chapter 07 explains how to keep a copy, and the device will remind you if it has been too long. Cards are also swappable — moving to a larger one is a restore from backup.
BendFlex · VaultPlug Guardian · Owner's Manual v1