Chapter 05

Adding your family

Separate profiles, private and shared things, and how to require two people to agree.

How profiles work#

Everyone gets their own passphrase and their own private space. What they can see beyond that is up to you. There is no practical limit on how many people you add — most families use two or three.

Ramowner Priyaadult Arohichild Ram's privateonly Ram Priya's privateonly Priya Arohi's privateonly Arohi Family — the house Wi-Fi, streaming, emergency contacts, shared documents Emergency — released only under the rules in Chapter 06
Private stays private. Shared is deliberate, one item at a time.

Adding someone#

You both need to be there

You unlock the vault and create their profile. They type their own passphrase, and you should look away while they do. You are giving them a door, not a key you also hold — you will never know their passphrase, and that is deliberate.

  1. Unlock, and go to Family
  2. Add a person and give them a name
  3. Hand the device overThey choose their own passphrase and write their own recovery card — the same ceremony you went through in Chapter 01.
  4. Hold the button for three secondsAdding someone means giving access to a vault, so it needs a deliberate press, and it is recorded.

Sharing one thing at a time#

Any password, note or document can be shared with one person or everyone, and taken back later. There are two levels, and the difference matters.

LevelWhat they can doGood for
Can seeKnows it exists, sees the name and notes, cannot reveal the secretA teenager who needs to know the account exists
Can useCan have the device type it, but never sees the charactersThe streaming password everyone uses
Can revealFull access to the secret itselfA spouse and the household accounts

Requiring two people to agree#

Some things should not rest on one person. Mark an item as needing two approvals and it stays shut until a second adult also presses the button.

Choose these carefully

This is the same machinery that protects your recovery in Chapter 06. Requiring two people protects against one person acting alone. It also means that if the two of you fall out, or one is simply unreachable, that item stays shut. Use it for things that genuinely warrant it, not for everything.

Removing someone#

Removing a person takes their access away immediately and re-locks everything they could reach, so their old passphrase opens nothing. What they already saw and remembered, they still know — no device can fix that.

← DocumentsRecovery →

BendFlex · VaultPlug Guardian · Owner's Manual v1