GUIDE · DIGITAL LEGACY
Leaving your passwords to your family, on paper
If something happens to you, the people you leave behind will need your email, your bank logins and the photos in your cloud account. Writing every password on a sheet is dangerous while you are alive; leaving nothing locks them out. An encrypted paper backup with its code kept apart sits between the two.
Written by Taha Bayar, who builds Kionel.
The plan in four steps
- Export your password vault from your password manager, or write the important logins and recovery codes in a text file.
- Print it as encrypted codes with Kionel's paper backup. Nothing is uploaded; the printer only sees codes.
- Keep the pages and the code in different places: for example the pages in your document folder at home, and the 12-character code with your will or with the person who will handle your affairs. Neither is useful alone.
- Write one line of instructions next to the code: "Open kionel.com on a phone, Receive → Printed pages, enter this code, point the camera at the pages." Then delete the unencrypted export.
What the big services already offer
| Option | What it does | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency access in password managers (for example Bitwarden) | A trusted person can request access to your vault after a waiting period you set | Needs the service, your account and theirs to exist when it is needed; often a paid plan. |
| Apple Legacy Contact | A chosen person can access your iCloud data after your death with an access key and a death certificate | Covers Apple's services only. |
| Google Inactive Account Manager | Shares chosen Google data with people you name if the account stays inactive | Covers Google's services only. |
| An encrypted paper backup | Your family opens the backup with the code | Works with no account and no company involved; you must reprint it when things change. |
They combine well: legacy features for the big accounts, and the paper backup for everything else, including the password manager itself.
Keep it current
- Reprint once a year, or after changing important passwords, and destroy the old pages.
- Test the restore once yourself, so you know the instructions work.
- For the strongest protection, print a password-protected export and leave that password with the code: the paper then holds a file encrypted twice.