All security related SMS/text messages (PIN codes, security alerts…) are sent through SMS/text messages even if you did not check the box on your profile. This to ensure you are made aware as soon as possible of important information related to your account.

Whereas many services offer this ‘convenience’, we don’t. Re-use of user/pasword is one of the major reasons why your account could be hacked. For example, if you re-use your user/password that you have on a site, and if there is a data breach on this site, then hackers will try to connect to other web sites using the same credentials, and take over your data.

With our service, we generate a random username that is very unlikely going to exist somewhere else. Again, this is to re-enforce the security of your data

The date your account will expire depends on your plan type.

First, if you do not renew your subscription, your account will be disabled 30 days after your anniversary date.

Otherwise, after you pass away, an active account will be disabled X days after the last document has been released as per your schedule. This X number of days depends on the type of plan you have subscribed to:

• 2-weelk free trial: not applicable (no release can be done during a trial)
• Standard: 30 days
• Premium or Premium+: 60 days
• Peace of Mind: 90 days

For example, if you have a Premium plan, and your last document to be released is on January 1st 2025, then your account will be disabled on March 2nd 2025, 60 days after.

When you schedule a document for a recipient, you have the option to specify that if Guardian(s) tell us you are incapacitated and unable to respond (e.g. Alzheimer’s, dementia, coma, vegetative state…) then we have to release the document.

Your data will be removed from our servers. By data we mean your profile, contacts, schedules and files/documents that have been uploaded.

As a preventive measure, our system will lock accounts after 15 minutes changing your password or email address if you do not validate this change by clicking on the link we send you by email.

In other words, after changing your email address or password, you have 15 minutes to validate this change by clicking on the link we send you by email.

If you forget to click on the link within 15 minutes, and your account gets locked, re-open the email we sent, go to the bottom and click on the button named ‘Unlock Account’. This button will expire after 1 week.

If you did not initiate this change and your account gets locked, please contact us. In any case, and because your account was locked, your data is safe.

If our service detects you logged into our website, it is a sign for us you are still alive. In this case we will send you a ‘pulse check’ notification X weeks after that date (X as defined in your profile).

Yes. But it is not recommended since we want to comply with local data privacy regulations that pertain to your home residence. In addition, you would have to pay several subscriptions. If you face a situation like this, please contact us at using the ‘Contact Us’ form in the Support section.

As of today, it is not possible but we envision providing a capability to buy additional storage in a future version. In the meantime, the best way is to upgrade to another plan.

On the login page, click on ‘Lost your password? Click here’.

You will then be redirected to a page where you will have to provide your username/identifier.

If this identifier matches our database, you will receive an email with a temporary password and a link that will bring you to a page where you will be able to update your permanent password.

The system will add their username and temporary password in the email they will receive. They will have to follow the instructions we provide them so they can login and create a permanent password.

For this, we rely on the information provided by your Guardians.

When a Guardian clicks on the link we provide and reach the ‘Guardian page’, s/he is asked if you are dead. If you are, we ask him/her to provide the death date.

Here is below the algorithm we use to determine the final ‘official’ death date:

1. We use the most recent date provided amongst all the Guardians
2. If none of them provided a date, then we use the date of the last time you logged into Need2TellYou

From the menu at the top, in your profile section, you need to select ‘2Checkout account’. This will bring you to the portal of our 2Checkour partner. Once there, you can access your 2Checkout account either with your email address or your subscription order number. After submitting the information, you will receive an email with a link to your 2Checkout account.

Once you reach your 2Checkout account page, go to ‘My products’ in the menu, you can then request a plan upgrade.

From the menu at the top, in your profile section, you need to select ‘2Checkout account’. This will bring you to the portal of our 2Checkout partner. Once there, you can access your 2Checkout account either with your email address or your subscription order number. After submitting the information, you will receive an email with a link to your 2Checkout account.

Once you reach your 2Checkout account page, select ‘My account’ in the menu, then select the order and finally click on ‘Refund’. As a reminder, refunds are accepted within 30 days after your last purchase (initial or renewal).

Please note, that once your refund is approved, all your data will be immediately removed from our servers.

For that, you need to login into your account. Then in the menu at the top, under your name, you need to select ‘Subscribe’ and then chose the plan you want. A registration page will then open.

First, let’s describe what we mean by ‘Mentally Incapacitated’. For us, this implies the subscriber is no longer able to communicate or interact with people as s/he used to be. This can happen if someone is in a long-term coma, in a vegetative state, has dementia or Alzheimer’s. This list is not exhaustive. In other words, and in our context, the subscriber is still alive but not able to reply to our pulse checks due to her/his condition.

When you schedule a document for release, the subscriber has the option to tell us that if s/he wants to release the document to a recipient when Guardians confirm s/he became ‘Mentally Incapacitated’, independently of the death. In this case, and as soon as Guardians inform us of this situation, we will release all documents to those planned Recipients.

The Pulse Check process is the process we use to figure out if the subscriber is still alive, and not mentally incapacitated.

As per the subscriber’s profile preferences, we will send him/her periodically an email and/or an SMS/text message that contains a web link (actually it is a button with a link in the email). When the subscriber clicks on it that tell us s/he is doing fine, and still alive.

If the subscriber doesn’t click on the link, we will retry several times after a few days, according to the subscriber’s profile preferences.

Here are below the various profile parameters a subscriber can set to fit her/his needs:

• the pulse check frequency (PCF): how often do we need to do this pulse check? It is a number of weeks. This parameter min and max values are linked to the plan type.
• the pulse check notifications periodicity (PCNP): if the subscriber doesn’t reply, when will be the next notification sent? It is a number of days. By default it is 1 day.
• the total pulse check notification duration (PCND): if the subscriber doesn’t reply, for how long should we try to notify her/him? It is a number of days. By default it is 3 days.

In plain text, it could translate like this: Need2TellYou will contact the subscriber every PCF weeks, and without answer will retry PCNP days apart for PCND days.

Yes, it is possible. Though, there are a few things to be aware of since a person can be a subscriber but also eventually a contact for other people in other subscriptions:

• First, we check if there is a subscription attached to this email. If it is the case then we use this Subscriber username
• If not, we check if there is an Insider with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Insider username.
• If not, we check if there is a Guardian with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Guardian username.
• If not, we check if there is a Recipient with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Recipient username.
• If not, we do nothing.

Unfortunately no. The username the system assigns to you (e.g aXXXXXX for a subscriber or cXXXXXX for a contact) cannot be changed.

Once you subscribe, you have 24 hours to log into the system and finish your setup.

If you don’t log in within 24 hours using the temporary credentials we send you in the email you receive from us, then the account is deleted.

You will need to subscribe again.

If you have paid your subscription and you face this situation, please contact us using the ‘Contact Us’ page in the Support section of the menu.

Actually, the billing process is handle by our partner 2checkout.com. We don’t share personal information between our 2 companies.

2checkout.com doesn’t have access to our data and vice versa.

Our order process is conducted by our online reseller 2Checkout.

2Checkout is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. They provide all customer service inquiries and handles returns. As part of their service, 2Checkout supports more than 45 methods of payment worldwide.

For more information about the exact list of payment methods, you can visit their website at 2checkout.com.

Please click here. A new tab will open on our partner web site.

2Checkout is an electronic payment service (merchant account alternative) founded in 2000 that allows merchants to accept online credit card payments from customers in their home country and abroad.

They are our partner managing payments, subscriptions and refunds.

Click here to go to their web site: https://2checkout.com.

From the menu at the top, in your profile section, you need to select ‘2Checkout account’. This will bring you to the portal of our 2Checkour partner. Once there, you can access your 2Checkout account either with your email address or your subscription order number. After submitting the information, you will receive an email with a link to your 2Checkout account.

Once you reach your 2Checkout account page, go to ‘My products’ in the menu, you can then request a plan upgrade.

From the menu at the top, in your profile section, you need to select ‘2Checkout account’. This will bring you to the portal of our 2Checkout partner. Once there, you can access your 2Checkout account either with your email address or your subscription order number. After submitting the information, you will receive an email with a link to your 2Checkout account.

Once you reach your 2Checkout account page, select ‘My account’ in the menu, then select the order and finally click on ‘Refund’. As a reminder, refunds are accepted within 30 days after your last purchase (initial or renewal).

Please note, that once your refund is approved, all your data will be immediately removed from our servers.

Yes, you can. We will deduct from the next subscription the cost of your previous subscription. For example, if you had a ‘Premium’ one at $59 a year and, during that year, you upgrade to a ‘Peace of Mind’ one ($499), you will pay $440.

Once you subscribe, you have 24 hours to log into the system and finish your setup.

If you don’t log in within 24 hours using the temporary credentials we send you in the email you receive from us, then the account is deleted.

You will need to subscribe again.

If you have paid your subscription and you face this situation, please contact us using the ‘Contact Us’ page in the Support section of the menu.

In order to avoid any ‘conflict of interest’, or miss-use of our system, and because you are not supposed to login into their account, the password of Recipients and Guardians are not communicated to the subscribers. There is no need for that. Our system will take care of the contacts credentials communication.

A person triggering the death validation process done by Guardians cannot be also a Guardian. A person cannot be “judge” and “jury”.

Just you, the subscriber, is aware. So, it is up to you to inform (or not) other people. In case you designate Insider(s), you will have to inform them.

An ‘Insider’ is a person who will trigger the process of confirming you are deceased. This can be used when you want Recipients to receive their document(s) as soon as possible. For example, when you want a text to be read at your funeral. For that scenario to work, you need to let someone know that you have subscribed to our service and provide this person her/his login credentials (user/password) to access the site.

You can have as many Insiders as you want if you have a paid subscription. Insiders are not allowed on Free plans.

A Recipient is a person who will receive documents you have assigned to her/him once you are confirmed deceased (or eventually incapacitated and unable to respond), and as per the schedule you have defined for her/him.

A ‘Guardian’ is a person that will be contacted by us to confirm you are deceased. At least 3 Guardians need to be defined in your account. As a reminder, at least 2 of these Guardians will have to confirm you are dead before releasing the documents. A Guardian may also inform us if you are incapacitated and unable to respond, which could also trigger the document release if you have opted-in.

Your data will be removed from our servers. By data we mean your profile, contacts, schedules and files/documents that have been uploaded.

A contact can be either:

• An Insider
• A Guardian
• A Recipient
• A Recipient & Guardian
• An Insider & Recipient

You need to define a type for each contact you define in the system.

The system will add their username and temporary password in the email they will receive. They will have to follow the instructions we provide them so they can login and create a permanent password.

The best way to handle this is to inform at least one person that you have subscribed to our service. You will then add these persons in your contacts list as ‘Insider’ or ‘Insider & Recipient’.

You will have to give them their user/password (generated and shown on the My Contacts page when you add them) and link to our service (https://need2tellyou.com). The first Insider to be made aware of your passing will have to connect and tell our system you have passed away. Then the Guardians will step in to confirm (or not), and the usual release process takes place.

First, let’s describe what we mean by ‘Mentally Incapacitated’. For us, this implies the subscriber is no longer able to communicate or interact with people as s/he used to be. This can happen if someone is in a long-term coma, in a vegetative state, has dementia or Alzheimer’s. This list is not exhaustive. In other words, and in our context, the subscriber is still alive but not able to reply to our pulse checks due to her/his condition.

When you schedule a document for release, the subscriber has the option to tell us that if s/he wants to release the document to a recipient when Guardians confirm s/he became ‘Mentally Incapacitated’, independently of the death. In this case, and as soon as Guardians inform us of this situation, we will release all documents to those planned Recipients.

Unfortunately no. The username the system assigns to you (e.g aXXXXXX for a subscriber or cXXXXXX for a contact) cannot be changed.

Yes. We have thought about that. For each contact you define, you have the possibility to add a personal message we will include in the email we will send them, and on the page they will open on our web site once they click on the link we provide. That way, you can personalize our generic email they will receive, making it more reliable and trust-able.

Absolutely. When you create a contact you need to select ‘Insider & Recipient’ as the contact role.

Absolutely. You can be a contact for someone and also a subscriber yourself.

Absolutely. When you create a contact you need to select ‘Guardian & Recipient’ as the contact role.

The pdf format is a Portable Document Format that was invented by Adobe. It is now an open standard, maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is independent of software, hardware, or operating system. To read a pdf file, you need to have a pdf reader on your device. These days all major operating systems have one. See more information here: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/about-adobe-pdf.html.

To have the best image rendition, your images should be 150 X 150 pixels.

For cover page, epilogue page and prologue page, you can have bigger images up to 1400 X 1400 pixels.

A Need2TellYou diary is a document fed by the subscriber along his/her life. Regularly, the system sends questions to the subscriber. These questions can either be related to his/her personality (who s/he is), or daily life questions, such as ‘What are you grateful for today?’.

These questions are sent by email. The subscriber has to use his/her email client software and reply to this email. The text s/he provides in the body of this reply is used as the answer to the question. S/he can also eventually attach pictures that will be added to the diary for this question entry.

Whereas some questions will be asked only once (e.g. the personality ones), others may be asked daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

When the subscriber passes away (or become mentally incapacitated), the system will generate a diary book in the pdf format.  This pdf book will have 4 chapters: an optional Prologue, a Personality chapter, a Day to day chapter, and an Epilogue chapter. All these chapters content come from the email replies the subscriber provides along his/her life, or from a direct entry using the My-Diary page.

This file becomes a file like any other document the subscriber has uploaded in the system. This is why s/he will see a ‘Diary’ entry in the list of files, on the My-Files and My-Schedule page. This Diary file needs to be scheduled for delivery, so recipients can receive them, as any other document that is being uploaded.

If a subscriber wants to look at the book content, s/he can do it by clicking on ‘View Book’ on the My-Diary page. The system will generate a copy of the book and download it to the subscriber’s device.

Either don’t want to answer to it today but maybe later and you want to answer to a new question instead, or you don’t want to receive this question anymore.

In the first case, you need to type DELETE or REJECT in your reply email body. In the second case you need to type SKIP or PASS or NEXT in your reply email body.

In both cases, you will receive a new question.

In any case, if you don’t want to answer to a question today, just ignore the email.

If you don’t want to receive questions periodically or if you are done feeding your diary with content, you can decide to lock it. In this case, on the My-Diary page, click on the ‘Lock’ button.

If you want to unlock your diary, go to the My-Diary page and click on the ‘Unlock’ button.

Here are the formats (e.g. file extensions) supported by the diary: BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG.

To do this, you need to go to your ‘My-Diary’ page and click on the ‘Lock Book’ button. Once you do this, no emails will be sent to you, unless you come back to this page and click on the ‘Unlock Book’ button.

You can have up to 2 images.

Each diary entry can have up to 2 images attached to it. So, you can have no images, 1 or 2.

Go to your ‘My-Diary’ page and click on the ‘View Book’ button. Your diary book in pdf format will be generated and downloaded to your default download directory on your device. Please note that downloading to a mobile device is not allowed.

You need to send an email to [email protected] with a subject as ‘Diary cover’ or ‘Diary cover picture’ or ‘Diary cover image’ (it is not case sensitive).

You then need to attach one picture that  will be used on the cover page.

Pictures can be added to a diary entry. To do this, you will need to attach your picture(s) to the email you used to upload your answer. So, either it is a new question that you received by email or a question you already answered previously.

Case of a new question: in this case, type your text in your reply email and attach your picture(s). They will be automatically attached to your answer, and will appear in your diary under your text.

Case of an existing question (previously answered): in this case, you need to go to the My-Diary page, select your diary entry (question) in the list, and click on ‘Re-Send’. You will then receive an email related to that question. In your email client, re-type your text and attach your picture(s), then click ‘send’.

You need to send an email to [email protected] with a subject as ‘Diary epilogue’ (it is not case sensitive).

The body of your email will be as your epilogue.

You can eventually attach one picture that  will be used on your epilogue page.

You need to send an email to [email protected] with a subject as ‘Diary prologue’ (it is not case sensitive).

The body of your email is your prologue.

You can eventually attach one picture that  will be used on your prologue page.

Yes you can.

See FAQ related to ‘How can I add an epilogue or prologue or cover page’.

You can up to 1 picture for those pages.

Please see Q&A related to REJECT and DELETE email keywords.

Yes, you can. There are 2 ways of doing it:

1. You go to the My-Diary page and click on ‘+Add’ button. You will then have to select a question to answer.
2. Send a brand new email (not a reply) to [email protected], setting the email subject as ‘Diary’. When you do this the body of your email is used as a new entry, and you can eventually attach pictures to it. You can send those emails whenever you want, and as many times as you want.

All data and documents are stored regionally within Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers. Here is the list of the data centers we use per region that are determined based on where you reside. This list will be updated as we roll-out new regions:

• For North, Central and South America: ‘us-east-1’ AWS region located in North Virginia, United States of America, with replication in ‘us-west-2’ AWS region located in Oregon, United States of America
• For Europe (western, central and eastern): ‘eu-west-1’ AWS region located in Dublin, Ireland, , with replication in ‘eu-west-3’ AWS region located in Paris, France
• For Africa: TBD (not available yet)
• For Middle-East: TBD (not available yet)
• For Asia: ‘ap-south-1’ AWS region located in Mumbai, India, , with replication in ‘ap-southeast-1’ AWS region located in Singapore
• For any country in Oceania: TBD (not available yet)

If you want to have the right balance between video file size and quality, unless you want a very high quality video, you should record your videos in 720p.

You will find below the file type our service allow you to upload to your account.

Audio
* .mp3 – MP3 audio file
* .mpa – MPEG-2 audio file
* .wav – WAV file
* .wma – WMA audio file

Video
* .avi – AVI file
* .m4v – Apple MP4 video file
* .mov – Apple QuickTime movie file
* .mp4 – MPEG4 video file
* .mpg or .mpeg – MPEG video file
* .wmv – Windows Media Video file

Image
* .ai – Adobe Illustrator file
* .bmp – Bitmap image
* .gif – GIF image
* .jpeg or .jpg – JPEG image
* .png – PNG image
* .ps – PostScript file

Word processor
* .doc and .docx – Microsoft Word file
* .odt – OpenOffice Writer document file
* .pdf – PDF file
* .rtf – Rich Text Format
* .txt – Plain text file

Presentation
* .key – Apple Keynote presentation
* .odp – OpenOffice Impress presentation file
* .pps – PowerPoint slide show
* .ppt – PowerPoint presentation
* .pptx – PowerPoint Open XML presentation

Spreadsheet
* .ods – OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet file
* .xls – Microsoft Excel file
* .xlsm – Microsoft Excel file with macros
* .xlsx – Microsoft Excel Open XML spreadsheet file
* .numbers – Apple Numbers spreadsheet file

Data and database
* .csv – Comma separated value file
* .dat – Data file
* .xml – XML file

Email
* .email – Outlook Express e-mail message file.
* .eml – E-mail message file from multiple e-mail clients, including Gmail.
* .emlx – Apple Mail e-mail file.
* .msg – Microsoft Outlook e-mail message file.

Just to name a few, here are some examples of documents you may consider uploading to communicate to relatives or loved ones:

• Letters, audio, pictures and video recordings to loved ones.
• A simple document explaining where your advance directive, will or living trust are located, as well as who is in charge or is the custodian of these documents.
• A file containing your passwords for your phone, computer, email, bank accounts and social media accounts. We recommend using an online password manager such as 1Password, Dashlane, LastPass, KeyPass or NordPass to collect them all, sharing the master password with someone you trust, and then designating emergency contacts within the program who are allowed to gain access.
• A document explaining all your investments with contact information.
• Instructions for your funeral and final disposition.
• A text to be read at your funeral.
• An ethical will.
• etc…

The pdf format is a Portable Document Format that was invented by Adobe. It is now an open standard, maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is independent of software, hardware, or operating system. To read a pdf file, you need to have a pdf reader on your device. These days all major operating systems have one. See more information here: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/about-adobe-pdf.html.

For plans with the ‘enhanced security’ feature, if the subscriber is in this situation, s/he needs to upload the file again with a new Question/Answer couple. We, at Need2TellYou, cannot do anything about it.

Your data will be removed from our servers. By data we mean your profile, contacts, schedules and files/documents that have been uploaded.

To ensure your files and documents will continue being readable many years from now, it is best to use some standard formats or even open source ones. While we support 38 different formats today (see related FAQ for details) , we encourage you to read these following articles and decide what is best in your situation, depending if you need a video, audio, word processing or image…

https://www.ohsu.edu/library/recommended-file-formats-long-term-data-preservation

https://siarchives.si.edu/what-we-do/digital-curation/recommended-preservation-formats-electronic-records

https://archives.ncdcr.gov/media/42/open

https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/research-data-service/after/data-repository/choosing-file-formats

Some plans benefit from document enhanced security. In this case, you have the option to improve the encryption of your document with a dedicated password, known as the ‘Answer’. Documents using this option have a Question and Answer you have to fill when uploading them. See Question/Answer FAQ related to this topic to know more about it.

If a document doesn’t use the Question/Answer (enhanced security feature), the document is still encrypted on our servers. The only difference is that with the Question/Answer just you and your recipient can open the file.

When a file is uploaded into your account using the email feature (after sending the file as an attachment to [email protected]), then the subscriber has to enter a question/answer as any file. Until this is done, the file will not be released in case you pass away and has a ‘Disabled’ status.

Please refer to the question related to uploading files through email.

Across the system, you may find terms such as B, GB, MB or KB. What does it mean?

Here is the meaning of these acronym units:

• ‘B‘ stands for ‘Bytes’. It is basically one character
• ‘KB‘ stands for ‘Kilo Bytes’. In other words, 1,000 bytes (or characters)
• ‘MB‘ stands for ‘Mega bytes’. In other words, 1,000,000 (1 million) bytes (or characters)
• ‘GB‘ stands for ‘Giga Bytes’. In other words, 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) bytes (or characters)
• Even if we don’t use it, you could also find ‘TB‘ that stands for ‘Tera Bytes’, or 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (1 trillion)

Here are the formats (e.g. file extensions) supported by the diary: BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG.

Yes. There is a 10 minute time out. Uploads and downloads need to happen within 10 minutes.

As of today, it is not possible but we envision providing a capability to buy additional storage in a future version. In the meantime, the best way is to upgrade to another plan.

To do this, you need to use the subject of the email. There are 4 possible cases:

• schedule an immediate release after your death: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME immediately, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients.
• schedule a release X days after your death: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME after NB-DAYS days, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients and NB-DAYS the number of days we need to wait before releasing the document.
• schedule a release at a specific date: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME on DATE, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients and DATE the date you want the document to be released.
• schedule a release annually at the same date: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME every DATE-OF-YEAR for NB-YEARS years, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients, DATE-OF-YEAR the date you want the document to be released each year (e.g. 4-jul) and NB-YEARS the number of years you want to us to continue delivering this file for.
• schedule a release at a specific date even if you are alive: this is what we call Time Capsule. In this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME time capsule on DATE, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients and DATE the date you want the document to be released. (see Time Capsule FAQ for more details).

The subject content is not case sensitive.

As a reminder, the files that have been uploaded by email will have to be enabled on the ‘My Files’ page in order to be released if you pass away.

The best way to handle this is to inform at least one person that you have subscribed to our service. You will then add these persons in your contacts list as ‘Insider’ or ‘Insider & Recipient’.

You will have to give them their user/password (generated and shown on the My Contacts page when you add them) and link to our service (https://need2tellyou.com). The first Insider to be made aware of your passing will have to connect and tell our system you have passed away. Then the Guardians will step in to confirm (or not), and the usual release process takes place.

To do this, you will have to upload the file again. When the popup screen appears, type in your new question and the answer, That’s it!!

We cannot access the content of the documents that have been loaded under a plan with ‘Enhanced Document Security’. And it’s something very important to remember and have in mind. If you lose or don’t remember the answer of a security question (see Question/Answer in FAQ for more details), nobody will be able to decrypt the documents. Even us at Need2TellYou. If the subscriber is in this situation, s/he needs to upload the file again with a new Question/Answer couple.

First, let’s describe what we mean by ‘Mentally Incapacitated’. For us, this implies the subscriber is no longer able to communicate or interact with people as s/he used to be. This can happen if someone is in a long-term coma, in a vegetative state, has dementia or Alzheimer’s. This list is not exhaustive. In other words, and in our context, the subscriber is still alive but not able to reply to our pulse checks due to her/his condition.

When you schedule a document for release, the subscriber has the option to tell us that if s/he wants to release the document to a recipient when Guardians confirm s/he became ‘Mentally Incapacitated’, independently of the death. In this case, and as soon as Guardians inform us of this situation, we will release all documents to those planned Recipients.

Absolutely. Once you have set up your account, you can send emails to [email protected] using the primary email address declared in our system with your files as attachments.
You can have one or more attachments to this email. Assuming the file types are supported and you have enough storage left in your account, the file(s) will be added to your account with a ‘Disabled’ status.

For each file you you upload through email, and if you elected to receive SMS/text message in your profile, you will receive an SMS/text message giving you a 6 digit PIN code that you will have to provide on the ‘My Files’ page in order to be able to enter the Question/Answer and move the file status from ‘Disabled’ to ‘Enabled’. If you have not chosen to receive SMS/text message you will receive the PIN code in an email.

In both cases (with or without SMS/text message), you will receive for each file an email providing you a status of the upload.

Alternatively, you can send a ‘simple note’ to as a new document to your account by sending an email to [email protected] and filling the body of the email with the note your want to upload. A file prefixed by NOTE_ will be uploaded containing your ‘simple note’. These notes can also be scheduled using the email subject as explained in the related FAQ.

File with a ‘Disabled’ status will not be eligible to be released in a schedule. They first have to be enabled.

On a side note, you can also schedule the file(s) you uploaded through email using the email subject. Look at the FAQ on this topic for more.

Yes. You want each of your files to be at maximum 450 MB.

All security related SMS/text messages (PIN codes, security alerts…) are sent through SMS/text messages even if you did not check the box on your profile. This to ensure you are made aware as soon as possible of important information related to your account.

Whereas many services offer this ‘convenience’, we don’t. Re-use of user/pasword is one of the major reasons why your account could be hacked. For example, if you re-use your user/password that you have on a site, and if there is a data breach on this site, then hackers will try to connect to other web sites using the same credentials, and take over your data.

With our service, we generate a random username that is very unlikely going to exist somewhere else. Again, this is to re-enforce the security of your data

Just you, the subscriber, is aware. So, it is up to you to inform (or not) other people. In case you designate Insider(s), you will have to inform them.

Just to name a few, here are some examples of documents you may consider uploading to communicate to relatives or loved ones:

• Letters, audio, pictures and video recordings to loved ones.
• A simple document explaining where your advance directive, will or living trust are located, as well as who is in charge or is the custodian of these documents.
• A file containing your passwords for your phone, computer, email, bank accounts and social media accounts. We recommend using an online password manager such as 1Password, Dashlane, LastPass, KeyPass or NordPass to collect them all, sharing the master password with someone you trust, and then designating emergency contacts within the program who are allowed to gain access.
• A document explaining all your investments with contact information.
• Instructions for your funeral and final disposition.
• A text to be read at your funeral.
• An ethical will.
• etc…

Please consult our Privacy Policy to get the answer to this question, in the ‘Terms’ section of the menu.

Available in Premium, Premium+ and Peace of Mind plans, a Time Capsule is the schedule of a document that will be delivered to a recipient even if you are still alive.

You can for example, record a video related to a specific event today that will be delivered later at a date of your choice. You will not have to worry about where the file is, and risk to forget it. We will do that for you.

If you die (or become mentally incapacitated) before the time capsule is delivered, we will deliver it for you too.

An IP address is a network identifier. When you connect to internet, you are assigned a unique public IP address that allows data to be routed to you. If you want to know more about IP addresses, feel free to go here.

A Need2TellYou diary is a document fed by the subscriber along his/her life. Regularly, the system sends questions to the subscriber. These questions can either be related to his/her personality (who s/he is), or daily life questions, such as ‘What are you grateful for today?’.

These questions are sent by email. The subscriber has to use his/her email client software and reply to this email. The text s/he provides in the body of this reply is used as the answer to the question. S/he can also eventually attach pictures that will be added to the diary for this question entry.

Whereas some questions will be asked only once (e.g. the personality ones), others may be asked daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

When the subscriber passes away (or become mentally incapacitated), the system will generate a diary book in the pdf format.  This pdf book will have 4 chapters: an optional Prologue, a Personality chapter, a Day to day chapter, and an Epilogue chapter. All these chapters content come from the email replies the subscriber provides along his/her life, or from a direct entry using the My-Diary page.

This file becomes a file like any other document the subscriber has uploaded in the system. This is why s/he will see a ‘Diary’ entry in the list of files, on the My-Files and My-Schedule page. This Diary file needs to be scheduled for delivery, so recipients can receive them, as any other document that is being uploaded.

If a subscriber wants to look at the book content, s/he can do it by clicking on ‘View Book’ on the My-Diary page. The system will generate a copy of the book and download it to the subscriber’s device.

2Checkout is an electronic payment service (merchant account alternative) founded in 2000 that allows merchants to accept online credit card payments from customers in their home country and abroad.

They are our partner managing payments, subscriptions and refunds.

Click here to go to their web site: https://2checkout.com.

On the login page, click on ‘Lost your password? Click here’.

You will then be redirected to a page where you will have to provide your username/identifier.

If this identifier matches our database, you will receive an email with a temporary password and a link that will bring you to a page where you will be able to update your permanent password.

We use your device/computer IP address to figure out which country you are logging from.

For this, we rely on the information provided by your Guardians.

When a Guardian clicks on the link we provide and reach the ‘Guardian page’, s/he is asked if you are dead. If you are, we ask him/her to provide the death date.

Here is below the algorithm we use to determine the final ‘official’ death date:

1. We use the most recent date provided amongst all the Guardians
2. If none of them provided a date, then we use the date of the last time you logged into Need2TellYou

For that, you need to login into your account. Then in the menu at the top, under your name, you need to select ‘Subscribe’ and then chose the plan you want. A registration page will then open.

First, let’s describe what we mean by ‘Mentally Incapacitated’. For us, this implies the subscriber is no longer able to communicate or interact with people as s/he used to be. This can happen if someone is in a long-term coma, in a vegetative state, has dementia or Alzheimer’s. This list is not exhaustive. In other words, and in our context, the subscriber is still alive but not able to reply to our pulse checks due to her/his condition.

When you schedule a document for release, the subscriber has the option to tell us that if s/he wants to release the document to a recipient when Guardians confirm s/he became ‘Mentally Incapacitated’, independently of the death. In this case, and as soon as Guardians inform us of this situation, we will release all documents to those planned Recipients.

Yes, it is possible. Though, there are a few things to be aware of since a person can be a subscriber but also eventually a contact for other people in other subscriptions:

• First, we check if there is a subscription attached to this email. If it is the case then we use this Subscriber username
• If not, we check if there is an Insider with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Insider username.
• If not, we check if there is a Guardian with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Guardian username.
• If not, we check if there is a Recipient with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Recipient username.
• If not, we do nothing.

Unfortunately no. The username the system assigns to you (e.g aXXXXXX for a subscriber or cXXXXXX for a contact) cannot be changed.

Absolutely. You can be a contact for someone and also a subscriber yourself.

All security related SMS/text messages (PIN codes, security alerts…) are sent through SMS/text messages even if you did not check the box on your profile. This to ensure you are made aware as soon as possible of important information related to your account.

In order to avoid any ‘conflict of interest’, or miss-use of our system, and because you are not supposed to login into their account, the password of Recipients and Guardians are not communicated to the subscribers. There is no need for that. Our system will take care of the contacts credentials communication.

Whereas many services offer this ‘convenience’, we don’t. Re-use of user/pasword is one of the major reasons why your account could be hacked. For example, if you re-use your user/password that you have on a site, and if there is a data breach on this site, then hackers will try to connect to other web sites using the same credentials, and take over your data.

With our service, we generate a random username that is very unlikely going to exist somewhere else. Again, this is to re-enforce the security of your data

A couple of reasons why.

In order to ensure maximum security your password needs to be strong enough, with at least 8 characters. Then, we make sure your password is not part of a list of common passwords that are easily hacked. We have an official list of 1,000,000 of these passwords that can be found worldwide. Your password should not be part of this list.

We recommend you use the password generator on the page to get a random secure password.

Keeping track of IP Addresses helps 3 purposes:

1. Optimize the performance of our system by better understanding where customers come from.
2. Improve user experience.
3. Enhance security of the platform.

In order to improve security, we ask for a PIN code if:

• it is the first time you login from a new device or computer, or
• after 6 months on the same computer, or
• if you logged in with a new IP address on the network

If one of these conditions is met, we show the pop up about your preference to receive the code (SMS or email), and send it to you, so you can enter it in the following popup that will appear.

This is a way to ensure you are the person trying to login.

All data and documents are stored regionally within Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers. Here is the list of the data centers we use per region that are determined based on where you reside. This list will be updated as we roll-out new regions:

• For North, Central and South America: ‘us-east-1’ AWS region located in North Virginia, United States of America, with replication in ‘us-west-2’ AWS region located in Oregon, United States of America
• For Europe (western, central and eastern): ‘eu-west-1’ AWS region located in Dublin, Ireland, , with replication in ‘eu-west-3’ AWS region located in Paris, France
• For Africa: TBD (not available yet)
• For Middle-East: TBD (not available yet)
• For Asia: ‘ap-south-1’ AWS region located in Mumbai, India, , with replication in ‘ap-southeast-1’ AWS region located in Singapore
• For any country in Oceania: TBD (not available yet)

Because confidentiality is cornerstone to our service, we have implemented several layers of security to protect your data. Here is a list of what we do to keep your data safe:

– We use the AES_256 algorithm which is a data/file encryption technique that uses a 256-bit key to encrypt and decrypt data or files. It is one of the most common and reliable encryption method.

– All sensitive data are encrypted at rest and in transit, meaning for storage and while being transmitted over the network.

– Your documents and encryption keys go through 3 different rounds of encryption, with a different algorithm each time.

– During the upload process, your documents are split in various file chunks of random size, each file is stored in a different location picked randomly, with an encoded filename, and a different encryption key for each chunk.

– For plans with the ‘enhanced security’ option, your documents are also protected by an additional layer through a Question/Answer capability that is the last security barrier. See a specific FAQ entry on this topic.

– We use quality SSL certificates to encrypt data transmitted over the network between your device and our servers.

– We keep an audit trails of all changes happening to your account settings (account, files, contacts, schedule).

– We keep an audit trail of all access to your documents stored on our servers (who, what, when).

– Documents life-cycle (upload, download and delete) are managed through a relay server preventing direct access to your documents.

– Strong password and 2FA authentication is offered to all users of our service. All platform administrative accounts use 2 FA. See specific 2FA FAQ topic for more information. We highly recommend you set up 2FA to strengthen the security of your account.

– We perform daily backups of the platform and we keep them for a month, then keep a monthly backup, and finally an annual one.

– We replicate all your documents to another regional data center to prevent risk of local ‘disaster’.

– Firewall, malware protection and real-time threat prevention software run on our website, with daily reports.

– We analyze user behaviors to alert on suspicious activity.

– Last but not least, we periodically work with ethical hackers that perform penetration testing on our web site, in order to identify potential security flaws.

Please consult our Privacy Policy to get the answer to this question, in the ‘Terms’ section of the menu.

Two factor authentication (aka 2FA) is a second layer of security for your account. If you select this option, after login you will be asked to provide a code that is generated by your tablet or smartphone app, valid only for 30 seconds. Any app using the TOTP algorithm can work with our website (e.g Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, Lastpass…). This method of signing in to websites relies on something you know and something in your possession. That is why it is referred to as two-factor – because two factors are involved in authenticating you. While 2FA does improve security, it is not foolproof.

If you want to know more about 2FA you can read the Wikipedia page here or the Investopedia page here.

For plans with the ‘enhanced security’ feature, if the subscriber is in this situation, s/he needs to upload the file again with a new Question/Answer couple. We, at Need2TellYou, cannot do anything about it.

Some plans benefit from document enhanced security. In this case, you have the option to improve the encryption of your document with a dedicated password, known as the ‘Answer’. Documents using this option have a Question and Answer you have to fill when uploading them. See Question/Answer FAQ related to this topic to know more about it.

If a document doesn’t use the Question/Answer (enhanced security feature), the document is still encrypted on our servers. The only difference is that with the Question/Answer just you and your recipient can open the file.

As a preventive measure, our system will lock accounts after 15 minutes changing your password or email address if you do not validate this change by clicking on the link we send you by email.

In other words, after changing your email address or password, you have 15 minutes to validate this change by clicking on the link we send you by email.

If you forget to click on the link within 15 minutes, and your account gets locked, re-open the email we sent, go to the bottom and click on the button named ‘Unlock Account’. This button will expire after 1 week.

If you did not initiate this change and your account gets locked, please contact us. In any case, and because your account was locked, your data is safe.

On the login page, click on ‘Lost your password? Click here’.

You will then be redirected to a page where you will have to provide your username/identifier.

If this identifier matches our database, you will receive an email with a temporary password and a link that will bring you to a page where you will be able to update your permanent password.

The system will add their username and temporary password in the email they will receive. They will have to follow the instructions we provide them so they can login and create a permanent password.

We cannot access the content of the documents that have been loaded under a plan with ‘Enhanced Document Security’. And it’s something very important to remember and have in mind. If you lose or don’t remember the answer of a security question (see Question/Answer in FAQ for more details), nobody will be able to decrypt the documents. Even us at Need2TellYou. If the subscriber is in this situation, s/he needs to upload the file again with a new Question/Answer couple.

The Question/Answer feature is related to the ‘enhanced security’ option that some plans have. People subscribing to a plan having this feature available will have the option to protect their document with an additional password, only he or she and the recipient will know. This password is also known as the ‘Answer’ hereafter.

So, in order to add another security protection, and for each file the subscriber will upload, a secret Question/Answer will have to be provided.

Basically, the subscriber writes in plain text a Question the recipient(s) should know the answer to. For example, what was my mother’s maiden name? Or, which year did we go on vacation for the first time together? The question needs to be difficult to guess by someone else and easy for your recipient.

To increase the chances for the recipient to guess the Answer, this answer needs to be one word only, and cannot be part of the question. For example, someone cannot write a question as ‘Just type the word GUESS in the next field’ and have ‘GUESS’ as THE answer.

In the background, we will use this answer/word to create a more robust and complex password that will encrypt some keys and some data. The answer is not case sensitive, meaning it is not important if you type in upper case or lower case.

We will never store this answer on our servers for long term storage. It will just transit over the network and be used  for encryption. And then it is deleted. That means, that we at Need2TellYou can never read the subscriber’s documents and see their contents. It is only between the subscriber and his/her recipients. That is a key confidentiality point.

Yes, it is possible. Though, there are a few things to be aware of since a person can be a subscriber but also eventually a contact for other people in other subscriptions:

• First, we check if there is a subscription attached to this email. If it is the case then we use this Subscriber username
• If not, we check if there is an Insider with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Insider username.
• If not, we check if there is a Guardian with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Guardian username.
• If not, we check if there is a Recipient with this email. If there is one (and only one) then we use this Recipient username.
• If not, we do nothing.

Available in Premium, Premium+ and Peace of Mind plans, a Time Capsule is the schedule of a document that will be delivered to a recipient even if you are still alive.

You can for example, record a video related to a specific event today that will be delivered later at a date of your choice. You will not have to worry about where the file is, and risk to forget it. We will do that for you.

If you die (or become mentally incapacitated) before the time capsule is delivered, we will deliver it for you too.

You can schedule a document 4 different ways:

• Immediately after we are made aware of your death and at least 2 Guardians validate it
• On a certain date (e.g. 23-JAN-2021)
• After a number of days following your death as defined by your Guardians
• Annually at a certain date (e.g. April 12th). This option is convenient to release document according to birthdays, anniversaries for example.
• On a certain date even if you are still alive (time capsule)

You can do this up to 10 years after you die.

When you schedule a release you can select a date up to 10 years from the date you create the schedule, either as a number of days (e.g maximum 3650 days), or a specific date.

There are 2 scenarios when leap years can influence the scheduling.

1. When you define a release on a specific date. In this case, the system will not allow you to enter Feb 29th on a non leap year.
2. When you define a periodic release. If you select Feb 29th as your release date, all releases falling into a non leap year will be delivered on Feb 28th.

For this, we rely on the information provided by your Guardians.

When a Guardian clicks on the link we provide and reach the ‘Guardian page’, s/he is asked if you are dead. If you are, we ask him/her to provide the death date.

Here is below the algorithm we use to determine the final ‘official’ death date:

1. We use the most recent date provided amongst all the Guardians
2. If none of them provided a date, then we use the date of the last time you logged into Need2TellYou

To do this, you need to use the subject of the email. There are 4 possible cases:

• schedule an immediate release after your death: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME immediately, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients.
• schedule a release X days after your death: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME after NB-DAYS days, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients and NB-DAYS the number of days we need to wait before releasing the document.
• schedule a release at a specific date: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME on DATE, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients and DATE the date you want the document to be released.
• schedule a release annually at the same date: in this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME every DATE-OF-YEAR for NB-YEARS years, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients, DATE-OF-YEAR the date you want the document to be released each year (e.g. 4-jul) and NB-YEARS the number of years you want to us to continue delivering this file for.
• schedule a release at a specific date even if you are alive: this is what we call Time Capsule. In this case the email subject needs to look like this: for NAME time capsule on DATE, where NAME is either the first name or the nick name of one of your Recipients and DATE the date you want the document to be released. (see Time Capsule FAQ for more details).

The subject content is not case sensitive.

As a reminder, the files that have been uploaded by email will have to be enabled on the ‘My Files’ page in order to be released if you pass away.

You can schedule a release annually up to 10 years after your death.

First, let’s describe what we mean by ‘Mentally Incapacitated’. For us, this implies the subscriber is no longer able to communicate or interact with people as s/he used to be. This can happen if someone is in a long-term coma, in a vegetative state, has dementia or Alzheimer’s. This list is not exhaustive. In other words, and in our context, the subscriber is still alive but not able to reply to our pulse checks due to her/his condition.

When you schedule a document for release, the subscriber has the option to tell us that if s/he wants to release the document to a recipient when Guardians confirm s/he became ‘Mentally Incapacitated’, independently of the death. In this case, and as soon as Guardians inform us of this situation, we will release all documents to those planned Recipients.

Yes. It is possible. You will have to pick the ‘Periodic’ release option. By doing this, you can schedule a release for an annual delivery at a specific date of month each year, for up to 10 years.