About Dead Man's Letter

Mission

Dead Man's Letter provides accessible, privacy-preserving dead man's switch protection for journalists, whistleblowers, activists, abuse survivors, and anyone needing insurance against coercion, incapacitation, or death.

We believe protection against intimidation should not be limited to the wealthy or technically sophisticated. At £1/month, this service democratizes access to dead man's switch capabilities that previously required expensive lawyers or complex self-hosted solutions.

How We Operate

Zero-Knowledge by Design: We genuinely cannot see your encrypted files, don't know what keys unlock, and cannot identify you by name. This isn't marketing - it's architectural reality. You create and encrypt your letter yourself, post it wherever you choose, and inform your recipients separately. We only send character strings via email at predetermined times.

Distributed Infrastructure: 9 servers across multiple jurisdictions use quorum consensus to prevent single-point failure or control. The service continues operating even if 4 servers fail simultaneously.

Transparent Operation: Client application code is open source on GitHub. Anyone can verify our zero-knowledge claims and security implementation. We welcome security audits and public scrutiny.

Warrant Canary

Last Updated: 7 October 2025

As of the date above, Worth Considering Limited has:

Not received any National Security Letters
Not received any gag orders preventing disclosure of legal process
Not been subject to any searches or seizures
Not been compelled to modify code or infrastructure
Not received any court orders requiring disclosure of user data beyond lawful and disclosed requests

If this canary is not updated within 30 days of the above date, or if this section is removed, assume legal process preventing disclosure has occurred.

Legal Position

Service Classification: We provide timed email delivery - a standard internet service comparable to email providers, postal services, or ISPs. We are neutral infrastructure for communication.

Liability Protection: Like postal services that are not liable for letter contents, or ISPs that are not liable for encrypted data transmission, we provide communication infrastructure without control over content. Users are solely responsible for content they create, encrypt, and distribute.

Law Enforcement Cooperation: We comply with lawful court orders from UK courts and valid international legal process. However, our zero-knowledge architecture means we can only provide data we actually have: client tokens, mailing lists, timestamps, and payment records (if payment method was identifiable).

Criminal Misuse: If you're being extorted or threatened by someone claiming to use our service, report them to police immediately. We cannot verify if threats are real, cannot identify clients by name, and are a witness to criminal activity - not accomplices.

Terms of Service

By using this service, you agree that:

You are solely responsible for all content you create, encrypt, and distribute
We provide email delivery only - we do not create, host, view, or control any content
All payments are final and non-refundable
Mailing lists are immutable after creation - we cannot change them
We cannot reset passwords or recover lost credentials
We comply with lawful legal process and court orders
You will not use this service for illegal purposes

Data Protection

GDPR Compliance: We collect minimum data necessary for service operation: client token (pseudonymous identifier), recipient email addresses (necessary for service delivery), timestamps (service function), and payment information (billing).

Data Retention: Active contracts - data retained for operation. Terminated contracts - data deleted 90 days after termination. Released keys - no retention (emails sent, job complete).

Your Rights: You can request data access, request deletion (results in contract termination), or exercise other GDPR rights by contacting legal@deadmansletter.com with your token.

Security

We maintain security through: hardened servers, minimal attack surface, encrypted database at rest, encrypted server-to-server communication, regular security updates, open source client code for public audit, and incident response procedures.

If you discover a security vulnerability, please report it responsibly to contact@deadmansletter.com rather than disclosing publicly. We appreciate security researchers and will acknowledge responsible disclosure.

Open Source

Client application code is published on GitHub under GPL-3.0-or-later license. This demonstrates our commitment to transparency and allows independent security verification. We welcome community contributions, bug reports, and security audits.

GitHub Repository: github.com/worthconsidering/deadmansletter-client (launching with service)