Security & Trust

Your vault is encrypted
before it leaves your device.

Clarmont is built for the one situation where security really matters: when you're gone and the people you love need access. We designed every layer with that in mind — not just strong encryption, but an honest model of what we can and can't see, and why.

7 min read Last updated May 2026
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How your data is encrypted

The short version: the sensitive stuff is encrypted before it reaches our servers. We hold the ciphertext. We don't hold the key.

At rest — sensitive fields (AES-256-GCM)

Credential passwords, crypto seed phrases, and document contents are encrypted using AES-256 in GCM (Galois/Counter Mode) — the same algorithm used by the U.S. government and military. GCM provides both encryption and authenticated integrity checking, meaning a tampered ciphertext is detectable and rejected before decryption is attempted.

Passwords (bcrypt)

Your Clarmont account password is hashed with bcrypt, a slow-by-design hashing algorithm that makes brute-force attacks computationally prohibitive. We store the hash, never the password. If you forget your password, we can't recover it — you reset it.

In transit (TLS 1.3)

All communication between your browser and Clarmont's servers uses TLS 1.3, the current industry standard, which provides forward secrecy — past sessions can't be decrypted even if a key is later compromised.

Files (Cloudflare R2, AES-256-GCM)

Documents you upload are stored in Cloudflare R2 object storage with server-side AES-256-GCM encryption at rest. R2 uses GCM as its preferred mode — the same as our field-level encryption.

Key derivation

Encryption keys for sensitive fields are derived from a combination of the user's credentials and a server-side salt using PBKDF2/HKDF. Keys are never stored in plaintext.

Your Device AES-256-GCM encrypted blob (key never leaves) TLS 1.3 Clarmont Server Receives ciphertext Routes to storage (cannot decrypt) PostgreSQL DB AES-256 at rest TLS in transit Cloudflare R2 AES-256-GCM at rest TLS in transit

Clarmont servers receive already-encrypted blobs for sensitive fields. Decryption requires the user's key, which is derived at runtime and never persisted on our servers.

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What Clarmont can and cannot see

We believe you deserve an honest answer to this question, not marketing language.

Data Clarmont can see it Notes
Your name and email address ✅ Yes Required to run your account
Document filenames ✅ Yes Stored as metadata in plaintext
Document upload timestamps ✅ Yes Stored as metadata
Beneficiary names ✅ Yes Needed for access grant logic
Document contents ❌ No Encrypted before upload
Credential passwords ❌ No Encrypted with AES-256-GCM
Crypto seed phrases ❌ No Encrypted with AES-256-GCM
Private notes in your vault ❌ No Encrypted before storage
Your Clarmont password ❌ No bcrypt hash only — irreversible
Honest caveat: Clarmont is not a zero-knowledge platform in the cryptographic purist sense — our servers are involved in the authentication flow, and a sophisticated attacker who compromised both our servers and a user's session simultaneously could theoretically attempt a man-in-the-middle attack. We disclose this because we think you should know the difference between "we don't have the key at rest" and "mathematically impossible to access." Most consumer-grade security is the former, not the latter.
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How beneficiary access works

This is the most important security question for Clarmont. If it's designed wrong, the vault is either inaccessible after death or accessible to the wrong people.

How access grants work

When you designate a beneficiary, Clarmont records the grant — who has access to what, under what conditions — in your account settings. Beneficiaries receive an invitation email but cannot access any vault contents while the account holder is alive and active.

Death-triggered release

Beneficiary access is unlocked through a documented claim process:

  1. A beneficiary submits a request to Clarmont, attesting to the account holder's death
  2. Clarmont's support team reviews the claim and may request basic documentation (e.g., reference to an obituary or written statement — we don't require formal legal documents for family access)
  3. An admin approves the release
  4. The beneficiary receives access to the specific vault items they were granted
This is a human-administered process. We audit every release. There is no automated trigger — a death certificate alone does not unlock access without staff review.

Why this is auditable

Every access grant, every beneficiary invitation, every release approval is logged with a timestamp and admin identifier. If a release is ever disputed, there is a complete audit trail.

What we're building next

We're designing a cryptographic time-lock system that will allow vault access to be granted through a verifiable death signal without requiring staff review for standard family access. This is in research; current access is staff-reviewed.

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Where your data lives

We chose providers with the strongest compliance posture available to consumer SaaS companies.

Service Provider What it does Compliance
Hosting & edge compute Render Runs the Clarmont application SOC 2 Type 2
File storage Cloudflare R2 Stores encrypted uploaded documents FIPS 140-2 compliant ciphers
Database Neon (PostgreSQL) Stores encrypted vault data, account info, access grants SOC 2 Type 2
Email delivery Postmark Sends verification, notifications, beneficiary invites SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS Level 1
Payments Stripe Processes one-time payments PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider

Data geography

Clarmont data is hosted in US-based data centers. We do not currently offer EU-region data residency.

No data sold

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes. Period.

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Protecting your account

bcrypt password hashing

Your password is hashed with a high work factor. Bcrypt is intentionally slow — hundreds of milliseconds per check — making brute-force attacks economically unviable.

Session tokens

Sessions expire after 30 days of inactivity, invalidate on password change, and use HTTP-only SameSite cookies to prevent XSS-based theft.

Email verification

Email addresses are verified before vault features activate. Unverified accounts cannot upload documents, add credentials, or designate beneficiaries.

TOTP 2FA

Two-factor authentication (Google Authenticator, 1Password, Authy) is available from your account Security settings. Step-up verification is required to reveal passwords, seed phrases, and exchange credentials.

Rate limiting

Login attempts are rate-limited by IP. After repeated failures, accounts enter a temporary cooldown to prevent credential-stuffing attacks.

No security questions

We don't support "security questions" — the answer is almost always guessable from social media. Password recovery goes through verified email only.

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What happens if something goes wrong

Detection

We monitor application errors, unusual access patterns, and authentication anomalies continuously via infrastructure alerting and structured logging.

Notification

In the event of a confirmed breach affecting user data, we will:

  1. Notify all affected users by email within 72 hours of confirming the breach
  2. Describe what data was accessed and what wasn't — using our encryption model as the baseline
  3. Describe what we did to stop it and what we're doing to prevent recurrence
  4. Provide instructions for any recommended user actions (e.g., password reset)
Transparency commitment: We will not use vague language like "may have been affected." If your data was in scope, we'll say so. If it wasn't, we'll say that too.
Critical (< 24h)

Unencrypted account data, bulk credential exposure

High (< 48h)

Metadata exposure, billing data compromise

Medium (< 72h)

Infrastructure incidents with no confirmed data access

Vulnerability reporting

Found a security issue? Email security@lifelocker.app. We respond within 2 business days. We don't have a formal bug bounty program yet, but we acknowledge responsible disclosure publicly (with your permission).

Frequently asked questions
We'd give users at least 90 days notice to export their data. Your documents can be downloaded in bulk at any time from your vault — you're never locked in. We're not planning to shut down, but we think you should know your exit path regardless.
You can reset your password through your verified email address. If you lose access to that email address too, contact us at support@clarmont.io — we can help you verify identity through a separate process, though recovery without email access is more involved.
In response to a valid legal order (subpoena, court order, warrant), we would be required to provide what we have. What we have for encrypted fields is ciphertext — encrypted data we cannot read. We would provide that ciphertext. We'd also provide unencrypted metadata (document names, timestamps, account info). We'd notify affected users unless legally prohibited from doing so.
We have not undergone a formal third-party code audit. We follow secure development practices internally. As Clarmont grows, we intend to commission an independent security audit and publish the findings. We'll update this page when that happens.
US-based data centers — primarily AWS (via Neon PostgreSQL) and Cloudflare's global network (via R2 file storage). We do not currently offer EU or other regional data residency options.
Your vault data is retained for 30 days after cancellation in case you change your mind. After 30 days, your account and all associated data (documents, credentials, vault entries) are permanently deleted from our systems. Encrypted backups are purged within an additional 30 days as they rotate.
No. Beneficiaries receive an invitation confirming they've been designated, but have zero access to any vault contents until a death claim is submitted and approved. They cannot view even document names.
No. Crypto seed phrases are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before transmission. We store ciphertext. Decryption requires a key derived from your credentials — a key we don't store in recoverable form.
Clarmont itself is a startup and has not undergone SOC 2 certification. Our infrastructure providers — Render, Neon, Cloudflare R2, Postmark, Stripe — all hold SOC 2 Type 2 and/or PCI DSS Level 1 certifications. We're building toward SOC 2 as we grow.
No. AI features (if and when we build them) will operate only on metadata you explicitly share. We will never pass encrypted vault contents to any AI system.
No. Clarmont staff authenticate through separate admin tooling with MFA required. No one at Clarmont has a backdoor into your vault. The admin tooling allows account management (plan changes, access approvals) — not access to encrypted vault contents.
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Security contact
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Vulnerability reports

security@lifelocker.app

Response within 2 business days. Responsible disclosure acknowledged publicly (with permission).

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Account & support

support@clarmont.io

Response within 1–2 business days.