Security
How we keep your will and documents safe
Your will is the paper you sign in ink before two witnesses. Online, Waseeyat™ keeps a record of how your will was prepared, and the papers you choose to add to your private vault. Here is how we protect them, who can see what, and what we never do.
Every file is locked with its own key
Each file you add to your vault is encrypted with its own key before it is stored.
A key for every file
Each file gets its own 256-bit key (AES-256-GCM encryption). That key is then locked by our master key, which stays inside Amazon's key service (AWS KMS) in Mumbai and never leaves it. AWS records every use of the master key.
Where your data is
Your files and our database are stored encrypted in Mumbai, and our database backups will be kept there too, encrypted. The servers that run Waseeyat are in Singapore: they check and encrypt each file when it is added, and decrypt it only when it is downloaded. Whenever your browser talks to those servers, the connection passes through Cloudflare, which shields them from attacks. Cloudflare ends the secure connection at its own servers on its global network (usually the Cloudflare data centre nearest you) and opens a new one to ours, so your requests and our replies, vault files included, pass through it in readable form. Our website is served by Vercel from its global network, and the site's server code runs in Mumbai; your answers and files go from your browser straight to our servers, not through Vercel. Our emails are sent by Resend from Tokyo, Japan, and Resend keeps records of them in the United States. Error reports go to Sentry in the United States, with personal data collection switched off.
Checked before it opens
When a file is opened, we check that it is exactly what was stored. A file that fails the check is not served.
Made safe on the way in
Only allowed file types are accepted, judged by what the file contains, not by its name. Photos and PDFs are rebuilt before they are stored: photos lose hidden details such as where they were taken, and PDF form fields are removed. Signatures built into a PDF file (not ink signatures on a scan) stop working, so keep your own original of any such PDF.
An honest limit
Our service holds the keys, not you. So a forgotten password does not lose your papers, and the record of your will can reach the people listed below. It also means we never describe this as encryption that only you can unlock.
Who can see your files
Your files open only from your own account. Our staff screens never show them.
You
You open your files from your own account. IDs, witnesses' papers, health papers, financial papers and a child's papers also need a sign-in within the last 15 minutes.
Our staff
Staff screens never show what is inside your files. Staff handle the scan of your signed will only to prepare the record of your will for the people listed under “Who can get the record of your will”.
An advocate, only if you choose
If you buy an advocate's check of your signed will, you can choose to share that one scan with the advocate. Each time it is opened, that is recorded.
Your witnesses decide for themselves
We keep a witness's ID only after the witness agrees, by an email link sent to their own address or on a signed paper slip. You must not agree on a witness's behalf.
After your death
Waseeyat does not give anyone access to your vault, including your executor. After your death, it gives the record of your will, with the scan of your signed will, to the executor named in your will once it has checked the death and who they are, and to the holder of a grant of probate or letters of administration. Apart from that record, Waseeyat gives no one anything in your vault unless the law requires it, such as a court order. That is why you should tell your executor where the original is.
Anyone else
We give your files to anyone else only if the law requires it, such as a court order.
Two steps to sign in
Everyone who works on a will on our side signs in with two steps. You can choose the same for your own account.
Two-step sign-in for everyone who works on wills
Our admins, drafters and reviewers, and any empanelled advocate, must also enter a code from an authenticator app when they sign in.
Two-step sign-in for you
You can add a second step to your own sign-in with an authenticator app, from your account's security page. Keep the recovery codes it shows you.
A fresh sign-in for sensitive things
Downloading an ID, a witness's papers, a health or financial paper, a child's paper, or the record of your will needs a sign-in within the last 15 minutes.
Wrong passwords
After 5 wrong passwords in a row, the account locks for 30 minutes.
A record of who did what
Sign-ins, staff actions, and every upload, download, deletion and share of a vault file are written to an audit log.
No one can look up your will online
Your printed will carries no QR code and no web address to check it, and Waseeyat has no “check this will” page. No website, including Waseeyat, can tell you whether a paper will is valid. Only a court can decide that.
Your choices stay private
A public check would let anyone holding one page see when your will is reopened or replaced, while you are alive.
A code proves nothing about paper
A code printed on a page can be copied onto a forged one. What protects the paper is your signature, your witnesses, the page numbers and the initials on every will page.
No habit for fakes to exploit
If people got used to checking wills online, a fake will could send them to a lookalike website.
No list of who looked
Every lookup would leave a record of who looked up whose will. We prefer to keep no such list.
Who can get the record of your will
Waseeyat keeps a record of how your will was prepared: each version of the text and its fingerprint, the reviewer's check, when you downloaded the signing kit, what you told us about the signing, and where you said the original is kept. It is not your will. It goes only to these people, and to nobody else.
You, at any time
From your own account, after a sign-in within the last 15 minutes. You get the whole record, with every version and your answers.
Your executor, after a checked death
The executor named in the will you reported signing can ask after your death. We check the death certificate online or with the office that issued it, and check who they are. We email you at your own address, and wait at least 7 days. If your account is used in that time, the request stops for good and is treated as a possible false report. A second, different admin must approve before anything is released.
The holder of a grant
A person who holds a grant of probate or letters of administration, once we have checked the grant with the court and checked who they are, and a second admin has approved.
What they receive
An executor or a grant holder receives the record, the version you reported signing and the scan of your signed will. Reviewers' notes are left out. Earlier drafts and your answers go only to you, or to a court or the police on a written order that describes them.
A court or the police, on a written order
We confirm the order through the official contact details of the court or police station, which we find ourselves, never the ones printed on the order. We produce only what the order describes.
Nobody else
Anyone else is refused, and the request is logged. We point them to the executor or to a court.
How a request reaches us
There is no online form for reporting a death. Requests come by email to the address printed on the evidence page of your signing kit, and a person logs each one.
Deleting files, consents and your account
You can delete files, withdraw a consent, or ask us to erase your account. When you ask us to erase your account, a person reviews the request before anything is deleted.
Withdrawing a consent
Withdrawing a consent deletes the files kept for that purpose. This cannot be undone.
What the law makes us keep
Some records are kept where the law requires it, such as payment records under tax law and proof of the consents you gave, with access to them restricted.
When something stops a deletion
If an estate matter about your account is open, an advocate is still working on a service you bought, or a legal hold applies, we tell you what we kept and why, and email you when the deletion can go ahead.
Witnesses' and doctors' papers
If you record in your account that your will is revoked or replaced by a newer one, we tell you, and witnesses' IDs and a doctor's certificate are deleted 30 days later, unless you keep them for your new will.
Backups
Copies inside our encrypted backups are deleted as those backups expire, within 90 days.
Your rights over your personal data
We build to India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 now, before most of its duties begin. From the Privacy and your data page in your account, you can:
Get a copy of your data
Each copy can be downloaded for 24 hours. It lists the files in your vault and every recorded action on them, but does not contain the files themselves.
Withdraw a consent
At any time, on your vault page or on the Privacy and your data page.
Ask us to delete
A person reviews every request before anything is deleted, and tells you what, if anything, the law makes us keep.
Name a nominee
A nominee is a person you choose who may use your rights over your personal data if you die, or if illness of mind or body leaves you unable to use them yourself. Naming a nominee does not change your will.
Complain
Write to our Grievance Officer, who will be named in our Privacy Policy. We reply within 30 days. Once the Data Protection Board of India begins taking complaints, you can also complain to the Board, in the way our Privacy Policy sets out.
What we never do
A short list we hold ourselves to.
Sell your data
We use your personal data only for the purpose we told you about. We do not sell it, and we collect nothing for advertising.
Let AI read your vault
No AI reads the documents in your vault.
Collect personal data in our error reports
When something breaks, our error reports go out with personal data collection switched off. Words about religion or health, ID numbers, and the parts of web addresses that can carry personal details are removed first.
Track you without asking
Analytics run only if you accept analytics cookies, and we use no third-party tracker.
Ask for a full Aadhaar number
Add an Aadhaar only as a masked copy, with only the last 4 digits showing. A PDF or Word file in which we can read a full Aadhaar number is refused. We do not read photos, so for a photo we rely on your confirmation that it is masked. We never use an Aadhaar to check who you are, and never check it with UIDAI.
Use a child's data for analytics or advertising
A child's data is never used for analytics or advertising.
Let a will be signed electronically
Our software refuses electronic signing for wills, codicils, trusts and powers of attorney. A will is signed in ink, on paper, before two witnesses.
We open only when this is in place
Waseeyat is opening soon. Sign-up and the contact form stay closed until then.
Backups first
We will not accept any customer's data until nightly database backups are running and a restore has been rehearsed. After that, we practise a restore every quarter.
Published legal pages
Our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and refund policy go to counsel for review. The Privacy Policy and Terms of Use must be published before sign-up can open.
A named Grievance Officer
Sign-up cannot open until our privacy notices name our Grievance Officer and the business behind Waseeyat, with its address.
A plan for when things go wrong
We keep a written incident plan. It covers who we tell and when, including the people affected.