In the event that a zombie outbreak occurs, Montreal-based startup PasswordBox (which is quietly approaching one million users) has stated in its blog this morning that it must receive an official letterhead death certificate in order to activate the tool’s legacy feature.
PasswordBox provides a handy tool that allows users to create one “master password” for the Google chrome extension. Users gradually add all their known passwords to their PasswordBox where the tool automatically allows them to perform an easy, one-click login. But in the event that a user dies, the startup implemented a legacy feature upon launch. Users can designate family or friends as recipients of their master password, post-mortem.
But since it is Halloween today, the startup did some quick thinking. Knowing that the potential for a Zombie outbreak is both real and possible. Taking a cue from the federal government in which Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird assured the House of Commons that he was “dead-icated” to ensuring that a Zombie outbreak wouldn’t happen within Canadian borders, PasswordBox issued its official stance on the legacy feature.
“There have been many questions as to how we would manage these Legacy transfers should a Zombie outbreak occur. Or to put it bluntly, how dead does one have to be for the Legacy transfer to take place?” wrote the startup. “It is our official policy that – just like a regular legacy transfer request – we must have a verified copy of the death certificate, even in the case that the user in question has become one of the undead.”
Maintaining its tight policy around people’s digital lives, PasswordBox made it very clear that in the event that no local authorities cannot be contacted to verify the death certificate, “we cannot and will not trigger the transfer of assets at that time.”
Thinking ahead, the startup said that given the event of a zombie outbreak, it would be experiencing a high volume of death certificates, requiring a high degree of user patience.
“It is likely that at least some of our team members will be affected, so we will probably be running a skeleton crew and will need extra time to process the back log. Thank you, and have a Happy Halloween!”