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Setup a family account for an individual just for recovery feature?

J_schwinn
J_schwinn
Community Member

I'm moving from a standalone to the cloud and wondering if anyone has setup a family account instead of an individual just to have the recovery feature and leave the second organizer account dormant until needed? I guess an obvious downside is that you'd be creating an secondary access point to your vault if the login to that 2nd account was breached.


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Referrer: forum-search:recovery

Comments

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @J_schwinn!

    What are you trying to protect against here? If you could clarify your thought process, we might be able to give you some suggestions :+1:

  • J_schwinn
    J_schwinn
    Community Member

    Hi ag_ana

    I was just wondering whether the recovery feature of the family account is worth having, even for an individual. But the emergency kit may be enough to satisfy that need. Have you heard of others using family accounts just for the recovery feature?

    thank you,

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @J_schwinn:

    Personally, I have not, but it's possible that some users are using it that way. I know that some users chose the Families account for the recovery feature, and then used the opportunity to introduce 1Password to other family members, but I cannot think of a case where an Individual chose a Families account with a second recovery account that they control.

  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member
    edited May 2020

    I'm a bit in-between: I have Families, but am the only admin and have a second recovery account.

    I would love other family members to be able to recover accounts, but don't want them to be admins. Unfortunately that granularity is not possible with a Family account...

    (I do trust them, but not their technical skills - and they feel the same way about that)

  • nickwaters
    nickwaters
    Community Member

    The elephant in the room with the recovery feature @J_schwinn is that technically any person with access to the relevant email addresses can initiate the reset to your account.

    1Password have designed the system to make this difficult to abused but it's not foolproof.

    The above persons (who can access your account) may be:

    • hackers
    • criminals
    • law enforcement personnel
    • limited 1Password staff
    • yourself

    I'd strongly argue against setting up a family account for this reason.

    With the normal 1Password (Individual) account nobody but yourself can access your account.

    If losing access if your concern, you're just as likely to lose/forget your credentials to the recovery account as you are to your normal account.

    My recommendation:

    • write down your secret key, tear it in half and give it to two of your trusted friends (in a sealed envelope)
    • write down your secret key and store it with your lawyer on in a bank vault
  • The above persons (who can access your account) may be

    I'm not sure I follow this. In order to be in a position to abuse the recovery function someone would need to both have recovery powers (i.e. a Family Organizer) and have access to your email account. 1Password Team Members do not have recovery powers over 1Password Families accounts. A Family Organizer who does have (or could gain) access to your email account would indeed be in a very powerful position. We'd recommend against empowering another person in that way. That said I do agree with your point about being just as likely to lose access to a second account if you're the person responsible for both, and also think your recommendations are worthy of consideration.

    Cheers!

    Ben

  • J_schwinn
    J_schwinn
    Community Member

    Thanks all for the replies. I'm still wrestling with losing some control by moving to the account from the 1P standalone setup, so all tips are helpful. I'm getting there.... slowly.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @J_schwinn:

    We are always here if you have any questions :+1: :)

This discussion has been closed.