Add user permission for recovery only

kennedy513

Is it possible to add a family user type that is capable of recovering accounts without giving them access to billing, people, and other things the organizer has access to. I really want to designate one of my family members to recover my account if need be. This is the main reason I upgraded to family account. Thank you in advance

---

1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

AGAlumB

@kennedy513: We don't currently have plans to do do something like that, but I'll let the team know it's something you'd be interested in. However, that's a feature you can have today, as we offer it in 1Password Business, because companies tend to need more granular controls over things like this, and have people on staff to manage these things, where it can be confusing to most people who are just trying to share passwords with their families. Honestly, if you don't trust a family members with Organizer status but want to designate them to be able to help others recover their accounts though, you should probably think hard about whether or not you'd even want to give that person the ability to do recovery either, since that could be abused: if they have access to the recovery target's email, they could take over their account, or just cause trouble for them mischievously by putting their account into recovery mode. Food for thought.

kennedy513

@brenty thank you for the response. I’m not too worried about them doing something malicious it was more to prevent them from accidentally messing up something

AGAlumB

Makes sense. And likewise, thanks for sharing your thoughts! :chuffed: :+1:

Seattle2000

I think that would be a good option as well.

ag_ana

Thank you for the sharing your feedback @Seattle2000 :)

gordcook

@kennedy513, If you are currently using 4 or fewer accounts, have you considered using an alternate e-mail address to create a second organizer account just for yourself so that you could recover your own account? If only you know the master password for the alternate organizer, then you should have no concerns about anyone other than yourself accessing billing, etc. I know it's not exactly what you asked for, but it might achieve the safety net you're looking for. My 2¢ worth.

Lars

@gordcook - that's a very interesting suggestion! Honestly one I'd not considered previous (though others here may have done so). It might in the case of a forgotten password be the one and only thing standing between you and having to reset the entire account for all family members. My only concern would be that if it's unused for months or years during normal use, then I'd worry it would be much easier to lose/forget that account's Master Password or Secret Key, so that in the unlikely and unfortunate event you DID forget your "real" account's Master Password or Secret Key, you'd not have the other one either, when you needed it.

I was initially thinking "just save the 'recovery' account's details as a Login item within your own 1Password account, so you wouldn't have to remember it"...but of course, if losing/forgetting your own sign-in credentials is the problem to begin with, having the "recovery" account's details safely waiting in the place you've lost access to...becomes a kind of Catch-22. You could get around this by writing down your Secret Key and Master Password for this "recovery" account or saving it as a file on your computer somewhere, but that's exactly what the Emergency Kit for your "main" account is for -- to prevent you from forgetting your credentials. Since you could already do that for your main account, I'm not sure what additional benefit doing it for a secondary, "recovery" account would convey.

gordcook

@Lars , excellent points. We're definitely talking about a very narrow edge case here. Personally, the only circumstance I can imagine where this would be helpful is if I were to change my master password and subsequently forget it before updating my Emergency Kit. I only posted my idea because I thought it might give the OP a little more peace of mind. And I'm all about helping people mitigate risks and sleep through the night... or day. I don't judge. :)

Lars

:) :+1: I think brenty's point above is maybe the best one I've seen on this subject in quite a while: we definitely understand that not every family is all sweetness and light 100% of the time, and (obviously) we get people's desire for the advanced protection of having a second person being able to recover accounts instead of having a "single point of failure" in the form of only one Family Organizer. But if, as you (general you, not you specifically) are setting up your 1Password Families account and you're legitimately worried that the person you're considering making a Family Organizer in order to take advantage of the peace of mind/redundancy that comes from a second person who can perform Recovery, is erratic or even ill-intentioned enough to use the powers of Family Organizer for nefarious ends, then you probably don't want them to have even Recovery powers, either. If I found myself seriously wondering about such a thing, I'd say individual accounts was the way to go.

kennedy513

Hey everyone, thank you for the suggestions. I do agree this is an edge case, but would be super useful nonetheless.

Ben

Thanks @kennedy513. :)

Ben

XIII

But if, as you (general you, not you specifically) are setting up your 1Password Families account and you're legitimately worried that the person you're considering making a Family Organizer in order to take advantage of the peace of mind/redundancy that comes from a second person who can perform Recovery, is erratic or even ill-intentioned enough to use the powers of Family Organizer for nefarious ends, then you probably don't want them to have even Recovery powers, either.

I think the original poster mentioned another scenario; one that I also reported before:

What if you trust all persons in your family, but not their technical abilities? (Or they don't themselves?)

Lars

@XIII - not sure we need to go any further on this, as the original issue seems to have been addressed, but the scenario you suggest would be covered under "erratic." It's certainly not our place to pass judgment on anyone's family dynamics, but there is a level of trust in at least one other person inherent in making them a Family Organizer - whether that's trust in their motives, their competence or anything else - and I think brenty's point was that if one's own estimation of someone else's capacities is such that making them a Family Organizer seems a risky proposition, then giving that person Recovery-only powers would likely be an equally bad idea. The point is: technology cannot solve human problems of this sort.

XIII

If making them a Family Organizer seems a risky proposition, then giving that person Recovery-only powers would likely be an equally bad idea

Why is that? (What can go wrong here?)

Lars

@XIII - what could go wrong with giving them Family Organizer permissions?

AGAlumB

@XIII: Family organizers can remove people entirely, or put someone’s account into recovery as I mentioned above. The reason Organizer isn’t the default for all family members added is because all administrative powers can be used to great effect or abused, entirely depending on the individual’s intent and ability. I’m not sure there are any more ways to say that, or illustrate it.

Ben

Hi @XIII

I think your last question may have been misinterpreted. I think perhaps you're asking what could go wrong with someone having "recovery-only" permissions (theoretical)? If so, while there are protections in place, malicious recovery is a thing and it is possible someone could gain access to someone else's account using it.

Ultimately we wouldn't recommend giving powers to people you don't trust. That's what it boils down to. It's possible we'll further consider "recovery-only" type permissions, but that position would stand even with such a feature.

What if you trust all persons in your family, but not their technical abilities?

Then perhaps some training is in order. :) "With great power comes great responsibility."

I'm in a similar boat. I have family that I trust to not do anything malicious but their technical skills are lacking. I've made them an organizer in our family account so that they aren't totally up a creek if something happens to me. But they don't ever log in to the web interface, so they aren't in a position to perform any administrative tasks. I imagine if they ever need to use those powers they'll be writing to Brenty or Lars for help. ;)

Ben

XIII

I think perhaps you're asking what could go wrong with someone having "recovery-only" permissions (theoretical)?

Indeed.

Ben

Answered above then. :)

Ben