What would happen if AgileBits were to disappear?

Pleonasm
Pleonasm
Community Member
edited April 2023 in Lounge

Hypothetically, what would happen to users’ access to 1Password in the highly unlikely event that AgileBits Inc. suddenly no longer existed – e.g., bankruptcy, or a legal action requiring the company to cease operations?


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Comments

  • Tertius3
    Tertius3
    Community Member

    With the desktop client, you can export your data any time, no matter if you (or 1Password) are online or offline. Installing the desktop client after you (or 1Password) have gone offline will not work of course, so you should install it before, if you want to have some safeguard. The export is running from a cached vault database copy on your machine the desktop client is keeping synced while it is running.

  • Hello @Pleonasm! 👋

    @Tertius3 gave a great answer. Even if 1Password the company, and all of our servers and backups, were to disappear tomorrow you would still have access to all of your items on your devices as the 1Password app keeps a copy of your data locally cached. You can test this by putting your device into "Airplane Mode" and confirming that you still have access to your items.

    And if you are using 1Password on a Mac, Windows, or Linux device then you'd be able to export your items: How to export your data from the 1Password app

    Let me know if you have any questions. 🙂

    -Dave

  • Pleonasm
    Pleonasm
    Community Member

    @Tertius3 and @Dave_1P, thank you for your helpful responses, confirming my expectations.

  • Happy to help! Don't hesitate to post again if you have any other questions. 🙂

    -Dave

  • JAC3467
    JAC3467
    Community Member

    A good question on AgileBits going away. But the more likely scenario in my view is AgileBits would be acquired. There has been some internet noise circulating that Apple is taking a look, but so far just noise.

    An Apple acquisition wouldn't bother me, but that said, over the years I've had a number of experiences where an independent company whose service or software I used, once acquired, simply no longer offered the same quality of service/product and support.

    @Dave_1P - anything to say on that? Thanks in advance.

  • Tertius3
    Tertius3
    Community Member

    If AgileBits would be acquired? Oh, that would really be an issue and a problem. If that would be announced, I would probably immediately cancel my subscription and leave. Especially if Apple acquires AgileBits - I don't want to have any business with Apple ever. Apple is as evil as Oracle.
    The password manager I use has to be independent. Investors and capital, yes. But control from a buyer? Or being assimilated into another company? Uncertain direction of further development? No.

  • @JAC3467

    That's a question that is well above my pay grade, I'm just a humble customer support person. I will say that we've recently had an investment round that is specifically designed, in my view, to allow 1Password to stay independent and remain in an extremely strong and stable position for many years to come: Bringing human-centric security to everyone

    We've also acquired a couple of companies recently to help build out 1Password's technology and to bolster our long-term plans:

    -Dave

  • Tertius3
    Tertius3
    Community Member

    This is ok, as long as 1Password stays in control of itself.

    If the company that provides my password manager isn't in control of itself any more, the trust I set in its highly security sensitive product will be gone, because the company in control defines procedures, policies and general future direction, and any change would only mean less security, since I consider the current 1Password design strategies as "secure design first, then profit". Where different policies will lead to can be seen with Lastpass.

  • Good points. I hope that you stick around here with us for a very long time. 😊

    -Dave

  • Pleonasm
    Pleonasm
    Community Member

    Based on these comments, one consequence of the hypothetical disappearance of AgileBits would be the loss of access to documents stored in 1Password, for individuals who only use the iOS app.

  • @Pleonasm

    Thank you for the feedback. You're correct that 1Password for iOS doesn't currently support offline files, I've let the product team know that you would like to see this in the future.

    -Dave

    ref: PB-32675098

This discussion has been closed.