What happens if we disappear?

First, what a card actually is

A Dote card is a chip with an address on it. When a phone comes near, the phone opens that address. That is the whole mechanism — the card does not store your video, and it is not a screen. It is a printed object that points somewhere.

This matters more than any promise we could make, because it means the part you care about does not have to depend on us at all. If you point your card at an unlisted YouTube or Vimeo link that you own, then the video is yours, hosted by a company far larger than ours, and our continued existence has nothing to do with whether it plays. We would be a redirect. Redirects are replaceable.

If instead you upload the file to us — which is easier, and what most people do — then you are relying on us to keep it. That is a real dependency and we are not going to describe it as anything else.

Second, what we actually promise

This is quoted from our terms, which is the page that owns the commitment. If the two ever disagree, the terms are the ones that count:

For as long as Dote is operating, which we intend to be indefinitely. We are a young company and it would be dishonest to promise forever from here.

So, the commitment we can actually keep: if we ever wind down, we will tell you with enough notice to save what is yours — we will not go quiet and let the cards die. Keep your original video file regardless. That is good advice about any company, including this one.

We would rather say that than "forever", which is what you will be told by most of the people selling you a digital keepsake, and which none of them can back.

What we would do about it if we were you

• Keep the original file. Not on a phone. A hard drive, a cloud account you pay for, ideally two places. This is the single most useful thing on this page and it is true no matter who you buy from.
• If it is irreplaceable, host it yourself. Upload it to your own account, set it unlisted, and point the card at that link. It is a few more minutes and it removes us from the part that matters.
• Ask any other seller the same question. Specifically: does the card point at a link I control, or at something only you can serve? Plenty of NFC keepsakes are the second kind and do not say so.

And if you want your material gone

The reverse of this question gets asked less and matters as much. You can close your account and have what we hold deleted — see deleting your data for how, and the privacy policy for exactly what that covers.