UnoLock Spaces
Overview
Spaces let you organize information inside your Safe into separate compartments. A Space can be used for personal records, business material, family planning, project data, or any other category you want to keep isolated from the rest of your Safe.
Spaces now support two different access models, and they are not the same:
- Access keys for the same Safe: multiple users can have their own access key, such as a passkey or hardware-backed key, and those keys can be granted either limited access to selected Spaces or full administrative access to the Safe.
- Shared Spaces between Safes: a Space can be shared with another Safe so both Safes can collaborate on the same records and cloud files.
That distinction matters:
- Access keys mean more than one user can have their own access key and open parts of one Safe.
- Shared Spaces mean two or more separate Safes can work together in the same Space without sharing the rest of their data.
How It Works
- Private Spaces keep records separated inside one Safe.
- Access-key allocation lets the Safe owner decide whether a specific access key has limited access to selected Spaces or full administrative rights to the Safe.
- Shared Spaces let a Safe owner create a collaboration Space and send an invite to another Safe through Vault Messaging.
- Per-Space encryption keeps each Space logically separated from the others.
Two Ways to Collaborate
1. Sharing access inside the same Safe
This is the original model:
- You stay within one Safe.
- You register additional access keys for that Safe.
- You choose which Spaces those keys can open.
This is useful for:
- Adding another access key for yourself, such as a passkey or hardware-backed key on another device.
- Giving a family member or teammate their own access key for selected Spaces in the same Safe.
- Giving a trusted administrator full Safe access through their own access key.
- Separating limited-access and full-admin roles within one Safe.
See Granting an Access Key Access to Spaces in the Same Safe.
2. Sharing a Space between separate Safes
This is the new collaboration model:
- Each person keeps their own Safe.
- A Space owner creates a Shared Space.
- The owner sends a Vault Messaging invite to another Safe.
- The recipient imports the invite and gains access to that shared collaboration space only.
This is useful for:
- Team collaboration between separate Safes.
- Secure family coordination without merging Safes.
- Sharing one project workspace while keeping the rest of each Safe private.
- Ownership-based deletion, where the owner can delete the Shared Space for every participant, while a non-owner can only remove that Shared Space from their own Safe.
See Shared Spaces and Sharing a Space Between Safes.
Security Implications
- Compartmentalization: each Space remains separate from the rest of your Safe.
- Selective exposure: sharing a Space does not share the rest of your Safe.
- Collaboration without Safe merging: Shared Spaces allow cooperation while preserving Safe-level separation.
- Owner-controlled shared deletion: if the owner deletes a Shared Space, it is deleted for all participating Safes; if a non-owner deletes it, only that Safe loses access.
- Key-scoped access: same-Safe access keys can be limited to specific Spaces or elevated to full Safe administration.
- Multi-user same-Safe access: multiple people can share one Safe when each person has their own access key and only the Spaces intended for them.
Use Cases
- Personal and work separation: keep business records apart from personal material.
- Family organization: use one Space for estate planning, another for household records.
- Same-Safe delegated access: allow a trusted person to use their own access key to open only selected Spaces in one Safe.
- Cross-Safe collaboration: share one project Space with another Safe while keeping all other Spaces private.
Why It Matters
Spaces are not just folders. They are a control layer for privacy, organization, and collaboration. They let you decide whether you want:
- compartmentalization inside one Safe,
- limited access through selected access keys,
- or collaboration between entirely separate Safes.
That makes Spaces useful for both personal security and operational teamwork.
FAQs
Does sharing a Space mean sharing my whole Safe?
No. A Shared Space exposes only that collaboration Space, not the rest of your Safe.
Are access keys and Shared Spaces the same thing?
No. Access keys apply to one Safe. Shared Spaces connect separate Safes to the same collaboration area.
When should I use access keys instead of a Shared Space?
Use access keys when multiple users should have their own access key to the same Safe, either with limited access to selected Spaces or with full administrative rights. Use a Shared Space when different people should keep separate Safes but collaborate in one Space.
What happens if a Shared Space is deleted?
If the owner deletes it, it is deleted for every participating Safe. If a non-owner deletes it, only that Safe loses access and the data remains for the owner and other participants.
Integration with Other Features
- Vault Messaging: Shared Space invites are delivered through Vault Messaging.
- Cloud File Storage: shared collaboration includes cloud-stored files in the shared Space.
- Access Keys & Safe Access: this remains the right model when the goal is to let one or more users open the same Safe using their own passkey or hardware-backed key.
