Notes on keeping documents safe
Practical writing about where your passport, ID card and passwords actually live — and what happens to them when a phone is lost, sold, shared or backed up without you thinking about it.
The 6-month passport rule: how much validity you actually need
Your passport is not expired, and you are still not getting on the plane. Which countries apply it, where it is three months instead, and the renewal habit that removes the problem for good.
How to create a strong password (and why the old advice was wrong)
Length beats complexity, forced 90-day changes make things worse, and reuse matters more than either. What current NIST guidance actually says.
Is it safe to keep a photo of your passport on your phone?
Almost everyone has one. The honest answer is that it depends entirely on where that photo lives — and the camera roll is the worst of the available options.
The best document vault apps, and how to actually choose one
Ten apps people use to store passports and ID, sorted by what they are genuinely good at — including where each one falls down, ours included.
How to store important documents on your phone without uploading them anywhere
Cloud storage is not the only option, and for identity documents it is often the wrong one. A practical method that keeps everything on the device.
Lost your passport abroad? What you needed to do before you left
Every embassy asks for the same handful of things. Almost none of it is available to you at the moment you actually need it.
Do you need a password manager that works without the cloud?
Syncing is a feature, not a virtue. What you give up by going offline, what you get back, and who should actually choose which.