Strassennachlass: Terms of Use

1. Scope and Purpose

Straßennachlass is a multilingual platform run by Hamburger Gabenzaun e.V. that brings homeless people together with publicly appearing trusted persons. Homeless people set up an account, store personal content about their lives as well as about advance care and estate matters, and choose one or more trusted persons who accompany them and who, in the event of need or death, know and can carry out the wishes they have recorded.

These Terms of Use apply to both roles on the platform – both users and trusted persons. By registering and confirming these terms, each person acknowledges the rules set out below.

2. Roles on the Platform

User: Homeless people or people affected by homelessness who maintain content and receive support.
Trusted person: A publicly appearing person who supports users – usually staff of social organisations (e.g. associations, Diakonie). A trusted person is not a lawyer or notary in the legal sense.

Both roles use the same account system; the role is determined during registration.

3. Registration and Account

Registration is carried out with first name, last name, email address and password. Agreement to these Terms of Use is mandatory.
The email address provided also serves as the login name.
After registration, a confirmation email is sent. The account is only active after clicking the confirmation link (email verification / double opt-in).
Each person creates only one account and provides accurate information about themselves.
A nickname or “street name” is used as the publicly visible name – that is, deliberately not a legal name. This keeps the identity protected.
The password must be kept secret and must not be passed on to third parties.

4. Obligations of All Users

Provide truthful information and keep it up to date.
Do not use the platform abusively or in an unlawful manner.
Do not post any content that violates laws or the rights of third parties (e.g. copyright or personality rights).
Treat other people respectfully.
Keep access credentials safe.

5. Special Provisions for Users

Content that users can maintain:

their profile (including nickname, contact details, profile picture),
a diary,
a guided questionnaire about their life story as well as about advance care & estate (including emergency and advance care wishes, estate and funeral wishes),
personal messages with text as well as video, audio and image files,
the upload of a handwritten will.

Note on advance care, estate and will: The platform serves solely to document and make findable personal wishes and information. It does not replace legal, notarial, tax, medical or other professional advice. An uploaded will is not checked for formal validity or legal effectiveness; the original document always remains authoritative.

Choosing trusted persons:

Each user chooses at least one trusted person; two are recommended.
The last remaining trusted person can only be removed once another one is available.
With each new selection, the trusted person concerned is informed by email.

Visibility of content:

The stored content is private and, in principle, only accessible to the user themselves and to the assigned trusted persons within the intended scope.
Personal messages are not visible to trusted persons during the user's lifetime. They are only released after an event occurs (emergency or death notification).
Uploaded media are stored in a protected area that is not publicly accessible.

The user is themselves responsible for the lawfulness and accuracy of the content they post.

6. Special Provisions for Trusted Persons

The profile of a trusted person – nickname, organisation, city and profile picture – is deliberately publicvisible and searchable, so that users can find suitable support. The email address is not shown publicly.
Trusted persons undertake to maintain confidentiality and to handle the data entrusted to them carefully and in an exclusively supportive manner.

Trusted persons take on a supportive and organisational role. Being named does not automatically make them legal representatives, authorised agents, heirs, executors or other legally obligated persons. They are not obliged to provide legal, tax, medical or pastoral advice.

Functions available to a trusted person:

Viewing the stored documents of the users entrusted to them in a protected area (read-only),
Assigning a new password for an entrusted user, which is handed over in person (not sent by email),
Reporting the death of an entrusted user.

The trusted person is notified by emailabout being selected as a trusted person as well as about newly stored content; the notifications themselves do not contain any confidential content.

7. Access to Data and Visibility

A user's content is private.
Assigned trusted persons can view the user's stored documents.
Personal messages are only released after an emergency or death notification.
The diary only becomes visible to trusted persons after a death notification.
Profiles of trusted persons are public (see Section 6).

8. Death Notification and Subsequent Retention

A trusted person can report the death of an entrusted user; a date of death can optionally be provided.
The other trusted persons are informed of the notification by email; the reporting person receives a confirmation.
After a death notification, the trusted persons have 180 days (about 6 months) to view and download the data and, if necessary, to contact relatives.
14 days before this deadline expires, the trusted persons receive a reminder.
After the deadline expires, the profile with all data is permanently and irrevocably deleted.
A death notification entered by mistake cannot be reversed independently and requires a manual correction by the operator.

In the event of a death notification, the operator may request suitable evidence and carry out further checks. If there are doubts about the accuracy of a death notification, the release of content or the deletion of the account may be temporarily suspended until the matter is clarified.

9. Deletion of the Account by the User

Logged-in users can delete their account themselves.
Deletion is carried out in two steps: after it is triggered, a confirmation email is sent; the link it contains is valid for 24 hours.
After confirmation, the account becomes inaccessible. This is followed by a period of about 6 months during which the data can no longer be retrieved but has not yet been permanently removed. (The period serves to protect against accidental deletion and allows recovery in exceptional cases.)
After this period expires, all data (including diary, questionnaire answers, personal messages, profile picture and trusted-person assignments) is permanently deleted.

10. Data Protection

Users' content and uploaded media are stored in a protected area and are only accessible via the intended, logged-in access.
The public details of trusted persons (nickname, organisation, city, profile picture) are deliberately public in order to enable findability.
In addition, the platform's privacy policy applies.

The platform may contain particularly sensitive and highly personal information. Depending on use, this may also include special categories of personal data, such as health data, religious or ideological wishes, family information as well as details about advance care, estate and funeral matters. Details on processing, legal basis, retention period, recipients, data subject rights and technical protective measures are contained in the privacy policy.

11. Languages

The platform is offered in several languages. The authoritative and fallback language is German; in the event of discrepancies between the language versions, the German version applies.

12. Availability and Liability

Uninterrupted operation of the platform is not guaranteed; maintenance and disruptions are possible.
Users are themselves responsible for the accuracy, completeness and lawfulness of the content they post.

The operator gives no guarantee that stored wishes are legally effective, complete or actually feasible. The platform merely assists in documenting and making personal information findable.

The operator is liable without limitation in cases of intent and gross negligence as well as for injury to life, body or health. In cases of slight negligence, the operator is only liable for the breach of essential contractual obligations and limited to the foreseeable, typically occurring damage.

13. Changes to the Terms of Use

These Terms of Use may be adjusted. Users will be informed of significant changes in an appropriate manner. If a user does not object within 30 days of the announcement, the amended terms are deemed accepted. This consequence is expressly pointed out in the notice.