Personal data vault Canada/Guide
Zero-knowledge vaults vs self-hosted AI vaults
Zero-knowledge vaults encrypt your data on your device so the vendor cannot decrypt it — a strong guarantee that also prevents the service from searching your data or filling forms with it. my-id.ca makes the other choice: data is encrypted at rest and in transit on Canadian servers, and the service can process it — with self-hosted AI only, never third-party providers — so it can search your vault and fill PDFs and web forms. my-id.ca does not claim zero-knowledge, and you should distrust any vault that claims both zero-knowledge and server-side AI over your content.
What zero-knowledge actually means
In a zero-knowledge design, encryption keys never leave your control: data is encrypted client-side, and the provider stores ciphertext it cannot read. Vaults like LifeXS and password managers market this hard, and for pure storage it is a genuinely strong property — a server breach yields ciphertext, and staff cannot look at contents.
The cost is capability. If the server cannot read your data, it also cannot search inside it, answer questions about it, map it onto a PDF’s fields, or autofill a web form. Zero-knowledge products that offer server-side AI over your content are describing two incompatible things — ask which one is actually true.
The choice my-id.ca made, stated plainly
my-id.ca is a working vault, not a lockbox: the point is that your stored profile fills forms, answers searches, and drafts PDFs. That requires server-side processing, so my-id.ca does not claim zero-knowledge encryption — the service can decrypt your data to do its job, and we say so.
The safeguards around that access: AES-256-GCM encryption at rest, TLS in transit, Canadian servers and backups, passwords hashed and never visible to operators, all AI self-hosted in Canada (never OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic), consent-first sharing with a visible history, and deletion that clears backups within 30 days. A client-side-encryption option is on our long-term radar for users who prefer the lockbox trade-off; until it ships, we will not use the zero-knowledge label.
How to choose
Pick zero-knowledge storage when you want long-term archival of documents you rarely touch and no one — including the vendor — should ever read. Pick a processing vault like my-id.ca when the data is meant to be used: searched, reused across family forms, and mapped onto the PDFs and portals Canadian life keeps sending you. Some people run both: a ZK archive for cold documents, my-id.ca for the living profile that does the paperwork.
Frequently asked questions
Is my-id.ca zero-knowledge?
No, and we say so plainly. Data is encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) and in transit, but the service can decrypt it to run search and autofill. Passwords are hashed and unreadable to everyone, including staff.
Why not just add zero-knowledge encryption?
Because the product’s core features — AI search, PDF fill, web-form fill — require the server to read the data it processes. An optional client-side-encryption tier for cold storage is a direction we are considering, and we will label it honestly if it ships.
Can a vault be zero-knowledge and offer AI search over my documents?
Server-side AI over content the server supposedly cannot read is a contradiction. Either the AI runs entirely on your device, or the data is decrypted somewhere for processing. Ask the vendor which — the answer tells you what the marketing means.
Which is safer against a data breach?
Pure zero-knowledge storage, for the stored files themselves — a breach yields ciphertext. A processing vault mitigates rather than eliminates that risk: encryption at rest, Canadian jurisdiction, no third-party AI exposure, and a published breach-notification commitment. Choose based on whether you need the vault to work with the data or only hold it.
Verify everything on the Trust page
Every claim about my-id.ca in this guide — hosting, encryption, sub-processors, deletion, breach commitments — is documented on the Trust page, which is the source of truth. Related reading: personal data vault Canada.
Store it once. In Canada. For free.
Create a free my-id.ca account — no credit card — and build the vault that powers your family's forms, PDFs, and document sharing.