Recently it was revealed that Liberty Safe, an American gun safe manufacturer, had voluntarily, not under threat of subpoena, provided the FBI with the backup code of the lock on the safe of a person indicted for January 6 activity. For whatever reason, law enforcement sought to open the safe without “cracking it”.
There has been a good amount of consumer concern over this issue, and we wanted to clarify our policy with respect to your BlumSafe or BlumSafe Professional. In summary, we have attempted to strike a policy that balances our duty to your rights as our loyal customers, on one hand, with our obligations as a law abiding, American company, on the other hand.
The BlumSafe.
Once you program your keycode and fingerprint, there is no backup code or fingerprint to access your safe. The safe can also be opened by a backup key, of course, and each key has a “key code” that we can use to provide a replacement key if you are locked out, if necessary. We do NOT keep a record of these keycodes, and do not know the keycode of any specific customer’s BlumSafe. There is a sticker under the nameplate on the front of your safe that contains your safe’s keycode. If law enforcement seeks access to your safe but is unwilling to crack it, they may come to us with this keycode, seeking a key. Our general policy is that, if contacted by law enforcement authorities seeking a copy of the backup key to your safe, we will only hand it over if presented with a lawful subpoena. At your liberty, you can, of course, remove this sticker from the nameplate so that no third party will have that keycode. This also means that if you forget the code and are locked out of your safe, we can’t help you either.
The BlumSafe Professional.
The UL-listed S&G keypad on your BlumSafe Professional has a backup code for emergency entry if you forget your code or combination, like the one the FBI obtained from Liberty. Each safe’s keypad has its own unique backup code – to our knowledge, there is not one “skeleton code” that works on all of our S&G keypads. The sub-manufacturer of the Professional keeps these backup codes on file in a multi-layer, multi-site procedure meant to enhance security. It is their policy, which we wholly endorse, not to voluntarily share these codes with law enforcement unless presented with a lawful subpoena. Their policy is the same with regard to the combination code on the UL-listed Big Red combination dial that we offer as an option on the Professional. Furthermore, our joint policy is that if a BlumSafe Professional owner asks us to destroy or send to the owner the paperwork with the record of the backup code or combination to their safe, we will do so, which will result in no third party being able to obtain from either of us such backup code or combination. This also means that if the owner is locked out of their safe, we can’t help them either.
We believe that this policy reflects a correct balance between the rights of the individual and the state within the law. We welcome your thoughts.
