- Company tanks.
- Company gets acquired, and your private data gets mined.
- Company gets hacked and database dump gets posted.
I think I'd rather stick to the old methods of sealed envelopes and trusted friends or a lawyer. It's more reliable and requires less brain time slices ("Does the comapny still exist? Has it been hacked or acquired?" etc)
- Email account gets hacked, and you can't respond to emails anymore.
- Spam filter bug filters the service's emails for 3 consecutive weeks.
- You are simply hospitalized for a few weeks, maybe under anesthesia, maybe in a temporary coma, maybe some memory loss.
A "dead man switch" needs to be more robust for really sensitive stuff IMO.
- An insider misuses powers.
People are raising valid concerns about your product, and instead of listening and accepting early feedback from HN, you are all over this discussion, defensively arguing with everyone. Just sit back, hear what people have to say, and then decide for yourself if you want to make changes, or reject the feedback.