ARCAN — Official Licences

Request an ARCAN Licence
Eligibility · Procedure · Security

ARCAN is a sovereign, civil cryptographic suite that operates 100% offline. Every licence is delivered manually, following an ethical and operational verification of the requesting organisation. There is no automated approval, no mass processing and no cloud involvement.

Submit an eligibility request View documentation
Initial licence requests must always be submitted via arcan@ariel-ia.ch (eligibility).
The address licences@ariel-ia.ch is reserved exclusively for the official delivery of validated licences.
Public administrations & press

Simplified procedure for the public sector & media

Public administrations and media organisations benefit from a dedicated channel to initiate ARCAN licence requests.

Public administrations

Eligible entities include: federal authorities, cantons, municipalities, and para-public institutions. ARCAN is provided free of charge to the public sector.

To initiate a request, send an email to:
arcan@ariel-ia.ch

From an official institutional address (e.g. firstname.lastname@city.xx), specifying:

  • Name of the institution
  • Department or unit (e.g. IT, finance, municipal police)
  • Estimated number of workstations to equip
  • Name and role of the responsible person
  • Direct telephone number

Press organisations & journalists

ARCAN is provided free of charge to journalists. For newsrooms (TV, radio, print media, online media), the procedure is identical: email arcan@ariel-ia.ch from a professional media address.

For independent journalists, the request must include:

  • Scanned copy of a valid press card
  • Scanned copy of an official identity document

These documents are used solely to verify the authenticity of your status and are subsequently handled in accordance with the offline protocol described below.

Private sector

ARCAN eligibility form (Companies & organisations)

Access to ARCAN is neither automatic nor guaranteed. ARIEL-IA reserves the exclusive right to grant or refuse ARCAN to any company, institution or organisation, without obligation to provide justification.

Each request is subject to a human, offline evaluation, based on technical, operational and ethical criteria. A refusal is final, without appeal or reconsideration.

ARCAN is not intended for indiscriminate distribution. It is a high-impact civil cryptographic tool, whose use entails the direct responsibility of its holder. This framework is non-negotiable.

Authorised technical partners

ARIEL-IA allows certain IT service companies to apply for Authorised Technical Partner status. This status is neither automatic nor guaranteed and is subject to a specific evaluation.

To request this status, the company must complete this form and specify in the section Purpose of ARCAN usage: “Become an authorised technical partner”.

An authorised technical partner may sponsor a request submitted by one of its client companies. Such sponsorship engages the partner’s responsibility, attesting that the legitimacy, context and purpose of the request have been pre-validated.

The validation procedure remains strictly identical to that applied to all other companies. The partner can in no case guarantee acceptance or delivery of ARCAN.

Financial conditions related to authorised technical partner status are not public. They are communicated exclusively by ARIEL-IA, after review of the application and in the event of mutual interest.

Payment & settlement

An ARCAN pre-order entails no payment request. No amount is due at this stage, including for authorised technical partner applications.

Payment is required only after validation, at the time of delivery of the ARCAN executable and its associated licence.

Settlement is carried out exclusively by bank transfer, according to the terms communicated during final validation.

Applying for Authorised Technical Partner status entails no membership, registration or programme fees. ARIEL-IA charges no access fee for this status.

How to use this form

1. Complete the fields below in your browser.
2. Click “Copy the form”.
3. Paste the generated text into an email.
4. Send it to: arcan@ariel-ia.ch

No data is transmitted automatically.
Everything remains on your machine until you explicitly choose to send the email.

This operating mode reduces the exposure surface in order to protect our relationship with you.

Organisational information

Please provide accurate and complete information.

Leadership & Governance

IT / Security Officer

Applicant (if different)

Intended use of ARCAN

Briefly describe why your organisation wishes to use ARCAN (e.g. sensitive archives, compliance, patient files, internal legal data, confidential engineering documents, etc.).

Contact email for the licence

This must use the organisation’s domain (e.g. firstname.lastname@company.xx).

Open email editor

Nothing is sent automatically. The text is only copied locally to your clipboard.

Conditions & Ethical Framework

Usage Policy & Ethical Exclusivity

ARCAN is a civil cryptographic suite. We fully reserve the right to refuse a licence where the intended use conflicts with ARIEL-IA’s ethical commitments.

Perpetual licence

One licence = one workstation.
No subscriptions.
ARCAN continues to function offline indefinitely.

Local use only

ARCAN does not run in the cloud. No data is transmitted, collected or stored externally. All operations happen exclusively on your machines.

Ethical exclusivity

ARCAN is not delivered to organisations whose activities, history or context conflict with the protection of life, lawful uses or responsible governance.

Data Protection

Manual Processing & Offline Storage

The way we handle licence requests reflects ARCAN’s philosophy: no opaque automation, no silent processing, no hidden database.

Human processing only

Information sent during the licence request process is never passed through any automated scoring, external AI system or third-party analysis service. Every request is reviewed manually by a human.

Offline storage

After processing, essential information (licence history, contact details, justificatory documents) is transferred to fully offline systems: air-gapped storage, isolated drives or removable secure devices.

Copies temporarily stored on connected devices are deleted afterwards. No cloud, no online database, no indexable repository.

In concrete terms: your administrative data cannot be analysed, sold, scanned, or recovered by any third party. We apply the same care to your administrative data as we apply to ARCAN’s cryptographic engine.

Next step

Initiate your ARCAN licence request

If your organisation shares our commitment to sovereign, ethical cryptography, we will review your request with utmost attention.

Submit an eligibility request View ARCAN documentation