In this 21st century where almost everything has become digitalised, most people still don’t know what digital legacy is and how it can be transferred. Like, what happens to everything you’ve acquired or invested in online when you’re gone? You may need to start thinking in this direction if you’re not – especially if you’re a blogger, course creator, digital marketer, author, voice-over artist or online photographer.
Most people reading this have a lot of digital information, whether on their own devices or in the cloud, including pictures, emails, Whatsapp or Facebook messages (or even texts), and everything else. Some of this may be of great value to your heirs in the future. Take, for instance, does anyone, apart from you, have access to the passwords to your bank accounts and credit card accounts?
In this article, we will explore some ideas to help ease the burden on your loved ones if anything were to happen to you.
A will gives your successor full access to the assets stored on the Internet such as your online accounts, websites, etc. In a country like the United States, these requirements are laid forth in the updated Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. Currently, it has not been passed by California, Oklahoma, or Louisiana; it has been introduced but not yet passed by the state of Massachusetts.
For the sake of security, you might want to consider giving at least one person access to your computer and/or password manager. The Act, on the other hand, does not extend to social media websites, which could provide difficulty. Entrusting all your social media accounts to one person is possible, but it requires proving their authority to do so.
When it comes to cloud computing and social media accounts, there are a few services that have included tools that allow you to arrange ahead of time who will be authorised to manage your accounts if you are unable to do so. The following are some of the biggest internet services and how they are (or are not) responding to the problem.
Digital Legacy of Apple’s iCloud
Accessing an iCloud account belonging to someone who has passed away was previously incredibly difficult, particularly if you did not have access to that person’s recovery key. That situation has changed, though. Apple, on the other hand, has just launched a Digital Legacy programme to its iCloud accounts, which allows you to designate up to five Legacy Contacts who will have access to your account. The program is supported in iOS 15.2.
Read our article below on how Setting Up a Legacy Contact Who Can Access Your iCloud Data After Death.
Inactive Account Manager for Google
As one of the more comprehensive solutions for managing your digital legacy while temporarily ill, Google’s Inactive Account Manager comes highly recommended.
Go to Inactive Account Manager and click Start. This includes setting up the inactive account manager, notifying parties, and deleting records.
Google’s Inactive Account Manager offers a variety of options for digital legacy
Set the manager to activate after 3, 6, 12, or 18 months of inactivity. As part of the process, you’ll be required to provide your phone number and/or email address. If you don’t log in, Google will call or email you a month before the account expires to make sure you’re actually gone (and not just forgotten about it).
In the next section, you can specify up to ten persons who should be notified by Google. You can control who gets access to your calendar, contacts, Google account, and transactions. You can simply give them access to all your apps. If you like, you can provide Google with their phone number to verify their identification.
You can also set up a Gmail autoresponder message. This will be sent to anyone who emails you after the manager has been activated, informing them that the account is no longer in operation. You have the option of having the message sent to everyone who emails you, or only to persons on your contact list, depending on your preferences.
Finally, you can request that your account be terminated three months following inactivity. Google says this includes publicly available data like YouTube videos. (If you’ve designated someone to have access to your account, they’ll have three months to save everything they want.)
Customize Your Facebook Memorial Settings
This element of Facebook’s digital legacy is referred to as Memorialization Settings. Like Google and Apple, it allows a designated individual to access your account after you die. However, because Facebook is frequently used to memorialise deceased persons, there are some additional considerations.
Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings on the Facebook site. Select Memorialization Settings from the General section (the first category in the left column).
In the new window, select a legacy contact who can moderate tribute posts, delete your account, allow new friends, and change your profile. Facebook will contact the person you choose, so communicate with them about it.
A link at the bottom of the page allows you to permanently delete your account. If you don’t do that, Facebook will “memorialise” your account as soon as it detects your inactivity. This implies that the word “Remembering” will be posted on your page, your content will stay, and friends will be able to send notes on your timeline.
In the event of death, Twitter does not allow for postmortem account transfers. Closing the Twitter account of a deceased user requires a form and several pieces of documentation, including identification and a death certificate.
It’s the same with Instagram. You can’t set up a digital legacy to your account. As an alternative, the account will be memorialised on the site if the site obtains documentation of the event, such as a newspaper article or a death certificate. Also, if a family member has the right proof, they can ask for an account to be closed.
Currently, there are no social networking sites that have any special functionality for what occurs when a user is no longer present. The documents required to deactivate an account will instead be provided by executors, family members, or anyone with legal standing.
