What happens to your data when you die?
Posted by Chris @ 9:58 pm
I know it is a bit of a morbid thought, but during my extra hour of sleep in bed this morning (thank you BST) I wondered what happens to your online life when you die?
Allow me to explain further. All of my blog posts are stored in Blogger, my photos are in Flickr, my videos are in YouTube, and my email is stored in GMail. What happens to all that when I die?
In this time of blogs and online community I'd wager the majority of users of these services are under 40. So come 50 years time when we're dropping like flies what happens? How do we pass on our photos, blogs, videos to our loved ones. They are all password protected, do we have to start including our passwords in our wills? Do companies like Google, Yahoo, etc have policies in place to deal with the death of users and the appropriate transfer of digital properties to the next of kin?
Not a terribly upbeat conversation I know, but does anyone have the answers? A quick scan of terms and conditions of some of the larger sites shows no mention of death. I'm genuinely interested, do people have passwords ferried away in safety deposit boxes for when the time comes? Certainly one to ponder.....
2 Comments
Monday, October 30, 2006 9:30:00 am
This is something I've thought about on numerous occasions actually. I think it's only natural...Anyway, yes, most of the larger companies (and, therefore, probably the smaller ones too) will provide login details for an account if the next of kin (or presumably any other family member / friend) can produce proof of death - i.e. a death certificate.
But the question is, how does the next of kin know where you've got online accounts setup? Don't forget about hosting accounts, domain registrations, subscriptions, etc.
Maybe it would just be easier if Google owned everything on the Internet. They you'd only need one password and everything would be much, much easier for your next of kin...
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Friday, November 17, 2006 5:08:00 pm
What happens to your data when you die?It gets added to your Cemetery 2.0 gravestone, of course!
[Via Boing Boing innit]
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