In this article, I decided to touch on what will seem to many to be a sensitive topic, but while many countries continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, this information is most relevant.
I, like many people, use the Internet as a daily part of my life, and my online and offline worlds are intertwined. Recent events have prompted me to consider creating a guide in preparing my own digital world so that if something unexpected happens to me, those I leave behind will be less nervous about working with my digital legacy.
Important elements of the digital footprint can include, but are not limited to, financial accounts, family photos, music collections, and playlists to social media and email accounts. Some service providers may have a wide variety of services, for example Google may provide email, photos and cloud storage, while Spotify may store your favorite playlists. Accessing data or managing online accounts can be important in the short term, to keep people informed about the situation, or long term, in order to ensure that important data needed by those you leave behind is not lost. If, as in my situation, you store important documents and family photos in the cloud, when sharing with others, you may need to access and possibly manage this storage.so that you can resolve issues and preserve memories captured in photographs.
I have never been an avid user of social media applications other than LinkedIn, and even then only for business purposes, so my footprint can be much smaller than that of a regular user. However, I have a relatively unused Facebook and Instagram account, so keep in mind that they are properly cared for. One of the key considerations is whether you want your social media profiles to be immortalized or removed, or leave that decision to others after you die. The steps below may not cover all services or accounts, but they should be a good starting point for the preparation necessary to preserve your data so that loved ones can gain the necessary access or your right to be forgotten is respected.
Tidying up your digital affairs
Appoint a digital artist. It is a common practice in the West to appoint an executor of the will, a trusted person who takes care of property, finances and assets and distributes them according to your wishes. The world today means you may also need a digital performer to manage digital assets - delete, convert, download, and manage accounts and profiles. Just like you list important financial assets, you can list digital assets and your specific instructions for each so that there is no confusion or disagreement between the people you leave behind. Currently, not all countries recognize the legal status of a digital artist, but it does demonstrate the exact wishes of the deceased and will hopefully be respected by companies if allowed by law.
In some cases, it may be necessary to entrust a person with information necessary to access a service or data. For example: if you store any cryptocurrency in a digital wallet, it will be difficult or impossible for the executor or beneficiary of your property to access it without knowing your private private key. Coin Metrics estimates that at least 1.5 million bitcoins are considered lost for various reasons, including death, which is over $ 16 billion in just one cryptocurrency. It is not recommended to store information about a private key in a will, as it can become a public document after death. Whether you share passwords and PINs with a loved one, write them down and keep them in a safe, or distribute different parts of the key to a group of friends: obviously, you need to prepare in advance,so that all assets are in cryptocurrency can be transferred further.
Another option is to use a password manager to create a single repository that stores credentials. This option makes it possible to generate extremely complex (and therefore secure) passwords, since there is no need to remember them all; all you need to remember is one very strong password to unlock the password manager. It is also a protection against keyloggers as they cannot track what is not being entered. Some password managers include many options, including creating a family plan, file vault giving each user a safe place to store important documents and information, and many options for password recovery when needed.
Most service providers have general requirements in the documentation that they must provide when notifying that someone has left this world; for the requestor - a power of attorney, birth certificate, will or property letter. You must also provide official documents confirming the death, such as a death certificate or a link to an obituary. Below are a few examples of the necessary information and options offered by some of the most popular services, as well as some useful links.
Facebook allows you to assign a trusted contact; this gives the nominated person the opportunity to immortalize the account and publish the latest message. A Trusted Contact can also delete any unwanted posts in the feed, remove tags, respond to friendship requests, request deletion of an account, etc. However, be careful as they may also see all of your messages, even if they are marked as "private" in your privacy settings ... Instructions for assigning a Trusted Contact on Facebook can be found here . Another option is to request deletion of the account - please note that once deleted, access cannot be restored.
Curiously, Facebook-owned Instagram does not allow you to assign a Trusted Contact. An account can be perpetuated or deleted through separate online forms that must be completed, and these include the need to provide proof of death, such as a death certificate. If a request to delete an account, it must be made by the next of kin, who will have to provide evidence of their family ties and their authority. Although the manual does not indicate that the digital artist can give this instruction, I hope they will be given this privilege; this may depend on local legislation recognizing this status.
Google takes a different approach and uses an inactive account manager; the default is three months, with the account holder being notified one month earlier by SMS to the pre-registered phone number and by email. The inactivity timeout period can be set to 3, 6, 12 or 18 months, this also extends the notification period to three months before. The next step is to choose who to notify if you have not responded after a period of inactivity and decide which data and services to grant them access to; the list is long. The designated person will receive an email notification and their identity will be verified using multi-factor authentication using a predefined phone number. They will then have the option to download a copy of the selected data. The last step is to decideWhether to delete accounts, including publicly available content such as YouTube videos. Idle Account Manager provides many options and is the most comprehensive I've seen when writing this article.
LinkedIn provides the option to delete an account by reporting it and providing documentary evidence similar to that of Instagram. Funnily enough, it requires information about a recent employer, which is likely to be listed on the deceased's public LinkedIn profile.
Twitter provides an account deactivation form.
Snapchat only offers account deletion via a form.
This is a sensitive topic, especially during a pandemic, and I hope it prompts you to consider taking some action to make a plan, assign a digital executive, pre-select trusted contacts, or discuss with your family lawyer. While this can be an awkward topic, talking directly with family members, close friends, or colleagues can be the most effective course of action. It's important to do something, not do nothing.