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PBS NewsHour: Law Lags in Defining Posthumous Protocol for Online Accounts

What happens to your email, Facebook page and other digital property when you die? Naomi Cahn of the George Washington University School of Law, and our own Evan Carroll, co-author of “Your Digital Afterlife,” talk to Jeffrey Brown of PBS NewsHour about the legal and ethical quandaries of dealing with a loved one’s digital assets [...]

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Virginia Passes Digital Assets Law

Adding to the list of states that have passed laws pertaining to digital estates, the Virginia Legislature passed HB 1752 today affording parents of deceased minors access to their social media accounts. The bill’s description reads: Powers of personal representatives; digital accounts. Provides that the personal representative of a deceased minor has the power to assume the [...]

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Welcome to Life

Copyright infringement in the digital afterlife. Hilarious.

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What happens to your Facebook account when you die?

It’s a simple question without a simple answer, unless you’re willing to accept “it depends” as a simple answer. The result depends upon what you friends and family decide to request and perhaps even what instructions you leave behind. Let’s go through Facebook’s policy and explore all of the options: Memorialize the profile Facebook recognizes the [...]

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You’re Dead. Your Data Isn’t. What Happens Now?

Greetings from Austin, TX and the Samsung SXSW Blogger Lounge. Our team from The Digital Beyond along with Dazza Greenwood (CIVICS.com), Adele McAlear (DeathAndDigitalLegacy.com) and Jesse Davis (Entrustet.com) presented a successful panel yesterday morning, You’re Dead. Your Data Isn’t. What Happens Now? There were several recordings made of the presentation, but most of them aren’t [...]

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Photo of Dazza Greenwood

State Statute Empowers Executors to Conduct Digital Identities of Deceased

By Dazza Greenwood, JD Editor’s note: This is a guest post from our fellow panelists at SXSW Interactive. Dazza will join John and Evan at SXSW for the panel discussion, “You’re Dead. Your Data Isn’t. What Happens Now?“ Republished with permission from CIVICS.com. In the lead-up to SXSW this year, in preparing to participate on [...]

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Policy vs. Reality

By Adele McAlear Editor’s note: This is a guest post from our fellow panelists at SXSW Interactive. Adele will join John and Evan at SXSW for the panel discussion, “You’re Dead. Your Data Isn’t. What Happens Now?“ In the last 5-years, sharing online through services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr has become mainstream. From [...]

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So what *does* happen to your digital assets after you die?

Take a look into the terms of service for various sites like Facebook, Twitter and Gmail.

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Digital Locksmiths Can Help Access a Loved One’s Important Assets

It happens. Computers left behind by a loved one become locked boxes. Accounts become frozen. Treasured digital assets are lost. Now a new service is available that helps survivors unlock digital content. Digital Estate Services (http://www.digitalestateservices.com) is here to help. Their service can help unlock local files, recover user names and passwords for online accounts, [...]

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Jeremy Toeman on the Importance of Online Assets

Jeremy Toeman is the founder of Legacy Locker, one of the many services that help people deal with the issues of digital death and afterlife.  Recently he spoke to a group of estate planners about the issue.  I’m pleased to hear that the legal community is starting to explore this issue.  It’s a good first [...]

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