A CBS News Poll, conducted by telephone from April 16-20, 2014 among 1,017 adults nationwide, concluded that 40 percent of Americans sampled had created a will. Not surprisingly, age plays a factor. Among those 18-49 years of age only 22 percent have a will, rising to 62 percent for those 50 and older. By comparison, […]
New research from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research reveals that in a world of ubiquitous access to massive personal photo collections, we may enjoy them more if we give up control and exercise patience.
Is the digital afterlife industry heating up? Perhaps so. Last week Everplans secured $2.075 million in a second round of seed funding, bringing their total seed funding to $3.45 million to date, including a first seed round of $1.375 million that closed in June 2013. Of course, we’ve seen signs of a developing industry for a few […]
This infographic from WhoIsHostingThis.com provides a great, quick overview of how various companies, including Google, Twitter and Facebook handle your accounts once you’re gone.
Previously I’ve mentioned the need to solve the digital afterlife problem in a way that does not require advance planning. WebCease, a new service that finds and reports various digital accounts after the account holder has passed, does just that. The premise is actually quite simple. An executor or heir pays WebCease to research the […]
Before you sigh and say to yourself “oh great, another digital file vault,” allow me to say, ” this one’s worth talking about.” Bill LeFurgy tipped me off to a new digital safe deposit service called Longaccess. Based in Switzerland, Longaccess focuses not on short-term sharing or access, but rather, as the name indicates, on […]
A few months back, I published a chapter in a new book called Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage, edited by Donald Hawkins. My chapter, Digital inheritance: tackling the legal and practical issues, addressed the current challenges around passing your digital assets to your heirs.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram doesn’t readily reveal what happens to the account of a deceased user. As a part of their privacy policy, they offer basic instructions on how to contact them about a deceased user.
Almost weekly I learn about a new service seeking to help solve the digital afterlife problem. More often than not, I learn about a new password or file vault. Some are designed to last until death, and others are focused on perpetuity. All of these services rely on one premise: advance preparation.
Among social media websites, Twitter has one of the simplest policies related to the death of a user. Simply put, Twitter will work with an authorized representative of the deceased user’s estate to deactivate the account and will not provide any access to the account.
