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.
Author Archive | Evan Carroll
WebCease Helps Heirs Find Forgotten Accounts
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 […]
Longaccess, a New Digital Safe Deposit Box with a Twist
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 […]
Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage
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.
What happens to your Instagram account when you die?
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.
Solving the Digital Afterlife Problem
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.
What happens to your Twitter account when you die?
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.
RIP Digital Legacy Startups
In 2009 we founded The Digital Beyond as a way to spread awareness of digital afterlife issues and to provide expert guidance to companies and individuals. One constant feature of our site is our Online Services List, which has grown to 61 different companies offering digital estate planning or online memorial services.
More News from Facebook?
At the end of Facebook’s recent announcement about privacy settings of memorialized profiles and the availability of Look Back videos to friends of the deceased users, a final paragraph hints at more to come from Facebook. Changes like this are part of a larger, ongoing effort to help people when they face difficult challenges like […]
ULC Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Committee Work Coming to Close
Over the last two years the Uniform Law Commission’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets committee has worked with companies, private organizations and industry leaders to craft a model act to incorporate digital assets into probate and trust codes. The stated goal of the committee is to “vest fiduciaries with at least the authority to manage and […]