A digital legacy is the content and information a person leaves behind on the Internet after their death including social media, email, and personal files.
Curating a digital legacy can help make it easier to manage a user’s digital life after their death and ensure it is treated in the way you wish.
There are a set of steps through which you can organize your “digital legacy”, which are as follows:
- Identify a guardian.
- Create a list of accounts.
- Verify login information.
- Determine what you want to delete.
- Prepare a clear digital will.
- Alert family or close friends about the will.
- Update the will from time to time.
In this context, a report published by the British newspaper “The Guardian” monitored a set of advice on “how individuals can organize their lives on the Internet after their death,” explaining that:
- Writing a will enables you to specify what happens to your money and possessions after death, but in the age of the internet, it is also important to take into account your digital possessions.
- This means everything from PayPal accounts to social media and photos stored in the cloud that may hold financial or sentimental value.
The report quoted the founder of funeral management company Poppy’s, Bobby Mardal, as saying: “Your digital legacy consists of online accounts, precious videos, and anything in between that is not physically stored… But many people don’t even think about their digital assets, which can make things difficult.” For family and friends dealing with their property.”
According to wealth management firm St James’s Place, nearly three-quarters of Britons do not refer to their digital lives. But although a document detailing your digital wishes is not as legally binding as a traditional will, it can be invaluable to your loved ones.
The importance of digital heritage management
In light of this, technological development specialist, Hisham Al-Natour, said in special statements to the “Eqtisad Sky News Arabia” website that the digital legacy consists of a group of digital data and content that a person leaves behind after his death, such as personal files and accounts on social media, and also digital banks. Related to secret numbers on electronic store websites and other websites.
He stated that a person can, before his death, appoint another person to manage the account, and he can control its closure or manage it electronically and access all information and messages. This is an addition available on “Facebook and Instagram” and is called Legacy contact. In addition, the person can also, before his death, choose the feature of permanently deleting the account from Facebook after death, through the option of the heir who can close it, and it is also available via email.
There are a large number of important tools available on the Internet, such as Just Delete Me, which is an electronic tool that helps save digital data from more than 500 websites and companies. There is also Aadalah Switch, which is an electronic tool that helps close and delete personal accounts after death, according to Al-Natour.
Returning to the “Guardian” report, it provided a set of tips for organizing “digital heritage”, which are as follows:
- Take an inventory: Start by writing a list that includes the basic details of your online accounts, including the account name, website, and your username or account ID.
- Appoint a “digital executor”: You can appoint a digital executor in your will, who will be responsible for closing, memorializing or managing your accounts, along with sharing or deleting digital assets such as photos and videos. You can include a list of your digital accounts and what you want to do with them in a “letter of wishes” to be stored alongside your will.
- Keep passwords safe: You should not put your passwords in your digital letter of wishes.
Criminal Evidence
Al-Natour stressed the necessity of dealing with digital heritage to protect the privacy of the deceased, prevent misuse of this heritage, and preserve his memory.
The technology development specialist stated that digital heritage tools can be used in some cases in forensic evidence, as digital heritage enables the person who manages the digital accounts of the deceased to access data, call and browsing records, mail messages, photos, and video clips, through which they greatly help. In reconstructing evidence that can be presented to the competent judiciary in the event of suspicion of his death by a criminal cause or suicide, for example.
Some social media platforms, such as Facebook, allow you to add a contact who can manage the account when its owner dies. Either by deletion or memorialization, which means that the word “remembered” will be placed next to the person’s name. Instagram also has memorialization and deletion features as well. Apple also allows you to designate one or more people as legacy contacts, who can access your account after you die.
In this case, according to The Guardian, your chosen contact will be able to request access using the access key created when they were added as an inherited contact, and a death certificate. They will then have three years to view the photos, messages and any other information and decide what will happen to them.
Google also has a feature that confirms when an account should be considered inactive (between three and 18 months), after which up to 10 people can be notified and receive your messages and emails.
Closing the platforms
The technology development specialist added that the time period for closing platforms after death varies from one company to another, as it can take weeks or months, and it is a process that depends primarily on the extent to which companies observe, monitor and analyze the activity of these accounts. After closing an account on Facebook, it is written next to the name. The user’s role is to inform visitors of the account that the person has died.
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