Have You Planned Your Digital Afterlife?
You need a Digital Legacy Plan. It will keep your interests safe when you are long gone.
You need a Digital Legacy Plan. It will keep your interests safe when you are long gone.
Have you made plans about your social media, email, bank accounts, online blogs, and websites once you die? Does anyone other than yourself has the password of your mobile phone or computer in case of your death?
These questions are tough but necessary to ask. More importantly, an essential step towards your digital legacy even if you don’t want to hand it over to your fellow Homo Sapiens.
Your physical existence matters only to you and your progeny mostly. Otherwise, the world interacts with you digitally now.
That is the reason most of us prefer to live online and exist in the digit-only form, not biblically or religiously but socially, politically and economically.
In a sense, our lives are in control of the devices we own and screens we mirror.
Therefore, our assets and legacies are increasingly going to be digital-only.
Then, who is going to ensure that your digital imprints will survive after your departure?
Indeed, these companies will not bother about each bit of your data. Some servers will de-activate your account after a certain period of non-active mode, and all your documents and money will be lost with it.
Only you can make sure that your digital assets are in the right hands or liquidated as per your wishes. And for that, you will need a custodian of your digital self.
I think this is the reason why we need a Digital Legacy Plan. People you leave behind will need this for a sense of direction.
These digital assets have different values according to their usage. Some of these accounts have direct monetary value (like online banking and shopping accounts, market shares, funds and PayPal etc.), social value (social media accounts), and some have an immense personal value to you.
Moreover, you will need to keep your digital identity clean so that it is not misunderstood, mistreated or misused by your first or second circle of acquaintances.
Digital assets planning involves around these broad questions:
· You want your digital assets to cease to exist after you are gone or you want them ‘alive’ for your followers?
· How will you ensure that all your social accounts will be ‘memorialised’ or closed down or taken care of while you are not here?
· Do you think seriously to appoint a dependable person to whom you can nominate your legal representative after your demise?
· Do you need to write an online will?
Let’s have a close look at these questions one by one.
For clear understanding keep in mind that our digital legacy falls under these online spaces — Social Media, Online Subscriptions, Email Accounts, Digital files (text, audio and videos) stored in Google Drive/ Dropbox/ Box or any cloud storage, Banks’ accounts and other online financial assets, Cryptocurrencies etc., and personal records, like Medical reports.
Social Media Accounts
Social media moments captured in time are a virtual memorial. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the keepers of virtual memories and reservoirs of our internet imprints.
This content may be the photographs, videos, comments, likes, interests or opinions, our precious moments with family and friends, childhood pictures uploaded by family friends, weddings, birthdays and holidays etc.
These digital impressions are available online, searchable, readable for others to see and interact with. But who is going to manage all these accounts if not you? Is your family going to keep them up, ‘live’ and accessible as a place of virtual memorial? Or you wish them to be deleted after your death?
Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest have already laid down the complete legacy procedures for anyone to follow in his/her life and after.
This latest article by The Walrus team can help you navigate through many questions around the management of social media accounts after death. And here at Beyond Life, you will find procedural directions.
Emails Accounts
Email accounts store our most dreaded secrets. That’s why this is the terrifying part of the legacy. If you worry about your private email accounts, you need to follow few steps to shut them down effectively after your departure. For this, you will need a dependable person or Digital Asset Manager.
It is of no surprise that almost 40–50% digital assets you hold are with a single company, i.e. Google. But Google has got your back. You can delete your Google account automatically after you die.
By the help of Google’s Inactive Account Manager tool users can configure the period when their account will not be in use and when to delete them.
Cloud-based Data
Potentially the most significant aspect of our digital privacy and legacy.
Our data is money, and we know it. That’s why we want to store that in a place where it is safe. And cloud companies assure us.
We keep backing up our phones and computers, contacts and photos, videos, business documents, bills and private files, excel and word documents, letters, contracts and even music and films.
These backup spaces or cloud solutions are mostly subscription-based. Unfortunately, your data ends up deleted once these companies find that the payments stop coming in.
You can instruct your Digital Asset Manager to use options include keeping the accounts active or shutting them down after downloading all/selective content to a physical drive or computer source.
Apple ID
Another significant issue is with Apple ID. If you don’t disclose it to your Digital Asset Manager, the content associated with your apple account, including iTunes, can be lost after a particular time. You will need your Apple ID and password to pass on to your Digital Asset Manager who will then hand it over to the person you have chosen as the beneficiary?
And here, One most important thing for you to remember and understand. Be prepared to offer a fair amount of information about yourself and your deceased friend in case of managing his/her account. And this can include — 1- A death certificate, 2- Government-issued ID, such as a driver’s licence/passport and or 3- Handwritten letter with certain documents.
So, where should you start? I think, start by appointing a person you believe will be the custodian of your digital legacy or the person who can execute your instructions and legally represent on your behalf.
Discuss the role and responsibilities with him/her, and then write an online Will and name him/her so that it is clear who has the authority.
You can also choose a family member, friend or a professional lawyer as your Digital Asset Manager. He/she will ensure that all your email accounts are being managed and social accounts memorialised and data handed over to the beneficiaries as per your last wishes.
But first of all, prepare a list of all your digital accounts. Decide what you want to restore and what you would like to delete in it.
I understand many of you may disagree with these suggestions. Maybe you believe that your digital assets are not worth saving. Perhaps you don’t care much for your digital afterlife.
Whichever the case, your choices only are going to dictate the future of your digital assets and impact your loved ones.