ESET provides tips to help you plan for what will happen to your digital presence
As the internet is part of our daily lives now with online and offline worlds merging, it’s a good time to start thinking about how our digital legacy will live on and the role our families may have to play in dealing with the admin should something happen to us.
The important elements of a digital footprint may include, but are not limited to, financial accounts, family photographs, music collections and playlists through to social media and email accounts.
ESET, a global business providing online security solutions to businesses and consumers, offers suggested actions to ensure you plan how your digital legacy will be managed after you pass. The list below may not cover all services or accounts but makes a good starting point for the preparations needed, that loved ones can gain the access needed or your right to be forgotten is observed.
Getting your digital affairs in order:
- Appoint a digital executor. Today’s world means you may need a digital executor to take charge of and handle digital assets – deleting, converting, downloading and managing accounts and profiles. In the same way that you list important financial assets, you may wish to list digital assets and what your specific instructions are for each one, so that there is no confusion or disagreement among the people you leave behind.
- Use a password manager: A single repository where account credentials are stored, all you need to remember is one single, very strong, password to unlock the password manager where your other passwords will be saved.
- Legal documents and next steps: There is commonality among most service providers on the documentation they require when being notified that someone has passed: a power of attorney, birth certificate, the will or an estate letter. A death certificate or link to an obituary will often be submitted too.
Here are examples of the options offered by some of the most popular services and a few helpful links.
- Facebook allows you to appoint a legacy contact; this gives the nominated person the ability to memorialize the account and post a final message. The instructions to assign a legacy contact on Facebook can be found here. The other option is to request deletion of the account which can be found here.
- Instagram does not allow you to appoint a legacy contact. The account can be memorialized or deleted with separate online forms needing to be completed and they include the need to provide some sort of proof of death.
- Google uses an Inactive Account Manager. The default is set to three months with notification to the account holder one month prior by SMS to a preregistered phone number and an email. Inactive Account Manager provides many options and is the most comprehensive.
- LinkedIn provides the ability to remove an account by reporting it and providing proof of death. One piece of information required is the most recent employer which would probably be listed on the deceased’s public LinkedIn profile.
- Twitter provides this account deactivation form.
- Snapchat only offers account deletion via this form.
While it may be an awkward topic, a discussion directly with family members, close friends or colleagues may prove to be the most effective course of action. The important thing is to do something rather than to do nothing.
For more information on ESET, please visit their website, or follow them on Instagram and Facebook for updates and news.
Interesting nugget of information: It’s estimated by Coin Metrics that at least 1.5 million bitcoins are assumed lost for a variety of reasons, including death, which equates to over US$16 billion dollars in just one cryptocurrency. Share the passwords and PIN with a loved one, write them down and keep them in a safe.