Digital will in practice – how to set up inheritance of accounts on Facebook, Google and Apple, what to pass on to loved ones and what data is worth organizing while you are still alive.
Digital will: how to plan what happens to your data after death?
We don’t think about it every day, but your accounts, photos and emails will probably outlive you for many years. Facebook profiles are turning into virtual monuments, photos from the cloud still “pop up” to loved ones as memories, and e-mails and documents remain in boxes and drives to which no one has access.
It is in the context of this area that we increasingly talk about digital afterlife – digital life after death. In a separate text, I looked at this phenomenon from a more philosophical and technological perspective. Here you will find a link to the article: “Digital life after death: what fate awaits your data and will everyone become a ghost chatbot?”.
Here we will focus on what exactly you can set and plan in the context of digital afterlife right now. On a very practical level, it all comes down to a simple question:
What will happen to your accounts and data when you are no longer around?
Below you’ll find specific actions: from Facebook settings, through Google Inactive Account Manager, to Apple’s Legacy Contact feature. Plus a few tips on how to prepare digital will. It will be useful even if you are not planning to visit a lawyer yet, let alone move to the next world.
Life after death on social media: what can you do now?
We usually treat this topic as something unreal or even funny. Meanwhile – despite the lack of developed traditions and legal standards – It’s really worth preparing for this.
It does not have to be a grand will at the notary’s office. All you need are a few decisions and settings that:
- will make life easier for your loved ones,
- will reduce chaos in your digital world,
- they will give you the feeling that you are not leaving behind an “information mess”.
“Inheritance” of accounts on the largest platforms
Facebook – “In memoriam” profile and account manager
On Facebook, you can decide while you’re still alive what will happen to your profile after death. In your account settings (Settings & privacy → Settings → Account center → personal data / account ownership and control) you will find the option:
- granting status “In memoriam”,
- designation of the so-called account manager.
After your death, such a trusted person will be able to:
- change profile photo,
- publish a farewell post,
- pin important entries,
- accept new friend requests,
But will not gain access to your private messages and will not log in to the account “as you”.
After reporting a death:
- the profile receives a status “In memoriam”,
- you can no longer log in as before,
- Facebook stops displaying, for example, reminders about that person’s birthday.
If the account manager he was not appointed during his lifetimeloved ones can:
- report a user’s death via the Facebook form,
- attach a scan of the death certificate,
- ask for status in memoriam or about him complete removal.
Facebook reserves the right to verify whether the person submitting the application is actually a close family member or legal representative – therefore documents confirming kinship or the status of the estate manager are necessary.
Google – Inactive Account Manager
Google takes a more “technical” approach to the topic. Instead of “In memoriam” mode, it has Inactive account manager. You will find it in settings: My Google Account → Data & Privacy → Inactive Account Plan.
There you can:
- set a period of inactivity (from 3 to 18 months), after which Google will assume that you are probably no longer using the account;
- indicate the people who will receive it after this time link to download the data archive (e.g. emails from Gmail, photos from Google Photos, videos from YouTube);
- indicate that after sending these copies the entire account is to be automatically deleted.
If you haven’t previously set up Inactive Account Manager, your loved ones can:
- submit a request via the Google support website,
- ask to close your account or, in exceptional situations, ask for access to some of the content.
Google emphasizes that:
- never shares passwords or login details,
- each decision regarding the deceased’s account is made only after verification of documents (death certificate, applicant’s identity card, possibly documents confirming legal status, e.g. being a guardian of the inheritance).
Apple – account manager (Legacy Contact) with access key
Apple introduced the feature LegacyContact in iOS 15.2 and macOS 12.1. It allows you to designate one or more people who will be able to access the data saved in iCloud after your death.
A few important things:
- guardian doesn’t have to have it your own Apple ID or Apple device;
- at the moment of designation it is generated access keywhich you can:
- save in Wallet,
- send in a message,
- print and keep in a safe place.
After the owner’s death:
- guardian forwards to Apple access key and death certificate;
- after positive verification, Apple grants him access to:
- photos,
- the news,
- notes,
- files,
- downloaded applications,
- device backups,
and for a period of time three years from the approval of the first application.
Access does not include: :
- licensed content (movies, music, books, subscriptions),
- keychain data – i.e. passwords and payment information.
Access to messages (iMessage) is only possible if the deceased had message synchronization with iCloud turned on. If he only kept them locally on his phone, Apple doesn’t have them in the cloud to pass them on.
If a guardian was not appointed during your lifetime, your loved ones may:
- contact Apple Support
- provide a death certificate and documents confirming legal status (will, court order, etc.).
In such cases data range provided by Apple is usually much more limited.
Include your digital legacy in your will
A digital will sounds quite official, but what it’s really about is:
- a list of important accounts and services,
- general instructions regarding the fate of data,
- will regarding what’s alloweda what is not allowed do with your data, archives and possible avatars.
You don’t have to write an extensive procedural document right away. To get started, all you need is:
- a separate section in the will or an annex,
- or even clearly formulated document (in the form of a letter, file, printout) that will be delivered to the person you trust.
In this “digital part” you can specify, for example:
- whether you want your social media accounts to continue to be displayed or deleted;
- who can be given access to photos, documents, clouds;
- Do you wish your data to be used for digital avatar projects (I write more about it in the article I mentioned at the beginning of this text), or absolutely not.
Consider where to draw the line
You can always simply reach an agreement with your heirs or closest relatives while you are still alive. It’s good to be clear about where comfort ends for you. It’s a bit like burning a corpse. Few of our loved ones write about it in their will, but most of us know what form of burial the deceased person would prefer. For some reason, this aspect of the topic of death is not taboo today and we often hear during name day dinners that “aunt would like to be cremated.”
It doesn’t have to be a legal document. Enough:
- normal conversation,
- or an email/note saved in a safe place.
What are your options? Declarations may read as follows:
- “I want my Facebook profile to remain as a monument – do not write anything there in my name, just leave it as a place of memory.”
- “I want everything to be deleted after my death, don’t force my life online.”
- “I agree to an avatar or griefbot, but only for you, without sharing it with companies, without showing it publicly and not forever – for example for a year or two to help you grieve.”
Such a declaration may sound a bit strange (especially said during Sunday dinner), but later:
- saves the family from dilemmas such as “should we make him a digital ghost or not?”,
- and it gives you the feeling that you have designated it yourself the limits of your digital life after death.
Think about what content you will leave behind on the Internet
Finally, it is worth asking yourself one more, not entirely comfortable question: What content would you absolutely not want to leave behind on the Internet? Some data is worth sorting out while you are still alive.
In social media, you can manage it on an ongoing basis: delete old posts that once seemed funny, but today are embarrassing at best; organize photos, limit the visibility of content that is not necessarily suitable for creating a digital “monument to the deceased”. It’s much more difficult with what we store in clouds and on disks – in iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, private backups.
Therefore, it is a good idea to divide your data into three simple “drawers”:
- “memory archive” – things you want to keep: family photos, important emails, texts, projects, voice recordings, family stories, maybe letters to loved ones;
- “working archive” – files that make sense only here and now: working documents from work, screenshots, notes, copies of other people’s materials, test files;
- “things that need to go” – materials that are funny or neutral today, but you wouldn’t want them to come back in the context of your memory: compromising photos, effusive messages from a worse period, or archived chat dramas.
From the perspective of your future “digital you”, this really makes a difference (especially if the eccentric idea of creating a griefbot is lurking somewhere inside). If you consciously take care of it, what should become material for the future archive and what should disappearyou will leave your loved ones less garbage and more content that really says something about you.
This is essentially what a digital will is all about: not only formal entries at a notary, but also a few very simple, human decisions – who will have access to your data, what should stay and what should disappear. It’s better to take action now than to leave your loved ones alone with website regulations and guessing what your last will could be.
