credit to InFlexwetrust

Digital Afterlife

What will happen to your online data once you log out for good? Here is the Facebook, Twitter, and Google approach.

Just the other day I was browsing LinkedIn, and the “People you may know” section included a name that caught me off guard.

Lucas Pearson.

He’s a college friend of mine, and unfortunately, Luke passed away a few years back.

After reminiscing for a hot minute about all the good times we had in Pullman, I started to wonder how long his profile will remain active. Other questions started cropping up.

“Can anyone edit Luke’s page? If so, did they change anything? What other websites did Luke leave behind? Did Luke’s family even have a choice to remove his profile from the website?”

Some quick research answered my questions. Turns out — Facebook isn’t fully prepared to deal with this. They allow family members to make a memorial of sorts once a loved-one passes away, however, doesn’t have a system in place to share passwords. If someone provides a death certificate, Facebook will remove the page, however, only a court order can force account access. Twitter is even worse — if a family member proves death, Twitter will just delete the account.

What if I wanted my tweets to stay active?

Have no fear, a certain internet megapower is making smarter moves in this arena and now the subject is at the forefront of the global hivemind. Earlier this year, Google launched the Inactive Account Manager, a product allowing end-users to control their digital assets after death.

Here’s how it works. The Inactive Account Manager, or IAM, can be preset to delete or forward a particular user’s data if the respective account is inactive for 3, 6, or 12 months. “What if I’m just on a long holiday?” you ask? Before the IAM takes any action on your data, it will text the account holder and also send out an email to a secondary email address.

Sure — it isn’t perfect, but it’s a start to solving a growing problem that few people like to discuss.