Your Digital Legacy

Note: I originally posted this as a comment on another post, but then wasn't sure if it would be seen and counted since it was a response, not a new post. My apologies for posting it twice.

I actually read an article about this in the New York Times Magazine a couple of months ago (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/magazine/09Immortality-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=your%20immortal%20cybersoul&st=cse) and found it quite interesting, to say the least. The article also referenced the book you talked about.

I had never thought at all about your digital legacy and what would happen to it after you die. It is definitely an interesting question and brings up lots of issues.

The article mentions that estimates are that 375,000 facebook users die each year. I can only assume that as more and more people join facebook that the number will likely rise. Lots of questions arise about what happens to your content, who can access it, etc. In one case, the article talks about one family who sued Yahoo in an effort to get their son's email password after he was killed in Iraq. Yahoo refused, but was eventually ordered by the court to turn a cd with all his emails in it to the family. As you can see, the digital age and post mortem digital world is creating a new legal field. It makes me wonder if people should add a clause to their will bequeathing digital access to a particular beneficiary. Apparently, in addition to bank account information and safe deposit keys, people should also be providing passwords as part of their estate planning process.

The article also talked a lot about a particular prolific blogger and writer who died suddenly at the age of 34. His parents not only had to sort through his personal possessions, but also his digital life. His parents, who did not even own a computer at that point, then had to determine how/if to preserve his online self, in a sense. They also talked about how they had little idea about his blogs and how much they learned about their son after he was gone. It's an interesting thing to think about: how much would your friends and family learn about you after you're gone by looking at your computer?

Of course, in the American way, those with an entrepreneurial spirit have stepped up to make some money. One site DeathSwitch.com is discussing creating a site to send messages to loved ones after you have died. Of course, these could be sentimental messages or those of a more practical matter, like passwords, etc. Other services have already been created to act as digital safe deposit boxes.

The article definitely made me think more about the digital elements of estates. For example, if you had some sort of web business, that could be a valuable asset even though there may be no true "physical" elements of that asset.

Of course, if we do indeed attempt to preserve these "digital legacies" we also create a huge mass of digital information, much of which might be unworthy of preserving. For example, if a family member dies, part of the process is cleaning out their stuff and trying to separate between the valuable and the "other." If we are looking at digital information, that task may be more difficult. Definitely lots to think about.