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86 Comments
- trghpy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+106Awe crap.
Is there no privacy after death?
Why should me dieing be any cause for someone else to have access to my personal stuff?
If I want to give my family access to my email account in case I kick the bucket I'd will them the password.
@Korkmaz
If keven dies, there are 14 other people working for digg.com. Look at blog.digg.com
Any decent admin can reset passwords as long as they have physical access to the equipment.
@koretico
Never underestimate the down mods. Especially since the artical invites people who are probably already in an emotional state. I'd expect this post will net at least a negative 100 mods. - Jorlwind, on 10/11/2007, -3/+78Just thinking on this reminds me of a depressing fact: When I die,all the facts of my personal life are going to be turned over and raped by a bunch of weepy ***** with little or no concern for my wishes. But I'll be dead, so I guess it doesn't matter.
At least they'll never got that 5 bucks I currently have in paypal, the fools. - pogfreak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+71protip: dont die. noobs
- scottique, on 10/11/2007, -0/+60I have a friend whose 17-year-old male cousin died unexpectedly a few months ago.
When they were all over at the family's house for the wake, my friend quietly slipped upstairs, got on the dead guy's computer, and deleted all of his porn. His parents hadn't touched the computer yet, so they never had to find that.
It naturally depends on who you have that you can trust with this sort of thing, but if a person exists in your life who (A) can be trusted with your most personal information, and (B) isn't all that interested in you, it, or exploiting either, it might be a good idea to leave *somebody* with instructions on information/files to kill in the event of your sudden death. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+59What I have in my email account I'll take to my grave!!!
- SillyRabbits, on 10/11/2007, -1/+44Heck, maybe I don't want anyone to have access to my e-mail after I die. Just because I'm dead doesn't mean that the people that sent me e-mails are dead too. I'm sure some don't want their correspondence with me to become public just because I've passed away (not that there's really anything that interesting). I'd rather it just get locked away and eventually deleted when I don't used it for a few years.
- lkmbrd, on 10/11/2007, -4/+41Morbid yet useful.
- dougmc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+33`When I die,all the facts of my personal life are going to be turned over and raped by a bunch of weepy ***** with little or no concern for my wishes.'
Indeed. And many of them may not even be so weepy -- they may just be looking for ways to make sure they get more of your estate.
As I see it, dying is a lose-lose situation. Not only do you not get to finish all the fun things you still meant to do, but it's usually unpleasant, and then they give away all your stuff, often to people you don't like and wouldn't want to get any of your stuff (and sometimes even having a will will not be sufficient to stop that from happening!) So, my plan is to just live forever. So far, so good! - Otto, on 10/11/2007, -2/+32That doesn't interest me. What really interests me is how I can *prevent* my family from gaining access to my gmail account after I die.
If I die, then yes, I want to take it with me. - jono10, on 10/11/2007, -2/+30When Kevin Rose dies he will be put on a platform for the Digg community to bury. Will he go very deep, or very high? You decide.
- Caydel, on 10/11/2007, -5/+26burento - so the wife gets Gmail and the mistress gets Hotmail? I thought it was the other way around....
- PixelVision, on 10/11/2007, -0/+16In my will I'm putting: "Leave my ***** alone!"
- Manuelmty, on 10/11/2007, -0/+16Amen bro
- misteral, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15Add it to your will. Or better yet, tell everyone that if they go into your personal email account(s) you WILL come back and haunt them
- silverchrysalis, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14my husband and i have all of each other's passwords and pin numbers in case of some sort of calamity.
i wonder how things like this will start to apply in cases like online intellectual property... - cloudcity, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15I wrote an article about this topic, and have been trying to get it published for a while...
Here it is:
Death and Access
--
It is a precious few of us that ponder life’s only truly inevitable milestone - it’s end. And of the few there must be even fewer that think beyond the immediate needs of our families upon our untimely demise (is there such thing as a timely demise?).
The scene is typical in television dramas, a grieving the oldest son distributing the prized possessions of a beloved father recently passed away. The collection of fine paintings, bequeathed to William Jr., the rare books handed down to sister Elizabeth. But what of the iTunes collection? Will the blog be shut down? Can you bequeath these kinds of things?
Made for TV movies aside, informal observation reveals that and more of our most personal effects are less likely to be kept in a safe or a security deposit box, but instead take the form of digital assets like, emails, chat transcripts, research documents, multimedia files, and financial records.
The importance of these various digital sundries varies of course, from the mundane yet practical (car insurance renewal confirmation), to the amusing (self portraits with the digital camera), to highly personal items replete with sentimental value (personal emails). Regardless of their practical value, these items were part of someone’s life, and should be treated with the same care and respect that their physical photo album would be given.
The recent rise in a viable marketplace for digital assets also raises some interesting questions. An mp3 collection may potentially possess some sentimental value, but it also maybe potentially posses a very large monetary value. Assuming the purchase of one album or movie a week from the Apple’s iTunes Store, a person who had been purchasing music for 5 years would have amassed a collection worth approximately $2500. Upon their death, what happens to these files? Can ownership be transferred to a family member, or does the collection remain intact, but locked away in perpetual silence under a thin layer of DRM?
Similarly, in a world where we belong not only to the community that we live and work in, we increasingly belong to online communities that mirror in many ways the personal interactions and affiliations of the physical world. In the event of a community member’s death, what happens to their persona? One day they are posting their list of ten best foreign films or posting photos of their vintage typewriter collection, and the next day they are gone. Presumably their friends and family in the physical world (I’m avoiding the word “real”, which implies a lesser experience online) will have knowledge of their passing, and begin the grieving process, but in their online worlds has the person simply disappeared? In case of prominent community members, the online community at large may know their real name and begin a search for them via traditional channels, but many community members remain essentially anonymous and their sudden disappearance leaves many questions unanswered. Would the deceased want the community notified? Is there a final message for them? Should email accounts be closed down, or left active, set to bounce the email back to the sender with a startling, yet informative message?
Are there any practical answers, or are our digital existences destined to a life in limbo when our bodies have been laid to rest? I would suggest the following steps to ensure that your preferences are respected.
1. Take an accounting of all your digital assets and online accounts, note any applicable logins and passwords.
2. Decide who you’d like to have access to these things
3. Decide what you’d like done with them after you have died. Deleted, updated, shared, etc...
Once you have decided these things, you can proceed in a few ways. First, you can draft a physical document, which could be appended to your will. This document could specify the particulars of the three steps above, but more importantly, it could name a digital executor that would be responsible for carrying out your instructions. This individual should be both technically competent and trustworthy, as you will be granting them access to your digital world in absentia. Your instructions to them could be as simple as shutting down all accounts, and erasing your hard drive, or it could detail which email folders were shared with whom, and which photos be made available on Flickr as a final goodbye.
Another route would be to leverage technology to achieve the same result without the need for a lawyer’s involvement. Deathswitch.com is a web site that offers a service they describe as “Information Insurance”. It works as follows: One enters their list of desired contacts along with their email addresses, then they create a message containing the kind of account information discussed above. Next, a time interval is set, it could be once a day, it could be once a year. If the user does not log into the site, indicating that they are alive, the system will automatically send out their message to the entire list of people on their list. I cannot vouch for the security or functionality of this service (now that I think about it, can anyone???) which costs $20 a year to maintain, but in theory it is a practical approach to the dilemma of sharing information in the case of an unexpected (or perhaps expected) death with friends, family, and co-workers, all of which can receive custom messages. Just don’t forget to log in, or you, very much alive, may find yourself having to explain why half of your work email consists of fantasy baseball updates and why the password to your Facebook account is “unicornprincess”.
Regardless of the approach you take to safeguarding the future of your digital life, it is important that you give some thought to it. Get organized, make a plan, and then live your life to the fullest, knowing that your digital afterlife is safe and sound. - JamesWilson, on 10/11/2007, -4/+15@silverchrysalis (#6936320)
PINs*
sorry. I couldn't help myself. - snakesonasam, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12that is such a touching story
- 0siris, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12Or in your porn folder, leave a video of you laughing and jerking off. It'll leave people an example of your sadistic sense of humor, which is the reason that guy at the bar clubbed you to death with a stool in the first place.
- Burento, on 10/11/2007, -4/+14I think that it is definitely a lot easier to make sure you have a list of these passwords in a secure location for the other. I mean this is if you are married and you can always just make a fake hotmail for your mistresses.
- MadMastaZ, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9No one shall have my pornsite passwords....
- The_Wallbanger, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9These instructions are pretty common in the financial world. Email contents should be protected with just as much scrutiny considering that many people regard them as private and it's becoming more common to save valuable data on web-based email clients. Do you really think those 2 GB storage limits are for chit-chat?
- lcarsdeveloper, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9@JamesWilson
Why don't you go and type your 'PIN' in the ATM Machine (seeing as we're obviously being pedantic today):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome - dcooper, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8A Power of Attorney is of no use when someone dies. This is a common misunderstanding. Letters of Appointment from a court showing who is the authorized representative of the estate is probably what they mean.
- betasp, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8I wish there was not way. If I wanted them to access it I would have put it in my Will.
- Nichiren, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7That's what wills are for.
- tsbardella, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Bring out cha dead
- ajgv, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6dugg for "dying is a lose-lose situation"
- MrSpontaneous, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Couldn't you put that stipulation into a will or get some kind of legal document forbidding any court from granting access to your email account?
- StupidLiberal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5@ rmxz
Can you link to a few of them? Are any free of charge? I am intrigued. - gurm, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5@trghpy
"If I want to give my family access to my email account in case I kick the bucket I'd will them the password."
A lot of people want to do this, but haven't done so, feeling that they have enough time to do that later, only to get hit by a car the next day. There are often many reasons for being able to access a deceased person's information. In fact it should be so that if you have information you do not want people to look at after you die you should encrypt it with a pass-phrase that you've memorized. - spyrochaete, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I'm pretty sure that whether you're living or dead, your gmail account is the sole property of Google, not you. I wonder what happens if you and a partner discuss a patent via gmail...
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I agree with other posters, if I wanted you to have access to my accounts after I've died, then I would of written them down and told you where they are.
There is no reason to go breaking into someone's account, even if they are dead, it should still be illegal. If I didn't will you my passwords then stay the ***** out.
What's with Americans having absolutely no respect for people after they've passed. Right after the funeral it's straight to the lawyers jockeying over who gets the goods. - Caydel, on 10/11/2007, -6/+10Probably good to know this; on the other hand, I think the paperwork necessary is a little too much. Shouldn't a Death Certificate plus Power of Attorney or Birth Certificate (for a minor) suffice to prove that the deceased is dead and you *do* have the authority to open the account?
- canha, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3And how do you get access to a gmail account of someone who's supposed to die?
- ajgv, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4adkfa
- babar77, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@ Caydel
Well yes, but you forgot one thing: you still have to prove to Google you are who you say you are, and the email address you give them is in fact a valid and proper email address. Imagine if they gave this information to an impostor or sent a notification that the password that has been reset to a wrong email address due to a typo or something silly like that. Giving up someone's personal information is serious thing, and it's only responsible of them to have a little scrutiny and attention to detail when doing it.
@dcooper
Most standard PoAs these days include the Authority of Estate within them. A Court would only override this if it deemed necessary, such as a case where the person with the PoA murdered the person granting it, or there was some other significant evidence that the PoA was not acting in the best interest or wishes of the deceased. I believe that the PoA laws of some states include a short form you can use which give the PoA the right to act if the Authority of Estate if the person granting the PoA dies.
Disclaimer: This is not intended or regarded as legal advice in any way, shape, or form. I am not an attorney, I am only speaking from some of my personal experiences. I recommend discussing any action you may consider regarding this subject matter with properly licensed legal council who represents your interests prior to taking said action. - iceperson, on 10/11/2007, -6/+9"What I have in my email account I'll take to my grave!!!"
I thought this was just one of the job's of a porn buddy... - tsbardella, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3like that email from pers-340847133@craigslist.org
- my10cent, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Thats why you encrypt your porn!
- readparse, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2A few years before my father's death, I gave him an email address under my domain and just used that address as an alias to whatever real address he was using at the time. I did it because his ISPs changed a few times in a couple of years and he liked the idea of having one address that never had to be changed. But an added benefit of that strategy was that I was able to have his email delivered to me once he was incapacitated and after his death, just in case there was something that we needed to know about or access to an account that was needed.
- Boshow, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Easy, use voodoowitchdoctor.com
Arise chickon, arise. - Gee1004, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2http://www.futureme.org/
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/002071.html - spyrochaete, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Why should family be entitled to a deceased member's email? A Google account has tons of personal information like search history, calendar, newsgroups, and much more. If it's not in the will there's no entitlement.
- HUKI365, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Because the article lists Gmail's contact details? Feel free to post Yahoo's contact details and procedures they need.
- aelias, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Title sounds like the start of a ***** IT joke.
- specialK16, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Meh, my suicide thoughts are depressing all the time. And in such times, I really don't give a ***** about what happens with my stuff.
- vanmeir, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1When you die, all of your property passes to someone else. This includes intangible property like intellectual property, contractual rights, legal claims, and so forth. Whatever rights you have over your email account are among the property that comprises your estate.
If you have a will, then those rights pass to the person specified in your will. Of course, your will probably doesn't say "so-and-so gets my email," but it almost certainly identifies the person who gets your "residuary estate," meaning whatever property hasn't been left to someone else.
If you die without a will, or if your will were somehow drafted so that no one got your "email rights" or whatever we're talking about, then that property would pass under the default rules that every state has to deal with this situation -- they're known as "intestate succession" rules.
For practical reasons, all property needs to belong to somebody, and since you're dead, you're not a candidate any more. Your email has to, and will, land in someone's hands. Of course, this raises the practical question discussed in the article -- how do you actually access it, if you don't have the password?
If you have data that you don't want anyone to see after you're dead, destroy it or encrypt it. - spacebar14, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I've wondered about this subject for awhile as well.
I wonder if there's a free version of deathswitch.com
=/ - silverchrysalis, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2mea culpa!
i had a stupid moment... -
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