Following someone’s death the digital information that is available about them online is known as their digital legacy. This can include websites, blog listings about the person, their social media profiles, photos, videos, gaming profiles and other interactions they have online.
Ensuring that people can protect and pass on their digital legacy is an increasingly important issue. With the growing presence of social media and other online platforms in our daily lives you may want to consider putting plans in place to manage your accounts after your death.
To help you think about the various aspects of your online presence we have grouped them into three sections.
- Digital assets
These include things like online banking, photos stored online and your social media accounts etc
- Connected devices
These include mobile phones, tablets (like iPads), computers etc.
- Digital legacy
This refers to what you leave online once you die and can have an influence on how you are remembered.
Digital Assets
Your digital assets can hold sentimental value, monetary value, or both. One example is the many people who now use digital photography and video devices like mobile phones and digital cameras. Most of these photos are no longer printed. Instead they are stored and saved on devices (such as hard drives) and uploaded on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and DropBox. When you have the time to do so, it is worth learning about how you can download such content, pass accounts on and close online accounts with subscriptions. The links below can help advise you on managing your digital assets.
Connected devices
Connected devices are devices that connect to the internet (also known as internet enabled devices). These include mobile phones, tablets, smart watches, eBooks, TVs etc. Many of those mentioned above connect to accounts where media can be purchased or subscribed to. These include iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Google Play, Spotify etc. You may want to learn about each platform and think about the following:
- Who would you like each device to be given to (and would you like your media to be deleted before they receive it)?
- If you have a password on your devices how will you pass it on?
- When you ‘purchase’ a media file (like a song, video or eBook) you are often only ‘purchasing’ a one person license. This ends upon death. Therefore if you purchase media from iTunes, Amazon etc you may not legally be able to pass on your libraries like you can with CDs, printed books and DVDs. There are ways that you can address this, however it takes thought and planning. Plans may include burning media onto disks, passing on device passwords, stating what should happen to your devices within your will etc
You can find further advice on connected devices here.
Digital Legacy
We are spending more of our time online and having ever more meaningful interactions and conversations online. These take place using an increasing number of mobile phones, laptop and other devices. When we die the interactions that we made (also known as our digital footprint) often remain and help to create our digital legacy. When we die our digital footprint plays a big part in determining our digital legacy.
To find out more about digital legacies you can visit the digital legacy association website here.
