Monday, July 25, 2011

What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die?


You’ve spent years cultivating an online persona and archive of your life: a Facebook account detailing your daily life and personal history; an e-mail account brimming with personal and business communications; a Flickr album and, perhaps, accounts at some sites you would rather your family didn't know about.
Because it’s all online, stored in digital bits that theoretically last forever, you can feel secure that it will all be there when you wake up in the morning.
But what happens to all this stuff the morning you don’t wake up––after your death?
Will you be able to leave your digital persona in the hands of heirs, like a shoebox full of old family photos? Will all your accounts simply evaporate over time? Can you hide those embarrassing photos, emails and accounts from family and friends you don’t want ever to see them, maintaining your privacy for eternity?
These are questions now being addressed by a growing industry of dedicated “digital estate” websites and planners, including some who came together in March at the industry’s first convention––dubbed Digital Death Day.

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