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Arranging Electronic Access For Your Survivors?
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:20 PM
from the leave-a-note-on-the-fridge dept.
from the leave-a-note-on-the-fridge dept.
smee2 writes "In the past, when a family member died, you could look through their files and address books to find all the people and businesses that should be notified that the person is deceased. Now the hard-copy address book is becoming a thing of the past. I keep some contact information in a spreadsheet, but I have many online friends that I only have contact with through web sites such as Flickr. My email accounts have many more people listed than my address book spreadsheet. I have no interest in collecting real world info from all my online contacts. The sites where I have social contact with people from around the world (obviously) require user names and passwords. Two questions: 1. How do you intend to let the executors of your estate or family members know which online sites/people you'd like them to notify of your demise? 2. How are you going to give access to the passwords, etc. needed to access those sites in a way that doesn't cause a security concern while you're still alive?"
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More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:5, Funny)
'To who it may concern. Please use the below username and password to inform the other posters at AlbinoAmazonAmputeeLovers.com of my sad demise.'
Do it Da Vinci Code style. Lie naked in you pool of blood leaving them clues about Leonardo's paintings! It will be like an Easter Egg chase only everyone will be sad and miserable...
Parent
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:5, Funny)
It will be like an Easter Egg chase only everyone will be sad and miserable...
Redundant much?
Parent
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:4, Interesting)
Clearly you've never seen an easter egg hunt. It's like when people get frustrated with videogames, except instead of controllers, there's aborted chickens flying around.
Seriously, teaching children to be "good sports" is like trying to teach a dog not to sniff assholes. What can you do, really? You can't be honest.. "look honey, I know you're upset that you only got 3 eggs, but to be fair you looked like a retard out there. You could have picked up like 700 eggs in the time it took you to figure out that there were no eggs hiding under your feet, and that a 6' vertical jump is simply impossible for a 3 year old. Next time pick up the fucking eggs that are right next to you and let the other kids waste time seeing who can fall out of a tree the fastest."
The only thing you can really do is shove them in a room (if you have one available) until they learn that antisocial behavior results in social seclusion, although clearly some people never learn.
Anyway, this is getting OT, so in conclusion: you should keep your passwords in a safe-deposit box, keep a key with your estate trustee, and instruct the bank not to let them in unless you're dead. Unless you have kids, in which case I'm going with the OP's suggestion. Turnabout is fair play after all.
Parent
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:5, Funny)
Facebook should introduce a "Dead" status.
Parent
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:5, Funny)
Hi everyone. This is CmdrTaco's mom. I found him in the basement all dead. He said I should post it here.
By the way, what is this 'Goatse' thing I see referenced all over Taco's computer? Should I open it?
Parent
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:4, Funny)
In Soviet Russia Goatse opens itself.
And how.
Parent
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:4, Funny)
And apparently the "Post Anonymously" checkbox doesn't work....
Parent
Re:More to the point, would you want them to? (Score:5, Funny)
And apparently the "Post Anonymously" checkbox doesn't work....
Did you try "Posthumously"?
Parent
Password Program (Score:3, Funny)
I have a password keeper on my Palm and my Blackberry. At the moment, every password and game keycode are in the Palm but I need to export that out and into something similar on the computer so I can back it up.
[John]
Very simple.... (Score:5, Insightful)
a USB drive in the fireproof safe next to any important papers. Passwords for things they don't need to see are not on that drive. If you are worried even more, get a safety deposit box at the bank. Keep it updated and all will be ok. Then, on the other hand, some people don't care... the world can figure it out on their own.
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Funny)
He's lucky. My dad left me a smirky painting in the Louvre and a series of clues in ancient Parisian churches that I had to hunt down.
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:4, Interesting)
That was the case when a good friend committed suicide (although some of us still suspect it was an accident, not intentional). He had his password stored in his computer, so it was as simple as turning on the machine, opening the Email client, and sending a message to all his friends on his contact list.
Those who received the message were asked to pass the word onto other forums/friends not included in the list. We also updated his webpage to let visitors know he had passed away.
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Informative)
I keep a USB drive in my home safe with my death kit on it. I encrypt that, copy that to CD and send it to my lawyer every few months. My sealed Will (at a different attorneys office) has a copy of the decryption key in it, and the will includes instructions on accessing the data.
I include the following:
- Personal information
-- Passwords file with usernames and passwords to all of the websites I use, personal computers and other electronic devices
-- Accounts file with basic information to all of my financial accounts, morgtages, life insurance,
-- Utilities file with all of the information about my utility services
-- Export of my address book
-- Death threats and persons of interest file (my work takes me to interesting places...)
-- House book with things like the keycode for my house, and all of the other stuff related to my house that only exists in my head otherwise
-- Auto book with copies of titles, etc
-- Letters to send
-Work file
-- Current copies of all importiant work related papers
-- Copy of my current Quickbooks file
-- A write-up of what someone needs to do in my job, along with sugestions of who to assign.
-- A copy of my personal file, complete with life insurance info
-- A usernames file with all of the UID and Passwords for running my buisness
-- A TO SHRED document, containing a list of files to be shredded upon my death
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Funny)
Damn that's an awesome setup!
I really want to kill you now just to see your system in action!
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:4, Funny)
-- Death threats and persons of interest file
Let us know if you get picked up
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Informative)
Fire proof safes are often designed to protect paper by releasing foam that deprives the environment of oxygen necessary for it to burn. The internal temperature of the safe can and often does exceed several hundred degrees; Easily enough to destroy any electronic equipment. Check the design before you buy, or when you need it most you may find it was lacking.
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Funny)
Okay, so here's what you do. You keep a padded, heat-resistant safe in an upstairs room of the house. Mount wheels on it, and place it on an inclined track, facing toward a pre-scored section of thinner wall. Rest it against a swing gate or chock held shut by a locking device made of lead. If your house starts on fire, the heat will melt the lead, the gate will open, and the safe will roll down the incline, bursting through the wall and landing safely in the yard, outside the major heat zone.
Of course, you have the problem of your house becoming a flaming safe-launcher as well as being on fire... I'm sure that can all be worked out in the implementation.
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:5, Funny)
+1, Rube Goldberg
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would my relatives need to nose around my private data and accounts when I die? For bank accounts and such, there already is an apparatus to allow them access, and for most private/encrypted data there is no need for access.
This is doubly true of email and online sites such as Slashdot. Unless I'm missing something.
Parent
Re:Very simple.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I've got a CD-RW in my safe deposit box at the bank. Whenever enough stuff changes, I just take a new one down and bring the old one back. There are instructions on the disc for what to do with the information - who to contact, what passwords go to which accounts, all that stuff. My mom and dad have done the same thing.
One of the best things that you can do for those that you leave behind is to make your passing as easy as possible. Don't die and take the secrets that your family needs to get on with life to your grave. Unless you were a heartless bastard, they'll probably be upset enough that you're gone. No need to make it worse.
Parent
Will (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Shouldn't this be Jeff Probst's job? (Score:3, Funny)
I mean the guy is everywhere with the survivors... on the island, in the desert, etc. etc. If anyone can arrange electronic access for my Survivor TV show, it'll be Jeff.
TDz.
My father's text file... (Score:5, Informative)
Thankfully it was a small list and when he finally passed away I got on his laptop a few days later and followed his requests. Sent out emails to his contacts notifying them of what happened and that I will keep the accounts open for one month to await a response and provided a link to the obituary so that way they wouldn't have to search to confirm.
Not sure if this answers your question but I guess when all else seems to complicated, just mail a text file to someone you trust.
Safety Deposit Box (Score:3, Insightful)
Obviously, if you change your passwords, you have to change what's in the safety deposit box, so there is some upkeep there.
BFF (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm relatively young, so I haven't put a lot of thought into this, but my best friend knows all the personal account names and passwords I use for everything. He would be able to get into any of my accounts with a few guesses. I don't have a comprehensive list of everything, but the main stuff would get worked out.
And before you security nuts go crazy about telling other people your passwords, keep in mind this is a person I trust above anyone else...even my own close relatives. If I can't trust him, then I must live a truely miserable life of denial full of people who dislike me. I also don't tell him any of the admin passwords at work, as A) other people have acces to those, and B) They aren't my passwords to give out, even though I know he would do no harm (hell he'd probably manage the network better than half our admins...)
Oh, I also know pretty much all his passwords too...so...yeah, he better not try anything :-)
Re:BFF (Score:5, Insightful)
And before you security nuts go crazy about telling other people your passwords, keep in mind this is a person I trust above anyone else...even my own close relatives. If I can't trust him, then I must live a truely miserable life of denial full of people who dislike me.
Not to burst your bubble, but have you ever considered your BFF might be tortured to have your passwords extracted from him?
Not that you'd be keeping information that the CIA maybe interested in but honest and trustworthy people can be made to divulge information either through duress or intoxication.
Its like giving your loved ones a bank account pin and someone holds them up at gunpoint and now they have to decide whether to break your trust or keep their lives. I personally don't like to let people deal with that scenario.
Not that you or I have anything worth that valuable... But people have been beaten up over stupid things like account credentials to online games. Might as well not burden other people with it.
Parent
Re:BFF (Score:5, Funny)
I guess you aren't aware of the true meaning of BFF. I'm sure Kamokazi's friend would gladly die before giving out his Facebook password.
Parent
Re:BFF (Score:5, Funny)
I'm relatively young, so I haven't put a lot of thought into this, but my best friend knows all the personal account names and passwords I use for everything. He would be able to get into any of my accounts with a few guesses. I don't have a comprehensive list of everything, but the main stuff would get worked out.
And before you security nuts go crazy about telling other people your passwords, keep in mind this is a person I trust above anyone else...even my own close relatives. If I can't trust him, then I must live a truely miserable life of denial full of people who dislike me. I also don't tell him any of the admin passwords at work, as A) other people have acces to those, and B) They aren't my passwords to give out, even though I know he would do no harm (hell he'd probably manage the network better than half our admins...)
Oh, I also know pretty much all his passwords too...so...yeah, he better not try anything :-)
You really expect us to believe that? How do we know this isn't him posting?
Parent
It's assumed (Score:5, Funny)
I've notified all of my Myspace friends that if they don't hear from me for a 48 hour period, it is likely that I am dead and they should just assume that is the case.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
There's not a lot of ways to die that would kill me so fast I couldn't send a Tweet about it, seeing as I am most likely in the middle of sending one anyway. Just in case, my cell phone knows that if I don't press any buttons for 3 whole minutes, it should post my "final_tweet.txt" file. It is a brief notice that I have just died, and a lengthy poetic tribute to all of my most loved Facebook apps.
TrueCrypt (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Write everything important in a TrueCrypt file system, email it to those who you would want to have it. Then pay for a safe deposit box, in the box put the password(and keyfiles as you see fit). The executor of your estate will be able to gain access to the box and if you add them as a signer it would be trivial, just don't let them have the key until you are dead.
Note that how easily the executor can gain access to the box, even if they are a signatory, will depend on the laws of the jurisdiction. Check with an estate attorney before putting anything in the box that would be needed soon after your death.
Death Notification Service (Score:4, Interesting)
Easy (Score:3, Informative)
Use a password vault, leave the password to the password vault in your will.
Next.
Survivors? (Score:5, Funny)
are you kidding? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't even think how long the list of possible 'failure points' to your system.
you go missing- airplane crash- fall under a road paver- into a wood chipper- vat of acid- really unlucky gun shot while you were holding out your hands begging for your life...
You have to be freaking kidding if that is your i'm dead- you are covered methodology.
it'd be like having your life insurance policy in your wallet at all times.
Parent
Re:are you kidding? (Score:4, Funny)
Don't worry -- in the event that his ring is lost, the secret chamber behind the bookshelf in the study contains a handwritten journal, containing the account of the time his arch-nemesis attempted to steal the ring and ended up with the celtic ruins burned into the skin of his left hand, along with seven riddles that, when solved, reveal the nemesis's identity. His family need only to find the secret chamber by pulling on the tail of the bronze monkey statue (you can't miss it, the framed portrait of Napoleon hanging on the wall opposite is looking directly at it) and they will be set on an exciting quest to track down the dark stranger and recover the ruins by dusting for handprints on his cane.
Parent
Other Ask Slashdots... (Score:5, Informative)
Incidentally, related questions have been the topic of previous "Ask Slashdot" stories:
What Does Your Dead Man's Switch Do [slashdot.org]
Your Digital Inheritance [slashdot.org]
What Happens To Your Data When You Die [slashdot.org]
I think the take-home message from most of those discussions is that you need to make preparations. Just like with everything else in your life, you should ideally keep things organized enough so that your survivors can deal with it, both in terms of wrapping up your estate, and keeping the things that matter. So this means keeping a list of passwords and encryption keys somewhere (e.g. in a safe deposit box), and even instructions about what to do with various accounts. Your data should also be organized so that your family can make copies of things like photos and find nostalgic things that you've written.
Another point to consider is the things that you don't want your survivors seeing. If you have any secrets you want to take to your grave, be sure to encrypt them. And for the sake of your children's sanity, hide your porn! (Or label it so they can avoid it!)
Re:Other Ask Slashdots... (Score:5, Funny)
Dear sir, are you suggesting that similar content has been published on Slashdot on separate occasions?!
Parent
Hello, the person you know as sexmonkey69 has died (Score:4, Insightful)
Sometimes is ok to just let the account expire.
If its someone important, they will find out your dead from loved ones or other connections. If its some random person you met on the internet, do they realy need to know? While social networking is all the buz, is that the best place to tell someone about a persons death?
Re:Hello, the person you know as sexmonkey69 has d (Score:4, Informative)
When I die, I plan to have a bot that pretends to be me maintain communications with all the "internet randoms" I know. If the bot gives odd responses to their comments, they'll probably just assume I'm drunk.
Parent
Re:Hello, the person you know as sexmonkey69 has d (Score:4, Funny)
We regret to inform you, that VeNoM0619 has perished... in the real world. He has advised us in his will to inform his online accomplices of his early demise. Also, that 4 strength, 4 stam leather belt, is his, and will not be given away.
Hope this has brought nothing but sadness and unnecessary bad news to your once bright and cheery day,
Anonymous Family Member
Parent
Make it easy (Score:5, Informative)
To your will (you do have a will, don't you?) attach a printed list of user id/passwords for websites, email accounts, etc. Update semi-annually. Also useful is a financial disclosure listing all of your bank accounts, utility accounts, mortgage information, credit cards, etc. Add a note with the location of your KeePass database (or equivalent), and the master password for it. File all of this (in paper and electronic form) in a very safe but accessible location - a home safe, a lawyer's office, a bank's trust office. DO NOT PUT IT IN YOUR SAFE DEPOSIT BOX. If you are deceased the bank is not supposed to grant access to anyone until your estate is in probate, which will be tough if your will's in the box.
The reason you need the lists in paper form is that you cannot be sure of the technical skill or emotional state of those who will be dealing with the aftermath of your death.
do the easy route (Score:5, Funny)
Kill yourself in such a spectacular fashion that it will make the rounds on the net. Then anyone you would have wanted to inform about your demise would see the video, say "Oh, that's so you," and thus be informed.
Facebook (Score:5, Funny)
Safe + Email is the key (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought about this a couple of years ago when I had a health scare, this is what I came up with.
USB stick (or whatever it will be in x years) in a safe at home.
I have a paper will, with the usual stuff, plus an email address, and what to write in the subject and body.
The person that receives my will is instructed to email this address upon my death.
I have a rule on my mail account that matches the specified text in the email.
This email then triggers a whole load of actions:
Unsubscribes from mailing lists.
*Emails a personal message to people on my contact list.
*Sends an email with the relevant passwords to the relevant people.
*Sends an email with my finances, spreadsheets, important information to the sender.
*Sends an encrypted key to specified person which can access my harddisk.
*sends a list of things to shred!
This pretty much covers everything I need, including getting the relevant passwords to the right people, and auto emailing a personalised message to my contacts.