Ask Slashdot: What Should Happen To Your Data After You Die? 122
Nerval's Lobster writes "Death is Nature's way of telling you it's time to get off the Internet. But when you finally shuffle off this mortal coil, you leave something behind: all your email and other digital assets. That's a huge problem not only for the deceased — once you're on the wrong side of the Great Beyond, there's no way to delete those incriminating messages — but also any relatives who might want to access your (former) life. And it's a problem Google's seeking to solve with the new Inactive Account Manager. (In an April 11 blog posting, Google product manager Andreas Tuerk suggested that Inactive Account Manager wasn't a 'great name' for the product, but maybe the company shouldn't be so hard on itself: it's a way better name than, say, Google Death Dashboard.) Inactive Account Manager will delete your Google-related data (Gmail, etc.) after a set amount of time, or else send that data to 'trusted contacts' you set up before your untimely demise. Which raises an interesting, semi-Google-related question: What do you want to have happen to your data after you die? Give it to loved ones, or have an automated system nuke it all? Should more companies that host email and data offer plans like Inactive Account Manager?"
Re:Where's the... (Score:2, Insightful)
After I am dead this meta-data is of no use for me... My heirs can figure it out...
Why not do what millions of others have done? Nothing.
Hilarious scenarios for Friday (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Husband dies, google releases data, wife finds out husband spent all excess cash on cam whores.
2. Google deletes husband's data, treasure map / account numbers are lost.
3. Husband makes another unrelated gmail account, a set time later, wife is notified husband is dead while eating dinner with him.
Google just can't win here can they? :)
Your spouse (Score:4, Insightful)
Or its a sneaky way of Google finding the email address of the person your trust the most?
Probably your spouse.
Re:Depends on the Data (Score:4, Insightful)
That's the way, I think, except for those who flat out don't care. I've given a few people, the same that I've named and filed with my advanced directive, an envelope with master password to 'The Vault' so that they can unload what they please and close the accounts. Still have to write a will and have it notarized.
It's not so much that I care a lot about digital stuff vanishing into mass storage somewhere but I don't want to leave the people I care about with possibly vexing dangling digital details.
Computer goes to a friend anyway, so no worries about anything embarrassing on the drives; my home folder will be available to family and friends - family pics, favorite comics, possibly useful links and documents and some stray writing. They don't want it, erase it.
I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with Google's approach to a dead man switch, but it's a helluva good start; it's a nice thing to do and it could help keep things smooth for them as well.
But I'd suggest doing the bulk of arrangements in meat space. Do it now: we don't know our time, so it doesn't hurt to not leave as much of a mess behind as doing nothing. Folks above are right, tho - when I'm gone I'm likely not going to care anymore. Dead is probably just that. If there is anything after, whatever one's beliefs, you won't find out until it happens.