up in my inbox it I don’t subject and
the message contained a single link
during the next three weeks several such
messes it arrived and I kept feeling
frustrated and helpless those emails
arrived in April a month earlier in
March my brother was killed when hit by
a car those image women written by him
his email account was hacked and his
entire contact list received a strain of
spam messages until it was flagged and
shut down when I took it upon myself to
neatly and respectfully fold my
brother’s digital life just like our
family was doing with his physical life
I had no idea what I was getting myself
into
nor how difficult it would turn out to
be which is why I started writing about
dying in this digital era since I was
introduced to this world of digital
death I felt a strong need to introduce
it to others without them having to
first lose a loved one digital death is
a term to denote everything that happens
or doesn’t happen to a digital data and
devices online accounts and virtual
presence after our death have you ever
thought about how many online accounts
you have the kind of login to with the
username and password you probably have
more personal account than you realize
this term refers to anything we log into
in line with the username and a password
study from 2015 found that the average
user had 90 such accounts with another
predicted to double every five years
sounds like a lot right
and I was surprised when I check the
password manager I use it currently
holds my usernames and passwords do 253
or 9 logins assuming some are no longer
relevant
several duplicates and if you’re just
Wi-Fi accesses that still leaves us with
what 150 200 our digital space and
devices you know practically hold every
aspect of our lives from lifelong
collections of music movies books texts
pictures videos memories through our
banking records and the personal or
professional documents and records for
managing a household or business all the
way to metadata once we are gone all of
this is left behind it’s an unsolved
problem as in worst cases we don’t know
each other’s passwords let alone or 90
or 253 of them nor but the wishes of the
in most cases we don’t know what they
after death policy of the site’s we use
is even if you are one of those rare
people who do with the Terms of Use
in some cases you still won’t be able to
know what the after death policy is as
in some cases it’s not published and if
you do find out you might be alarmed to
learn these policies against your wishes
whatever that which may be as
transferring the user account or details
might be a violation of the Terms of Use
most countries and states don’t have
digital death regulations or laws yet or
if they do throw insufficient for
example the law might address only the
disease email accounts as is the case in
Rhode Island or if it does address all
of the deceased online accounts it only
lets you shut them down as is the case
in Nevada
the British law made him accessing
someone else’s account as a criminal
offence and American law state or
federal my seat is a crime even if you
were appointed by the deceased further
confusion comes with a differences in
international law as well as where you
are your accounts are located in
the result is that most if not all of
the dozens or hundreds of accounts each
one of us users becomes unreachable it
not only means the colossal digital loss
we might experience which might lead to
actual financial loss but also that all
these accounts remain out their existing
floating uncontrolled people may
continue to use engage and interact with
them without our consent
knowledge of being able to do anything
about it possibly in ways neither we
know the deceased would want and it’s
not just personal loss it can be
communal cultural for instance we nearly
lost all the manuscripts of 36 year old
iranian-american international
bestseller author Marshall Marin she was
found dead alone in Ireland in 2014 and
her father a bass had to fight in order
to retrieve head digital manuscript from
the cloud storage provider first steps
in the right direction were made when
two in-house services were launched
Google’s inactive account manager in
2013 and Facebook’s legacy contacts in
2015 these services let you leave
certain instructions behind to be
followed after your death but Google’s
won’t let you
access to your accounts and Facebook
won’t let you pass access Kirika no can
you choose to not have your profile
memorialized and I’m guessing most of
you don’t know about these services as
both companies choose not to communicate
them directly to the users on Facebook
once the person is reported as deceased
a report which can be made by anyone
including complete strangers that
profile is memorialized with no prior
warning from that point onwards it is
frozen and inaccessible even if you do
have the right username and password
along with the desist permission google
says in certain circumstances it may
provide content from a deceased users
account which circumstances they not
specify you might be thinking hey I’ll
be dead I don’t care about some files
devices you’d be right of course you
won’t care but the people you love and
those who loved you might care for both
sentimental and practical reasons you
might prefer for your privacy to be
maintained after your death sometimes
especially from your loved ones that is
important legitimate and should be
respected and I want to emphasize I am
NOT saying that this is don’t have a
right to privacy the thing is there is
no one right answer to suit all which is
why it should be your decision and not
some company’s customer relations
departments you should be given the
choice and the means to decide the fate
of your digital afterlife I believe it’s
time we started educating ourselves
about this if you are a psychologist
social worker lawyer caregiver hospice
staff you should tell the people you’re
working with the bereaved families and
dying people that there is one more
thing they need to be aware of
give it your death
if you’re in charge of people risking
their lives in service cops
soldiers firefighters I believe that
they deserve to be told before they
leave the house the next time that there
is one more thing that should be aware
of digital death if you as a person as
an individual are already aware and
concerned about digital death by this
point I wish I could give you a solution
I can’t there is no one solution it
depends on which size you’re using and
what the policies are terms of user
where you live and if there’s any
relevant legislation there but there are
a few things you can do one think about
all the devices and accounts you’re
using is your computer password
protected
is there an unlocked pin code or your
smartphone will someone be able to keep
using your iPhone or iPad without your
Apple ID would access or copies be
needed of the important documents only
you had and were kept in cloud storage
like text as a mortgage to do online
pictures and videos still be available
after your death think about it and make
a decision – whatever your choice is
whether you wish for some or all of the
devices or accounts to be accessed or
not share decision tell someone you
trust we’ve written instructions in a
safe place where they could easily be
found sign up to a third party or an
in-house service that manages digital
accounts while remembering that new
accounts get opened and passwords get
changed so whatever information needs to
be updated regularly free push to change
current policies and laws make sure the
voices of individual people and bereaved
families are heard – not just the voices
of the lobbyists of the tech industry
I’m not a business person a salesperson
or anyone’s agent
I’m someone’s sister this is my brother
dal Shabet he was 55 and a half years
old when killed on the spot by a car
driven by a reckless driver
on March 2nd 2011 when a loved one dies
is there so much pain so in hardship we
can do nothing about let’s at least do
something to spare additional pain
sorrow in hardship which we can do
please introduce this idea to as many
people as possible so they too will be
aware of digital death as you are now
without having to lose a loved one first
thank [Applause]