I heard a number of stories of people passing away, and their loved ones have to figure out how to navigate their digital “estate”. Things like email credentials, bank accounts, crypto wallets, logins for personal devices, etc. For example, I have a good friend whose husband passed away unexpectedly, and she couldn’t get Apple to unlock his laptop for months, until she provided a death certificate and jumped through additional hoops.

I fell down a rabbit hole of checklists, methods, and technology, and was curious what other people were doing to leave digital assets behind. I’m looking for something that will be privacy-oriented, but still provide access to people who may not be very tech-savvy.

What do other people do? Especially from a technology perspective?

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[–] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Nothing. I expect to be the last in my family and honestly don't care much what happens with my estate after I'm dead. I've been thinking about setting up a will for the benefit of my friends and their kids but that's about it. What little is not found by the tax office after my passing doesn't matter. None of my accounts no longer matter. My photos and videos no longer matter. My favourite songs and movies no longer matter. My opinions no longer matter. Maybe I should ask for someone to remove any identifiable trace of me online though I don't really know why anybody should be bothered. In less than a hundred years nobody will know I have ever existed. Maybe some reflection or speck of information I've shared at some point will anonymously benefit someone in the future but that's about it. Whatever remains of me online is just digital dust in the crevices of the information highway that nobody will care to examine anyway. And I'm perfectly fine with it.

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