One Tech Tip: How to prepare your online accounts in case you die

LONDON (AP) — Most individuals have collected a pile of information — selfies, emails, movies and extra — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What occurs to it once we die?

It’s clever to draft a will spelling out who inherits your bodily belongings after you’re gone, however don’t neglect to handle your digital property too. Family and friends would possibly treasure information and posts you’ve left behind, however they might get misplaced in digital purgatory after you go away until you’re taking some easy steps.

Right here’s how one can put together your digital life in your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker permits you to nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can entry your Apple account’s knowledge after you die. The corporate says it’s a safe method to give trusted individuals entry to images, information and messages. To set it up you’ll want an Apple gadget with a reasonably current working system — iPhones and iPads want iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks wants macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, faucet Signal-in & Safety after which Legacy Contact. You’ll be able to title a number of individuals, they usually don’t want an Apple ID or gadget.

You’ll should share an entry key along with your contact. It may be a digital model despatched electronically, or you may print a duplicate or reserve it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take word that there are some forms of information you received’t be capable to go on — together with digital rights-protected music, films and passwords saved in Apple’s password supervisor. Legacy contacts can solely entry a deceased consumer’s account for 3 years earlier than Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a unique method with its Inactive Account Supervisor, which lets you share your knowledge with somebody if it notices that you simply’ve stopped utilizing your account.

When setting it up, it’s good to determine how lengthy Google ought to wait — from three to 18 months — earlier than contemplating your account inactive. As soon as that point is up, Google can notify as much as 10 individuals.

You’ll be able to write a message informing them you’ve stopped utilizing the account, and, optionally, embody a hyperlink to obtain your knowledge. You’ll be able to select what forms of knowledge they’ll entry — together with emails, images, calendar entries and YouTube movies.

There’s additionally an choice to routinely delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts should obtain any knowledge earlier than that deadline.

Fb and Instagram

Some social media platforms can protect accounts for individuals who have died in order that family and friends can honor their reminiscences.

When customers of Fb or Instagram die, mother or father firm Meta says it could possibly memorialize the account if it will get a “legitimate request” from a buddy or member of the family. Requests might be submitted via an on-line kind.

The social media firm strongly recommends Fb customers add a legacy contact to take care of their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do issues like reply to new buddy requests and replace pinned posts, however they’ll’t learn personal messages or take away or alter earlier posts. You’ll be able to solely select one particular person, who additionally has to have a Fb account.

You can even ask Fb or Instagram to delete a deceased consumer’s account when you’re an in depth member of the family or an executor. You’ll must ship in paperwork like a demise certificates.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a consumer has died, individuals can submit a request to memorialize the account via the settings menu. Go to the Report a Drawback part, then Account and profile, then Handle account, the place you may report a deceased consumer.

As soon as an account has been memorialized, will probably be labeled “Remembering.” Nobody will be capable to log into the account, which prevents anybody from modifying the profile or utilizing the account to put up new content material or ship messages.

X

It’s not potential to appoint a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media web site. However relations or a certified particular person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased consumer’s account.

Passwords

Apart from the main on-line providers, you’ll in all probability have dozens if not a whole bunch of different digital accounts that your survivors would possibly must entry. You might simply write all of your login credentials down in a pocket book and put it someplace protected. However making a bodily copy presents its personal vulnerabilities. What when you lose observe of it? What if somebody finds it?

As a substitute, contemplate a password supervisor that has an emergency entry characteristic. Password managers are digital vaults that you should utilize to retailer all of your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, enable customers to appoint a number of trusted contacts who can entry their keys in case of an emergency akin to a demise.

However there are just a few catches: These contacts additionally want to make use of the identical password supervisor and also you may need to pay for the service.

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