Digital legacy is about the online traces we leave behind; accounts, data, and profiles. Most Australians have a plan in their will for the house and other assets, but it’s easy to forget about digital information.
Unlike money and property, these online accounts don’t pass on automatically, so it’s important to think about how to hand these down to make them easier to manage.
So how do you set things up now to make things easier, and what do you do if you’re the one managing someone else’s online accounts?
What happens to your accounts when you die?
There’s no law in Australia that gives your executor access to your digital accounts. Whether someone dies with a detailed will or no will at all, there’s no automatic right that lets a successor log into their accounts.
In practice, each platform and account offers different tools that help you manage what happens when you pass away. If you spend the time to set this up, it can save time for those managing the process.
Setting up your digital legacy
Many of the big tech platforms let you control what happens when they’re unused for a while. It’s worth looking through these settings and considering how you want the accounts dealt with.
Apple Legacy Contact
Apple accounts allow you to generate an access key that your chosen contact can present alongside a death certificate to request access to the account.
Legacy Contact doesn’t hand over everything associated with your account. It doesn’t include purchased online media or anything on iCloud Keychain.
Its primary purpose is to give data like photos, messages, notes, and files.
You can find the option on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac settings under Sign-In & Security. You can choose to share the access key over iMessage, or to save a copy for inclusion in your estate documents.
Google Inactive Account Manager
Google’s Inactive Account Manager allows you to choose a timeout period from 3 months up to 18 months, and if your account is inactive for that long, it notifies your chosen contacts and shares the data with them.
Otherwise, Google’s default policy is to delete the account after 2 years of inactivity.
To set it up, browse to your account settings’ Data and Privacy section and find Your Digital Legacy.
Here, you can add data recipients, choose whether to delete the account, and how long the inactivity period is before this happens.
Facebook allows you to choose a Legacy Contact who can pin a tribute post, manage new posts on the memorialised page, and respond to friend requests. This contact cannot login or read messages.
To set this up, follow Facebook’s instructions here.
It’s worth noting Instagram has its own system, and there’s no legacy contact setting. You can submit a request for memorialisation of an Instagram page with proof, but there’s no way to set it up ahead of time.
Passwords
If you use a password manager, it may be worth checking what it offers. Bitwarden features an Emergency Access feature on paid tiers that can deliver vault access to a nominated person after a set inactivity period.
Other services like 1Password don’t have an equivalent feature, and its guidance is to save an Emergency Kit and provide instructions in your documents.
Your will
Naming a digital executor and telling them about the accounts that exist is worth doing, as they can’t act on accounts they don’t know about.
However, don’t provide passwords into your will itself. Wills can become public documents, so putting access to a password manager in them is unwise.
If you’re managing someone else’s accounts
If you’re dealing with digital legacy after someone’s death, start with the Australian Death Notification Service.
This is a free, government-run service that helps you notify banks and organisations from a single form rather than chasing them all down separately.
The ADNS checks details against the national database, so the death must be formally registered before you can use it.
For banks, sole accounts are usually frozen once the bank is notified. Joint accounts typically keep working for the surviving signatory.
The platforms covered above aren’t notified with the ADNS. Apple and Google both have processes for managing an account, but generally require at least a death certificate if not a court order.
Some digital data is gone regardless of paperwork. Purchased digital media, encrypted password vaults, and other encrypted data with no backup aren’t usually recoverable.
Digital legacy is easy to plan
Setting this up ahead of time only takes a few minutes, and can save months of time and hassle for your nominated contacts.
That’s why it’s worth taking the time to decide what happens to your digital footprint.
For more practical guides and advice, consider subscribing to our newsletter.
Comments