Is your digital life ready for your death?

Two things to consider: what will happen to the account and to the data therein

You’ve probably thought about what will happen to your finances, your possessions and maybe even your real estate when you die. But what about your Facebook account? Or your hard-drive back-ups?

For the past two decades, most of us in the modern world have gradually shifted our central living space online. That’s 20-ish years of documenting our real-life experiences while also creating entirely new versions of ourselves in countless places online.

These digital lives are basically immortal, so you may as well figure out while you’re still alive what will happen to them after you’re gone.

There are two main things to consider: What will happen to your accounts and what will happen to the data contained therein. For example, you can give someone authority to delete your Google account and to download all your photos stored there after you die.

It’s a grim thought, but like writing a last will and testament, this has become just another part of death preparation.

Many online spaces offer some form of death planning. But this is still a relatively new concept, and some of the most popular destinations on the internet don’t give users a way to plan for their death. In that case, it’s best to establish a plan now with a trusted loved one.

For the websites and services that do offer help, here’s what to know.

Facebook: Whom do you trust to mind your central online presence after your death? That’s probably the person you want to be your Facebook legacy contact.

This person will be able to write a post that will remain at the top of your profile, update your profile photo and respond to friend requests. You can also allow that person to download an archive of your public activity (including posts, photos and “likes”), but he or she can’t read your messages, so your most intimate secrets will be safe.

Alternatively, you can set your account to delete everything once Facebook is notified of your death.

Facebook legacy contacts, however, will not also have access to your Instagram account (Facebook owns the photo-sharing app). But Instagram accounts can be memorialised or, if requested by a verified family member, deleted.

Google: Google lets you choose up to 10 people to be the executors of your account once you die or your account becomes inactive via its inactive account manager feature.

To set this up, choose an amount of time between sign-ins for your account to be designated “inactive”. Once that threshold is met (for example, you don’t sign into any Google service for a certain number of months), your chosen contact will get a prewritten email from you with, presumably, your wishes for your account.

Unlike your legacy contact on Facebook, you can designate this person to have full access to your Google account, including email and chat histories, and he or she can download the data you specify. (You also have the option not to give that person access to any of it.)

© New York Times News Service