{"id":1219,"date":"2008-10-18T08:18:37","date_gmt":"2008-10-18T06:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2008-12-28T21:28:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T03:28:59","slug":"internet-life-after-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/archives\/1219","title":{"rendered":"Internet Life After Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

In conversations with a number of friends, I have realized that while nearly all of us have multiple accounts on the internet for various reasons, very few of us have provided a way for these accounts to be accessed, maintained, or shut down in the event of our demise.<\/p>\n

Some might say this is a morbid subject.\u00c2\u00a0 However, we leave wills for our physical assets, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t provide account information to our loved ones.\u00c2\u00a0 (If you don’t have a will…go write one!)<\/p>\n

There are a number of types of sites that your loved ones may have to access: bank accounts, online bill-pay, utilities, email, social networking sites, your blog, photo management sites, forums, and instant messaging platforms.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> mentions that unlocking an account after someone has died can mean having to get a court order, which can be a lengthy process.\u00c2\u00a0 Different companies have different ways of dealing with the death of a customer, and sometimes the family or executor of the estate will not be able to access their account.<\/p>\n

You can handle this dilemma in a few different ways. Start by compiling all of the information you have.\u00c2\u00a0 Try using a spreadsheet if you are overwhelmed…but remember that digital information is easily shared, so be sure that it is secure<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Your column headings can be: website, login name, password (remember case-sensitive ones!), and “comments” (this area can be used to explain how you want this account handled after you pass away).<\/p>\n

In the course of this process, you might discover a few websites where you have an account, but you really don’t need it…go ahead and get rid of those accounts.<\/p>\n

One way is to have the information included with your will, and the executor will take care of these things.\u00c2\u00a0 Another option is to entrust your spouse, family member, or close friend to have access to those accounts.\u00c2\u00a0 For example…you might not want your grieving parents to have to go onto Facebook and tell your 830 “friends” that you have passed away, and so you might give that task over to a friend who would be able to take care of it.\u00c2\u00a0 But again, be careful who you give that information to…if you feel that they might betray your trust…perhaps you are better off leaving that information with a lawyer.<\/p>\n

Any other ideas on other ways to solve this problem of account management?\u00c2\u00a0 I’m hoping that someday that the proliferation of usernames and passwords will be reduced, but for now we just have to manage with what we’ve got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In conversations with a number of friends, I have realized that while nearly all of us have multiple accounts on the internet for various reasons, very few of us have provided a way for these accounts to be accessed, maintained,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}