Digital wills are wills, often called a "

Last Will and Testament A will and testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate (law), estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its fi ...

", that determine the fate of a person's digital presence once they die. In the

digital age The Information Age is a History by period, historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during the Industrial Revolution, to an economy centered on info ...

, people have been wondering what happens to their digital presence once they die. These archives encompass any online account that a person may have such as

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

, shopping sites, and gaming sites. Many websites now have a set of guidelines and procedures that can be followed to remove a deceased person's account from their servers. These procedures may vary from site to site. However, a digital will is a way to determine the fate of your online presence in one location instead of having to make arrangements with each site individually.

Digital Executor

A digital executor is an individual responsible for managing an appointer's digital content. The digital executor is provided with a directive to instruct the executor on handling the appointer's digital assets.

Obstacles and problems

Although digital wills are necessary and helpful, some problems and obstacles may be encountered. As identified in the Buffalo Law Review, obstacles include: #

password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...

s, which online accounts cannot be accessed without, so if a loved one passes away, but does not pass along their account information, there is little hope of getting access to the accounts. #

Encryption In Cryptography law, cryptography, encryption (more specifically, Code, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the inf ...

, which is changing information to hide something, # Federal and state

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...

s that penalize what is thought of as unauthorized access to computers and data, and # Federal and state

privacy law Privacy law is a set of regulations that govern the collection, storage, and utilization of personal information from healthcare, governments, companies, public or private entities, or individuals. Privacy laws are examined in relation to an ind ...

Terms and conditions A contractual term is "any provision forming part of a contract". Each term gives rise to a contractual obligation, the breach of which may give rise to litigation. Not all terms are stated expressly and some terms carry less legal gravity as ...

of service must always be taken into account, which can cause problems if there are fine details or clauses that refer to what to do in the event of the account user's death. In some cases, the web service may have the ability to terminate the account and delete all data, and if other people besides the user gain access, there may be criminal charges placed against them, even if the one who died has passed on the password to them.

Identity theft Identity theft, identity piracy or identity infringement occurs when someone uses another's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. ...

can potentially continue to be a problem even after death if their information is released to the wrong people. This is why online networks and digital executors require proof of death such as a certificate from a family member of the deceased person in order to acquire access to accounts. There are instances when access may still be denied, because of the prevalence of false death certificates.

Controversy

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, the “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act” was signed into law. That Act states that a beneficiary that has control over digital accounts or digital assets will have the same rights as the initial account holder. This law trumps conflicting terms of service agreements from online service providers or custodians, such as

Yahoo Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...

Digital Executor

Obstacles and problems

Controversy

See also

References

Further reading