Moving house is a monumental event. Not only in terms of the financial considerations, but also as it is a time to manage legal considerations to allow for the worst should that eventuate. The establishment of a will is important for everyone irrespective of their financial or personal circumstances – it is prudent to make sure that your wishes are recorded so that they can carried out as you would wish.
However have you ever given any consideration to the impact of your digital life when you die?
So much of our lives are now online – some casual, some serious – all however accessed through passwords. So the question is – what should happen to your facebook account when you die?, should your blog be removed or do you have a final post that you pre-write to close off the final chapter?
Think for a moment of all the places on the web were parts of your life are held and then ask – who in my family knows how to access this content and even who knows the extent of all the content?
A new company Legacy Locker has started up to address just such a challenge. They are offering a smart service equivalent to the traditonal safety deposit box – but online.
Sign up for an account and securely in one place you can not only store all the accesses to all your accounts, but also the decision as to what you want done with those accounts. Do you have like me, a series of domain names that you bought thinking they might be worth something, as well as the domain name to your website – should these be auctioned off or held for the future.
The subject may be sensitive, but the need is very real and this company seems to have found a great way of handling this issue, matching high security with comprehensive means by which to validate the genuine passing of your life. Naturally they offer a scale of services – basic for free, more access more details comes at a price – a price I would have thought worth paying for this peace of mind for your family.
Clearly many will judge that a simple spreadsheet with all the accounts and passwords will suffice as it may, but be aware of the problems some have experienced trying to get access to even email accounts of loved ones. Calling customer service to get a password from global sites with 100 million + accounts is not as simple as calling a number!
I am grateful for Technometria and IT Conversations for their excellent podcasts which first highlighted me to this excellent new online service.
