W9.2 Digital Life After Death

What happens to your digital trail after you die? What happens to your Twitter account? Your blog? Your Flickr stream? Your Pinterest Walls? Your Facebook page? Should there be an auto-responder on your email that can be activated in the case that you die? Who, if anyone, should be given access to your personal accounts to make these decisions? Should we all write a will that clearly outlines the distribution and rights to our digital assets?

And then there's just the social aspect of dealing with the continued digital presence of a friend who has died. I've received automatically-scheduled posts from a deceased friend. I've stumbled across status updates written by the partner of the deceased. I've had to inform everyone who follows a friend on Twitter that they have passed away. Digital death is a strange new world for us to learn to navigate.

Adam Ostrow: After your final status update Links to an external site.

The transcript of Adam Ostrow's talk is available here. Links to an external site.

How 1 Billion People Are Coping With Death and Facebook Links to an external site., by Stephanie Buck, Mashable, February 13, 2013.

Life and Death Online: Who Controls a Digital Legacy? Links to an external site. by Geoffrey Fowler, The Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2013.

Facebook After Death: What Should the Law Say? Links to an external site. by Alissa Skelton, Mashable, January 26, 2012. 

Death Often Brings Disputes Over Online Lives Links to an external site., by Yuki Noguchi, NPR, May 11, 2009. [or listen to the Audio for this story Links to an external site.]

Several companies now provide services to help your beneficiaries wrap up your digital life after death. All of them come with a cost, and most look like they won't last past the startup year, but this one looks fairly legit: Legacy Locker Links to an external site. (note: not an endorsement in any way)