When you die, what happens to online accounts? That is a question that you should really consider living as if it were, so that relatives do not have to guess. There are quite a few pressing questions around your digital legacy that you should think about in advance, from your online accounts to your crypto wallet. Like the next.
Before we get into the actual digital legacy, we would like to point out some online services and tools that can help you plan your funeral. This is how you can wish book from Dela record your wishes of ten things that may be important at a funeral, such as the list of invitees, what music, who your contact person is and so on. You can save your answers online in a Dela account or download them as a PDF file.
on RememberMe.nl you will also find a tool with which, after registration, you can complete a number of extensive questionnaires about the topics wish list†Practical issues†List of invitees and script can fill in. It is striking that of the almost sixty items, only one is about digital legacy. Unfortunately, that is significant, even in 2022.
‘s website Digital Funeral Professionals is more aware of this, but the site is set up commercially. For example, you can request a ‘digital life planning consultation’ for 95 euros to arrange your digital legacy. There is even a mini-masterclass ‘Digital Legacy in Social Media Area’ (25 euros) that provides you with a certificate based on video lessons.
checklists
If you prefer to arrange as much as possible yourself, there are a number of checklists that you can download for free. Take for example the checklist of Network Notaries†It is a fairly limited checklist, but it does help you to think about basic things.
You can request a more extensive checklist, with more than twenty well-thought-out and thoroughly elaborated questions via https://kwikr.nl/delacheck†It contains questions such as: What do you want to happen to your social media accounts? […] sites do you have a (paid) account? and What email services do you use? A striking fact that you will find in this checklist is that about half of all Dutch people do not want to continue living online, but also that 70% of them have not yet recorded a digital legacy.
In addition, you can click on the Dela’s webpage about digital inheritance is right for all kinds of meaningful issues surrounding your digital inheritance, such as: Who will take care of your digital inheritance when you are no longer there?, What rules apply to your digital inheritance? and Do you know what happens to your WhatsApp messages, photos and videos?.
Finally, there is one more Business Insider checklist which focuses more on the financial side. Although this checklist ‘Taking over money matters from your parents in time prevents a lot of hassle’, it does not deal with the digital aspect of arranging the inheritance to a limited extent, but the financial approach is very interesting and important to think about in advance.
Draw up a step-by-step plan
In any case, preparing your digital legacy requires a number of steps. First, you carefully map out your digital legacy by noting all your online accounts. Think of your social media accounts, cloud storage services used, websites and email services, but also streaming services for movies, music and games, and apps on your PC, tablet or smartphone that are linked to services such as Fitbit and Strava, or any cryptocurrencies and other online credits and so on.
You then indicate what exactly should be done with your digital inheritance. This can differ per app or service. Indicate clearly what must be kept or destroyed and who may obtain which data.
You can record this in various ways, so that it is legally valid. If you do not record anything, it is legally arranged that your next of kin must determine what happens to your digital inheritance. You can record your wishes in a handwritten will (codicil), in a digital safe (see below), record everything in your will or appoint a so-called online executor via the notary, which can be the same person as the executor of the will.
password manager
It is of course not the intention that you write down all passwords and login codes in your codicil or will and keep them up-to-date, or that you always pass on a modified version to a confidential adviser. It is therefore better to keep such a list in a safe, but also practically feasible way, so that your confidential adviser only gains access to your online data after your death.
Writing it down in a notebook and giving the location to your counselor is not that safe, and recording it in a will is not as practical or cheap. There are three alternatives: using a password manager, digital vault or cloud storage service (see box ‘Cloud storage’).
There are a lot of well-known password managers. We name a few: 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, KeePass, LastPass and RoboForm. Some include a module that allows you to make certain folders accessible to others, but if it’s just your digital legacy that’s not the safest option. However, there are also administrators with whom you can set up a kind of emergency access. You then indicate which people may have access to your safe after a configurable period of inactivity has passed.
Or an assigned contact person can request access himself, but he will only receive it if you do not respond within a time frame that you can set. This is possible, for example, with the premium accounts of Bitwarden and LastPass.
cloud storage
You can of course keep your login details with a (free) cloud storage service such as Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive, but that is not really safe. It is better to store such a document in a separate, extra encrypted folder within that cloud storage service. OneDrive offers such a feature called Personal Vault. Please note: without a subscription you cannot store more than three documents in that safe. Another option is the free cryptomatorâ€
Within Windows you use the program as follows: start the app and choose Add Vault / Create New Vault†Enter a name and refer with Other location / Choose to a subfolder in the local sync folder of your cloud storage service. Enter a password, indicate that you want a recovery key – you can then pass this information on to your confidential adviser – and complete with Create safeâ€
Tip 05: Digital safe
To store important or official documents, such as deeds and therefore data from your online accounts, it is better to use a digital safe that can be linked to a notary. You can also determine what should happen with the contents of the safe after your death. An example of such a safe is the Dutch Notary Safe (from 3.95 euros per month). You can store all kinds of documents in it, such as property deeds, a codicil and login codes, but also letters, photos or a (farewell) video.
According to employee Pieter de Vos, there are currently about fifty notary offices affiliated with this service, but as a user you decide which of the affiliated notaries can manage your safe, and your regular notary may be willing to join the service. This means that when you die, the notary will hand over the digital key to your safe to the person you authorized in your codicil or will. Employee De Vos also emphasizes that the platform is very safe.
In Belgium, all adult residents can create a digital safe of up to 1 GB storage space for free on www.izimi.be (also mobile), an initiative of the Belgian notary. When creating the safe, you can indicate a notary’s office yourself.
You can register with the itsme app (similar to the Dutch DigiD). You then decide for yourself what should happen with your data after your death: full or partial transfer by a notary or by a confidential adviser, or destruction of the entire contents of the safe.
A digital safe linked to a notary is the safest and most practical option
Online Accounts
So far we have mainly given general tips for managing your digital legacy, but it is also a good idea to check the options and conditions for each app or service where you have an account and leave data behind. Do you realize that leaving data behind also happens without you really noticing it, as with many IoT devices, such as a smart refrigerator or vacuum cleaner. You often have to create an account for this and therefore leave certain personal data. So also check what happens with that data after your death.
It is true that nowadays there is the AVG (General Data Protection Regulation; in English GDPR) which gives you quite a few rights as a user – for example, a company is obliged to provide access to the data it keeps about you – but unfortunately only if you are still alive. are. The GDPR does not state what may or must be done with your data after your death.
Internet services
Fortunately, there are now a lot of widely used web applications and services that offer their users the possibility to arrange things themselves. We take Facebook and Google as an example, but Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Microsoft have already taken initiatives in this area.
We’ll start with Facebook. Sign up and click on the Settings and General below Settings for memorialized accounts on To process†You can now click on Request to delete your account after your death or you select a trusted person who can further manage your account (with memorial status). This confidential counselor also enables you to report your death to Facebook.
For your Google account, sign in to https://myaccount.google.com/inactive†click on Start, set the desired period of inactivity and specify the person or persons who should be notified after that period. You can also indicate which of the more than fifty Google services he can access through your account.
Inheritance contact
Until recently, you couldn’t access a deceased person’s data if the Apple ID or password was unknown. That just got easier with the arrival of iOS and iPadOS 15.2 and macOS Monterey 12.1. You can now link contacts to the Digital inheritance app. They will then have access to your Apple ID and data after your death.
On an iPhone or iPad you open this Settingstap your name and choose Password and Security / Legacy Contact, after which you follow the further instructions. On a Mac this goes through System Preferences / Apple ID / Password & Security†The added contacts do not need to have an Apple device themselves. You can send the access key by e-mail, save it as a PDF file or print it and keep it in a safe place.
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