What means most to people deciding on disposition of their digital assets after their own life ends?
For Evan Carroll, founder of The Digital Beyond, the emphasis is on the personal. Social media content, for example. A consultant and author of “Your Digital Afterlife,” based in Raleigh, N.C., Carroll’s perspective could seem counterintuitive. Entrusting inheritors with sensitive digital documents like financials might loom larger than bequeathing social media content that is largely shared in the first place. As estate attorney Suzanne Brown Walsh, principal at Cummings & Lockwood, observes, “Accounts exist to create an expectation of privacy.”
The notion that personal digital content and assets are prime for the passing along also departs from the longtime, low value survivors typically place on estate items such as photographs and letters. One exception would be letters, photos, postcards and other ephemera in the estate of a celebrity.
Digital property rights after an owner’s death is emerging as a concern because intellectual property and estate matters “don’t often intersect,” Walsh explains. “We are at the point people are aware this is a big issue…a very complicated area.”
Secklerism: What, if any, plans of your own have you made for your digital assets?
Evan Carroll: I keep a list of passwords available to my heirs. I’ve had conversations with them and they know about my wishes and who should handle my digital assets. I’m still in my 20s, but when I do my will (probably within the next year) I’m planning to include language about my digital assets.
Secklerism: Is there any difference in degree of interest and difficulty in protecting and passing along social media assets, compared with other digital assets, like email and online documents?
Evan Carroll: Assets like online documents, financial records and website accounts are fairly non-controversial. Assets like email and social media, which contain a richer, and perhaps more personal, record of the deceased are more contentious as some feel that they want these assets to remain private. The difficulty varies because the terms of service and policies of each provider are different. It’s important to note, however, that most account passwords can be reset if you have access to the decedent’s email account. In this way, email acts as a master key helping to gain access to other online accounts.
Secklerism: What action is underway, addressing the rights to digital assets of the deceased, beyond the five states now allowing people to pass along their passwords and account access to inheritors? [These states are Connecticut, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Indiana and Idaho.]
Evan Carroll: Here’s a current list of laws and states considering laws — Digital Estate Resouce map: http://bit.ly/13LDEmp [Also see Secklerism, March 13, “Living a Digital Afterlife,” on pending digital rights legislation in Virginia. Estate attorneys such as Walsh in Connecticut and Naomi Cahn, Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., expect Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell to sign the bill into law by this summer.]
Note: Even as some U.S. locales start granting citizens rights to legally designate heirs to digital accounts and content, corporate service providers like Facebook, Google and Microsoft may have user agreements that preempt third-party access to decedents’ digital assets.
