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{{Short description|Passing down of digital assets after a person's death}}
'''Digital inheritance''' is the passing down of [[digital assets]] to designated (or undesignated) [[Beneficiary|beneficiaries]] after a person’s death as part of the estate of the deceased. The process includes understanding what digital assets exist and navigating the rights for heirs to access and use those digital assets after a person has died.
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==Digital estate and digital assets==
{{main|Digital assets}}
The term ''digital estate'' refers to the inheritable digital assets included in a
Two principal issues arise over a person's digital estate. First, the inheritability of the digital content must be determined. Only digital content for which the deceased holds the copyright may be passed down to an inheritor. There is a distinction in law between full ownership and right-to-use licenses such as in software, digital music, film and books and there is legal precedent for denying resale or bequest of these.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2010-09-13 |title=Appeals Court Destroys First Sale; You Don't Own Your Software Anymore |url=https://www.techdirt.com/2010/09/13/appeals-court-destroys-first-sale-you-dont-own-your-software-anymore/ |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=Techdirt |language=en-US}}</ref> Second, the heir or administrator of an estate must be able to access the content. This sometimes means navigating any online contracts or service
== Obstacles to digital inheritance ==
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=== Digital estate plans ===
One method of ensuring that a digital inheritance is handled legally and comprehensively is to create a digital estate plan. This can be an informal plan or legally incorporated into a will in the form of [[digital will]]. The practical approach to is to keep a regular [[backup]] of digital assets in a secure place and appoint a single person who will postmortem deal with the assets. An up-to-date list of passwords to online accounts would be essential, as well as determining how each online account provider handles data access after a user's death.<ref name=":4" />
===Password managers===
There are several services that securely store passwords, sending them to designated people after a user's death. Some of these send the customer an email from time to time, prompting to confirm that that person is still alive. Failure to respond to multiple emails makes the service provider assume that the person is deceased and they will disclose the passwords as previously requested. A company may require two verifiers who both must confirm the death, as well as providing a death certificate, before any passwords will be disclosed.<ref name="Duffy20122">{{
===Digital inheritance services===
There are services that facilitate passing social accounts and digital cryptocurrencies to the beneficiaries after one's passing. They allow users to connect their social accounts, file storage services, and bitcoin wallets to one "vault". The upside of such an approach is that no additional transfer of assets is necessary since transfer is happening on the connected service provider's side, thus keeping risks to the minimum.<ref>{{
=== Social media===
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[[Twitter]] does not allow access to deceased user profiles. They will, however, deactivate an account for someone who is "authorized to act on the behalf of the estate, or with a verified immediate family member of the deceased" provides the user's death certificate and their own [[Identity document|government-issued ID]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Contacting Twitter about a deceased family member's account |url=https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/contact-twitter-about-a-deceased-family-members-account |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=help.twitter.com |language=en}}</ref>
It is [[Facebook]]'s policy to automatically memorialize a profile if they are made a aware of a user's death. Only verified immediate family members of the deceased may request that the account be fully deleted.<ref name=":3">{{
Both Facebook and Twitter have been prey to hoax celebrity death announcements and memorial pages, as well as being entangled in legal battles for the rights to access a departed loved one's social profiles,<ref>{{
[[Google]]'s tool for navigating user death is the Inactive Account Manager. Using this feature, a user can specify a trusted contact that will receive a notification if the user's account has been inactive for a specified amount of time. The user can also decide which data they would like their trusted contact to receive download access to.<ref>{{
[[Apple Inc.|Apple]] users can add a legacy contact to their Apple ID (this is a new feature included with iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, and macOS 12.1).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-12 |title=How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple ID |url=https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212360 |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=Apple Support |language=en}}</ref> A legacy contact can access all data stored on a user's iCloud account for up to three years, after which the user's account is deleted. Legacy contacts cannot access any licensed media, in-app purchases, or payment and password information.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-27 |title=Data that a Legacy Contact can access |url=https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212362 |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=Apple Support |language=en}}</ref>
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