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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 person’s estate. This must include the digital media itself as well as the rights to have control over that media.<ref name=":1">Ferrante, R. E. (2013). The relationship between digital assets and their transference at death: It's complicated. ''Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, 15''(1)'','' 37-62. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/loyjpubil15&i=47</ref> A person’s digital assets may be digital media that a person owns outright or has the rights to use according to a terms of service agreement. Assets may be stored either online or offline and include online accounts, any form of writing, images and other created static or dynamic content, or any digital content that has economic value. They may include sensitive information, such as banking and medical records, or shared information, such as social media contacts or forums. In contrast with physical assets, digital assets, particularly those stored online, are always vulnerable to change or deletion.<ref name=":
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>Masnick, M. (2010, September 13). ''Appeals court destroys first sale: You don't own your software anymore''. Techdirt''.'' https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100912/12212110968.shtml</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 providers’ terms of service agreements regarding their policies on user privacy and user death.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Moneywise2">Bevan, K. (2014, July 23). ''Leaving a digital legacy''. Moneywise. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402152830/http://www.moneywise.co.uk/cut-your-costs/family-life/leaving-digital-legacy</ref>
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Estate laws and privacy laws do not yet fully address the challenges presented by the ubiquitous nature of modern life in the digital world. Online service providers, such as those for social media sites, email, and cloud storage services, use terms of service agreements to outline their privacy policies. These are then used in arguments against providing family members access to a deceased user's account.<ref name=":2">Borden, M. (2014). Covering your digital assets: Why the stored communications act stands in the way of digital inheritance. ''Ohio State Law Journal, 75''(2)'','' 405-446. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/ohslj75&i=421</ref> One legal argument makes a distinction between the ownership of an online account and the content that is created on that account: content created by a user, regardless of the platform it is created or displayed on, constitutes that user's intellectual property and should thus be considered inheritable as a digital asset.<ref>Brillo, D. P., & Escalona, N. C. (2015). Succession in the internet age: Dissecting the ambiguities of digital inheritance. ''Philippine Law Journal, 89''(4), 835-864. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/philplj89&i=871</ref>
In the United States, online service providers craft their terms of service agreements to remain compliant with the [[Stored Communications Act]] (SCA). Originally passed in 1986, the SCA sought to protect communication privacy by prohibiting service providers from disclosing a customer's electronically stored content to a third party. This includes potential beneficiaries of a digital estate.<ref name=":
===Contracts===
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== Proposed solutions ==
Many solutions to the obstacles faced by digital inheritance have been proposed. One possible solution in the United States calls for a revision to the SCA allowing an exemption for digital estate beneficiaries. This would create less liability for online service providers and allow them to grant a beneficiary access to a deceased user's account as an authorized third party.<ref name=":
=== Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act ===
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== Benefits of digital inheritance ==
A successfully implemented digital inheritance process has both personal and societal benefits which highlight the concept's importance. In the personal realm, family members' ability to access or receive copies of their deceased loved one's online content, such as social media profiles, blogs, and emails, has real sentimental value and can aid in the grieving process just as much as a person's physical objects. Additionally, any digital content that produced economic value for the original user may continue to do so if passed on to the user's heir(s).<ref name=":
Digital inheritance also has beneficial implications for the preservation of society's digital heritage. The passing on of digital estates necessitates that the content of digital assets be preserved either as copies or in its original functioning environment for an heir to receive. Digital inheritance therefore encourages proper [[digital preservation]] practices rather than allowing the content of deceased users to be abandoned and/or eventually deleted. Future generations will then be able to have a better understanding of this society's digital landscape.<ref name=":
==Practicalities==
=== 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. 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=":
===Password managers===
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