Digital Legacy

With 91% of UK adults regularly using the internet, social media profiles, online accounts and personal files are a real part of everyone's legacy - their digital legacy. The question of what happens to this digital legacy after we sadly pass away is very much a modern topic in need of consideration. What should be done? Who is responsible? What about data protection? So much needs to be taken into account.

We hope the following article will help if you are struggling with this difficult area of your grieving journey.

Digital wishes instruct your loved ones what to do with your digital assets after you have passed away. Documenting these wishes is important so that your loved ones have a clear idea what to do, and importantly, it also gives them access to these to facilitate your wishes. There are many questions. Would you like your social media profiles to be kept online? And for how long? Or deleted? How quickly? And what about other people who may be in your photos? If your loved ones are unsure of your preferences it could have a real impact on them both practically and emotionally.

In 2019, YouGov conducted a study that found only 7% of people want their social profiles to stay online forever, while 25% wanted them deleted in their entirety and 26% wanted them downloaded, taken offline and shared with family and friends.

It is important that your digital wishes are added to your Will so that they are legally binding. The first step is to name a digital executor. This can be the same person as your executor or someone else. Just passing your login details to a friend isn’t recognized in law, so they won’t have the authority to act on your behalf.

It’s crucial to appoint someone who is digitally capable, organized and reliable. If the person you’d like to choose is happy to be appointed, it’s important that you put a list of your online accounts together. These include:

• Social Media Profiles
• Email accounts
• Online banking & investments
• Online marketplaces like eBay & Amazon
• Loyalty cards
• Subscriptions (Netflix, Amazon Prime)
• Music
• Personal blogs or websites
• File Storage (Dropbox)

You don’t have to provide your passwords for these, as some of them will timeout and it also could compromise your online security if you were hacked. The list only needs to incorporate:

• Name of the account
• Username/ID/Account Name
• Email address associated with the account
• The digital assets within the account
• Your preferences for each

Preferences for social media accounts differ depending on the platform. For example with Facebook, the options are:

• Permanently delete your account
• Memorialise your account – your profile will remain visible to your friends and family but can’t be accessed.  
• Nominate a legacy contact – who’ll be able to manage your account and download photos, videos and posts to pass onto loved ones.

Other important considerations relate to online subscriptions. A subscription to a music streaming platform or e-books isn’t quite as simple as owning a physical music or book collection that can be passed on to your loved ones. The difference with the online platform is the fact that you don’t own the asset, and as a result, they aren’t yours to pass on.

There are a lot of factors to consider and we have just addressed the practical aspects here. We very much want to raise the awareness to consider this modern topic which will remove a lot of practical and emotional pressure on your loved one’s at an incredibly difficult time. Please contact us for advice, or keep an eye out for our next post coming soon: The Emotional Impact of a Digital Legacy.