Your Digital Death

Planning for your digital death

Dying doesn’t just mean leaving behind hoards of clothes, books and kitchen utensils, it also means leaving behind your online presence. Ever thought about what would happen to your Facebook account, or your prized Netflix subscription after you die? Start here.

Digital Legacy

Your digital legacy is what you leave behind digitally after you die. This ranges from what happens to your social media accounts and your data privacy, to managing access to your online utility bills and subscriptions.

Future Death

What will death and dying be like in the future? From living on digitally after you die to the breakthroughs that are transforming healthcare, this section is for you to get to grips with the future of death.


Digital Legacy


What are your data privacy rights after you die?

data-privacy-rghts-after-you-dieDo dead people have privacy rights? While you might be able to opt out of emails while you’re alive, a corpse can’t tell Google to delete the trail of GPS data which, in theory, could allow a third party to know intimate details them. Here we look at the strange world of data privacy after you die.

Click here to read more about dead people’s data privacy rights


Your digital death legacy

your-digital-recordWe’ve all got heaps of online stuff, and it all gets left gathering digital dust after you die. Here’s a look at the steps you can take to reclaim some of what you’ve done online, and whether you can pass any of that digital legacy on. 

If you would like to read about your digital legacy then take a look here 


What law is in place for your digital property after you die?

digital-propertyMost of our digital assets, what we might call property, don’t actually belong to us and can’t be passed on after you die. The law hasn’t caught up with our 21st century lifestyles, given that a lot of what we buy and stream online we think of as our own.

Read more about your digital property after you die here


What happens to your cryptocurrency after you die? 

 

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that uses cryptography for security. This makes whatever digital currency you’ve earned nearly impossible to pass on. While no one knows how long bitcoin will last (some sceptics wouldn’t put it past 5 years), if it remains intact then it’s likely to outlast you. Here’s a look at what happens to your cryptocurrency once you die.

Click here to read more about what happens to cryptocurrency after you die 


Will you have digital liabilities after you die? 

digital-liabilities

Digital liabilities are the payments you make online that carry on after you die. If you enjoyed a Netflix subscription, an Amazon Prime account you kept forgetting to delete after that free sign-up, then you might still pay for them after you die. 

Click here to read more about digital liabilities after you die 


What happens to your online accounts after you die?

caspar-rubin-680342-unsplashWe take a look at how you can start planning for what will happen to you social media accounts after you die. From turning your Facebook account into a Memorial to making sure your Dropbox account can be synched to different computers after you die, here’s a quick rundown to get you started.

Click here to read more about planning for what will happen to your social media accounts after you die 


What is Google Inactive Account Manager? 

google-inactive-account-managerGoogle won’t automatically delete your account after you die, even if it’s been inactive for years. When you die, your account will most likely hang around. Here’s a guide to using Inactive Account Manager, so you can take control of what happens to your Google account.

Click here to see how Google Inactive Account Manager can help you take control of your account after you die 


What happens to your digital property after you die?

digital-propertyYour digital property means either the hardware you own, such as a laptop or tablet, as well as the files, data, online accounts and blogs you’ve accumulated throughout your life. Here’s a look at what happens to this stuff after you die, and how you can retrieve some of it.

Click here to read more about how you can retrieve some of your digital property


Your online privacy preferences after you die

Online privacy has become a huge issue for dead people as they never really leave the Web, our WhatsApp contacts or Google’s results. Here’s our guide to setting up privacy preferences for your online self after you die.

Click here to read more about your online privacy preferences for after you die


Where does your medical data go after you die?

Where-does-your-medical-data go-after-you-dieYour medical record is a history of your most intimate moments – from that recurring UTI to the antibiotics you were prescribed after a drunken fall, this is the kind of stuff you want to keep locked away. But what happens to that data once you die? We take a look.

Click here to read more about where your medical data goes after you die


Future Death


Dealing with death on social media

Dealing-with-death-on-social-mediaSocial media hasn’t just changed the way we interact, it’s also changed the way we grieve. From Richard III live-tweeting his funeral 500 years after he died, to mourning with your Facebook friends, the digital age is distorting the way we approach death.

Click here to read more about how we grieve on social media


Planning for an AI afterlife

Planning-for-an-AI-afterlifeSo, you want to live forever using new technology. Welcome to your AI afterlife. From 3D data capture and neural networks to fully augmented reality, here’s a look at how your digital immortality might just be a matter of building a supercomputer large enough to store all of your brain cells. 

Click here to read more about planning for a digital afterlife


Do you talk to dead people online?

Do-you-talk-to-dead-people-online?The data of the dead sticks around alongside those of us still living, and you could say we encounter ghosts all the time. Here we take a look at whether speaking to the dead is coming back in fashion through social media and the online world.

Click here to read more about interacting with the dead online


How will technology change healthcare?

How-will-technology-change-healthcareAI doctors? Nanotechnology? This is the future of healthcare. With the NHS investing in ways to streamline its services, we take a look at how the future of healthcare is being created using artificial intelligence, virtual reality and genome sequencing. Will death become more manageable with the help of technology? 

Click here to read more about the ways technology will shape the future of healthcare


How will 3D printing body parts change the way we die?

From 3D printed bones to bio-printed muscle tissue, here’s a quick look at the quest to print major human organs. Rather than being a zany experiment, bio-printed body parts might just help us live longer and prevent early death. Here’s how.

Click here to read about 3D printed body parts 


How does VR help dying people?

drew-graham-332560-unsplashHospices recently used Virtual Reality tech to allow dying patients to run with wild horses in Iceland, go skydiving and tour the Atlantic sea, all from the comfort of their beds. We take a look at how Virtual Reality and other emerging tech helps those who are nearing the end of life.

Click here to read more about virtual reality and end of life


Apps to help you out in older age

apps-to-help-you-out-in-older-ageGoing to the doctor and being prescribed a trip to the App Store might seem surprising. But here’s our list of the best apps that can help you out in older age. The best thing is, they’re all free and you don’t need to sit in a waiting room for 2 hours to access them.

Click here to read more about the free apps for those getting on a bit


How will nanotechnology impact ageing and death? 

nanotechnologyIn the realm of nanoscience, scientists deal with extremely small things (yeah, that’s the technical term) across many fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics and engineering. Nanotechnology has the potential to change the way we age, die and even live forever. 

Click here to read more about how nanotechnology will change ageing and death