What happens to your digital photos, documents, and other virtual belongings after you die or become incapacitated? This week, Google began letting people plan what is to be done with their “digital life.” An “Inactive Account Manager” can be used to direct Google to pass on data from online venues (such as Google Drive, Gmail, YouTube, and Google+) to particular people or be deleted after a certain time period. For example, Google is now letting people specify how long to wait before taking action to allow choice as to whether you want your data to be shared with a friend or family member, or just deleted entirely. The feature was reportedly added as people increasingly trust their communications, photos, data, and, memories to online social networks and data storage facilities in the Internet cloud. While the law is vague as to digital rights to online accounts after death leading to complications for survivors who want access to the online services of the deceased, this change could make it easier (at least as to Google).

Source: http://www.france24.com/en/20130411-google-adds-digital-estate-planning-its-services

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