• Hadsten and Auning

Digital Legacy: Your Digital Life After Death

Danes use computers and the internet like never before. The web is full of your private data and photos, even after you die. As a user of e.g. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIN, Dropbox, ICloud, you leave a digital legacy, as you live on the web after your death.
Many people do not want to live on the internet after their death, others want their memory to live on in “internet space.” Regardless of how you approach the question, we recommend that you take an active stance on your digital legacy.

Your digital legacy is everything you leave behind digitally, e.g. emails, Facebook profile, Instagram profile and documents and pictures stored in e.g. Dropbox and iCloud etc. Even though we are writing in 2018, there is still no legislation in Denmark regarding digital legacy. It can therefore be difficult and create a wide range of problems for your survivors if you have not taken a position on your digital legacy, and you risk that all pictures and documents will be lost because your relatives do not have the opportunity to access it.

What considerations should you make?

Decide what you want to happen to your information and data online when you die.
You should decide for yourself which media your relatives should have access to and which ones are too private and should therefore be closed upon death. It may be that some of your photos and documents in Dropbox should be placed in folders that are accessible to your relatives upon death, while other folders contain more personal and private information that you do not want your loved ones to have access to.
We also recommend that you actively consider whether, and if so, which of your social media accounts should be closed upon death, which profiles should be preserved, and who, if so, should administer these profiles.

So how do you secure your digital legacy?

  • Create an overview of information about you online.
  • Make a list of your profiles and accounts, including usernames and passwords that your relatives will need if they want to access your digital heritage.
  • If necessary, store pictures, videos and documents on an external hard drive without a password.
  • On Google and e-Boks, you can add contacts who can access your account in the event of death.
  • On Facebook, you can add contacts who can access your data in the event of death and you can choose whether your profile should be closed when you die or whether you want it to be turned into a memorial.

 

The advantage of deciding on your digital legacy is that you have a say in what your relatives have access to and which digital memories will live on after you have passed away.

We therefore recommend that just as you decide on your financial inheritance in your will, you also decide on your digital inheritance. Both for your sake and that of your relatives.

If you would like advice about your digital legacy or your legacy in general, you are always welcome to call our office.

Read more about inheritance law and wills.

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