I was on a flight to Los Angeles earlier this year taking stock of my life ‘as you do’ and wondered what would happen if the plane crashed. There would be the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth at the funeral but at least all the finances like the house, the life policy and benefits from the company pension scheme etc would be sorted. But then I deliberated about what would happen to my digital possessions - my hotmail account, my website and domain name, my internet shares (see, ever the IT manager!). Even if my next of kin knew about these how would they get access to my digital remains? 

Lawyers and my family could manage my physical existence and possessions but how would they deal with my digital existence?

How would they inform my friends (some known to me from school days) via Facebook or Friends Reunited (yes, I am still on it). And, like everyone else, I have a plethora of passwords and services enabled on my home computer which are registered using my hotmail address. How would my family get access to these? You might think “easy peasy” - write it down in a secure place and let your family know where to find it. However, wearing my data security hat, I normally advise people to change their passwords regularly, so this is not a workable solution.

Internet service providers treat deceased accounts inconsistently. Each one presses one rule or another that is in part designed to protect a person’s privacy while recognising the need for access to what may be important personal information, such as bank account numbers; particularly important at a time of death.

To make sure that personal information remains personal, especially with the threat of identity theft by the living, most email servers and websites will allow your next of kin to access your personal data. But it's likely they'll require proof that they're related to you and that you have in fact died.

To get you thinking, here are a few rules on accessing the email or social networking accounts of deceased family members:

• MSN/Hotmail: Next of kin is provided with a burned CD of all emails and contacts once the relationship has been established. You might wish to take the opportunity to delete any dodgy emails now!

• Gmail: Proof of kinship and executors, and (I kid you not) an email sent from the deceased's account!

• Yahoo: I don’t believe any access is granted. A death certificate is enough to shut down the account and permanently delete its contents.

• Facebook/Twitter: No access is granted. The account will be shutdown but a user's page can be converted to a memorial and sensitive information such as friends and status deleted.

If you know what happens for other service providers why not leave a comment and share it with us?

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