A study has raised an interesting question: what should happen to our digital legacy: the data we leave behind after we die?
The question was prompted by the calculation that, before the end of the century, Facebook will have more dead users than living ones …
The Guardian reports on the study.
That raises questions about whether our digital legacy should be retained, and if so, for how long?
Facebook currently allows the account of a deceased person to be memorialized. Here’s how the social network describes this:
“Facebook should invite historians, archivists, archaeologists and ethicists to participate in the process of curating the vast volume of accumulated data that we leave behind,” Watson said. “This is not just about finding solutions that will be sustainable for the next couple of years, but possibly for many decades ahead.”
Additionally, you have the option of naming a ‘legacy contact’ for your account, such as a partner. They will then have the ability to exercise some control over the account.
The word Remembering will be shown next to the person’s name on their profile.
Depending on the privacy settings of the account, friends can share memories on the memorialized timeline.
Content the person shared (example: photos, posts) stays on Facebook and is visible on Facebook to the audience it was shared with.
Memorialized profiles don’t appear in public spaces such as in suggestions for People You May Know, ads or birthday reminders.
But should such accounts remain online forever – for hundreds of years, if Facebook survives that long in some form or other? Or should there be some kind of automatic removal of the data at some stage?
And it’s not just Facebook, of course – there’s Twitter, Instagram, blog posts, you name it. Apple has already been involved in controversy over its own policies, which state that any rights to your content terminate as of your death (search for No Right of Survivorship). The only option offered is for all data to be deleted on presentation of someone’s death certificate.
Have you taken any action to control your digital legacy, like naming a legacy contact on Facebook or arranging for your passwords to be passed onto a loved one after your death? And what do you think should be the default option for those who haven’t made any arrangements? Please take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.
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