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What Happens To Your Data When You Die?

dacarr writes "Your data - that is, the personal web pages and projects you have worked on to make the 'net a better place - are presumably password protected. But sooner or later the time will come when you take that last breath, and with you goes your passwords, but not your data. It's still there for your benefactors to deal with. And while many famous people who are no longer with us (e.g., Douglas Adams or Chuck Jones) have a staff for this, well, many of us don't. As such, have you planned for the hereafter, and if so, how?"

21 of 628 comments (clear)

  1. Simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just use my first name and digit 1 for all the accounts I have that require passwords.

    Sooner or later they will discover a vulnerability.

    1. Re:Simple by chimpo13 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I just use "password" for all my passwords.

    2. Re:Simple by dicepackage · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not all of your passwords. I tried to log in to your slashdot account with "password" as the password and couldn't get in.

    3. Re:Simple by trentblase · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's because I got there first and changed it to something reasonable... you know... for his own protection.

    4. Re:Simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey - give me back my account! I can't seem to get in now. Some twit changed my password!

      chimpo13 - annoyed ...

    5. Re:Simple by AvantLegion · · Score: 4, Funny
      That's because I got there first and changed it to "something reasonable"... you know... for his own protection.

      <p>
      Liar. Spaces aren't allowed in passwords.
      <p>
  2. Re:Rest In Peace by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny
    > My advice to anyone reading this would I guess be to keep encrypted anything that you don't want anyone to see after you are gone, and for anything else, don't worry about it.

    "Dad. Mom. I'm only gonna say this once. For the sake of your children, please encrypt your pr0n. We really don't wanna know."

  3. Script by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have a script that if I don't use my computer for longer than 5 hours it assumes I have died and sends / to /dev/null.

  4. Re:It will take care of itself... by MikeXpop · · Score: 4, Funny
    That said, I have a little fire safe that I keep important stuff in, like car titles, contracts and cd-rom backups of my computer files.
    You are such a geek. I say that as a compliment though. I salute you.
    --
    Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
  5. With apologies to Mr. Cobaine by MikeXpop · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where do bad files go when they die?
    They don't go to heaven where the angels fly.
    They go to a folder of /dev/null/ to wait,
    Won't see em again 'till 2038.

    --
    Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
  6. Re:Find a porn erase buddy! Seriously....... by dillon_rinker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Linda who literally busts her butt to run everything

    Really? In the course of administering her father's estate, she's broken her pelvis or torn her gluteals? Wow. That's dedication.

  7. Re:It will take care of itself... by jumpingfred · · Score: 4, Funny

    Those smug bastards in the future can go screw thems selves what have they done for me?

  8. Re:Rest In Peace by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ahem, just hope my grandfather doesn't read slashdot... Not much danger in that though.

    That's what you think... sonny!

  9. Re:Rest In Peace by cemaco · · Score: 5, Funny

    At least you didn't have to go to the video store with your hearing impaired grandfather and help him buy his porn. Now that was embarrassing. The guy at the counter yelling the titles to the dirty old man while the old ladies where eying him up and down. It got worse when the clerk whispered in my ear that my grandfather had great taste in porn.

    Good thing I wasn't the one who had to go through his personal effects when he passed.

  10. Re:It will take care of itself... by pizzaman100 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Future historians may in some sense have less to work with due to problems preserving digital data.

    Scotty will find a way.

  11. Re:maybe by Txiasaeia · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's why a true geek keeps all his important data on punch cards. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go rearrange my basement, the safe.

    --
    Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
  12. what happens to my data when I die? by nomadic · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is entombed along with me in gold CD-Rs, along with my wife, secondary wives, concubines, treasure, and guards in a vast pyramid of my own design. They shall all accompany me to the afterlife.

  13. Re:My solution by NegativeK · · Score: 5, Funny

    I eat a vial with all my passwords. In my will I state that the Medical Examiner has to remove it from my gut. Every few days I pass it, wash it and swallow it again. :)

    You know.. I just had this really weird vision of a medical examiner removing a glass vial from your windpipe.

    "Cause of death? He choked on his passwords.."

    --
    This statement is false.
  14. Easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bury me with my hard drives.

  15. Re:It will take care of itself... by teamhasnoi · · Score: 4, Funny

    DEY DOOK AR JODS!

  16. A definition by jc42 · · Score: 4, Funny

    literally: (adj) figuratively

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.