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What Happens To Your Data When You Die?

Posted by simoniker on from the charon-dot-com dept.

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?"

7 of 628 comments (clear)

  1. It will take care of itself... by bobej1977 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Don't overestimate the value of your data. When you pass on, the only person who probably cares about your data will be dead.

    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. Some of it is sentimental stuff like letters and writing. I imagine if someone decides it is worth publishing, it may live on significantly past my life time. Perhaps none of it will, but I'm not too worried about that, I'm happy that my "important data" lives on in the only place that matters, in the memories of my family and friends.

    Basically, usefull and/or popular information has an indefinite life span because people will preserve, expand and share it. Call it the natural selection of information. We don't really need to do anything different to keep that going. Frankly, it's a good thing that useless and unimportant data dies, I'd hate to think that a future historian would be forced to search through petabytes of things like 100 year old Slashdot first-posts in order to find information about our recent war with Iraq.

    --
    The meek shall inherit the earth, in 3 by 6 plots. - Lazerus Long
    1. Re:It will take care of itself... by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, I guess I'm an ubergeek then, because as I've posted before, he's only halfway there. He needs copies of all that stuff offsight as well.

      A safety deposit box can useful for such things, or even just a friend. He keeps yours, you keep his. The meatspace version of posting it to an ftp site and letting everyone mirror it. Hey, maybe he's got some pr0n you haven't seen yet.

      Keeping duplicates of such records in storage is also one of the traditional roles of the family lawyer, if anyone out there is still so quaint as to have one of those. If not maybe you should think about getting one, because he's going to be the guy who takes care of your will.

      Papers, passwords (in a sealed envelope to be opened in the event of your death), etc go to your lawyer. You also designate an executor. That's the family member/friend you wish to see carry out the provisions of your will. The executor gets the envelope of passwords and instructions for what to do with them from the lawyer, and carries them out.

      It's really all fairly standard stuff. The inclusion of computer files doesn't alter things at all really. People have been dying for years.

      KFG

    2. Re:It will take care of itself... by kzinti · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't overestimate the value of your data. When you pass on, the only person who probably cares about your data will be dead.

      Wrongo. Example:

      When I was eight years old, my mother died. Many years later, I began to wonder what kind of a person my mother was. Oh, I have memories of her, but they are the memories of a child. I know little about what made her a full-dimensional person. What her politics were, for example. Or what kind of music she liked, etc.

      My mother was a prolific letter-writer. She was from a fairly poor family, and considered a long-distance phone call a luxury to be reserved for birthdays and holidays. Consequently, she wrote many letters to her mother, even up until her last days. Unfortunately, few of her letters survived her. My sisters and I eventually found ten or twenty of them, but I would give anything if her mother and my father had kept more of the letters.

      Yes, nobody will probably care about your extensive pr0n collection, or that flamefest you got sucked into on comp.windows.lusers, but much of the data that you consider to unimportant now might become priceless after you're gone... at least to the people who care about you.

      So save your e-mail (not the SPAM). Keep backups of your weblogs. Hell, make hardcopies and save them in a notebook. These things say more about you than you might realize, and somebody might someday be glad you kept them.

  2. Find a porn erase buddy! Seriously....... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't speak for Douglas Adams but Chuck Jones' entire enterprise is handled by his lovely daughter Linda who literally busts her butt to run everything. That's hardly a "staff". Chuck would have been content to never have drawn another cel or market anything but thank heavens Linda suggested it.

    Timothy Leary is another good example of dedicated fans who keep the site running after he died and an even better example is Peter McWilliams who put the entire text of all of his books online before he passed on. I recommend Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do. The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Country.

    Frankly as far as data and death are concerned most of you /.ers reading this should be concerned with one thing: finding a porn erase buddy and give them a housekey and all of your passwords. The idea is that if you die unexpectedly your porn erase buddy will go into your machine, clear your machine of all the pornographic files. In addition you can also have him/her to clear out your conventional meatspace porn so your Momma will still highly of you even after you're gone.

  3. Wills are great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is exactly why you make a will. Passwords...how ever you store them...should be left to the people you wish to have said information. It's that simple

  4. Re:Rest In Peace by BK425 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "our digital files will be treated the same way as your paper files after you die"

    No, they won't be. I have a cousin who's been doing estate law for ~40 years and I've helped him on some extremely difficult cases where clients did not leave their passwords. You're personal affects and papers are accessible, unless you take positive steps you're digital affects probably won't be.
    A lot of folks may not want next of kin going through their hard drives, but there probably is stuff on there that an heir or executor will -need-. Give secure storage of these things and continuity of access real thought please.

  5. Put them in your will by Telastyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why aren't your passwords in your legally protected last will and testament? A trusted 3rd party can then divulge the passwords on your passing, along with all your other 'property'.