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Your Data and Cyber Business After You're Gone
Reader Mountain Splash writes "The New York Times has a decent thought-inspiring article questioning what happens to our stored data and who owns the rights to it after we die. I have to admit that, while this dilemma had already crossed my mind many months ago, I've been rather slow to do something about handling it. While considering the same, though, what I did do was start a very detailed list of my many various emailboxes, IM monikers, cyber buddies, and yes, passwords (complete with encrypted hints to be stored separately). I have also already approached my roomie and my sister about following up with that list for me as a last wish if and when the inevitable should occur. Just wondering if everyone else has done the same or similar... Anyone gone so far as to have already filed their information along with their will with their family lawyer?"
I don't really care enough about what happens to my e-mail after I die to bother with all that crap. I don't really think anybody really is going to need my encrypted data after I died, or they would have had a key while I was alive.
Yeah, I think so. 599 comments on the subject. Let's just all refer to that, shall we?
I have also already approached my roomie and my sister about following up with that list for me as a last wish Rather gloomy but it did get me thinking about all the friends I only communicate with via email. If I look the wrong way crossing the road I'll just vanish from their sight.
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We spoke for about a half an hour. I don't recall a thing we said. - Colorblind James Experience
Not really related to stored data and passwords, but a friend of mine has a deal with his sister, that if he unexpectedly dies, she will clean all porn out of his apartment and get rid of it so the rest of the family will never know.
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
For business related death I have prepared extensive documentation on servers, passwords, accounts, banking relationships, etc. and have filed that in my bank lock-box. I have informed my attorney whom I wish to have handle those affairs in my absence (a trusted friend/partner). The attorney has that on record in my will. The asset disposal itself is a normal course of handling the estate, but telling Amazon, PayPal, Authorize.net, and others who have my finanicals to shut off my account is no small effort. Finding the trusted friend is not trivial either.
is stored on a 40GB CF card, which stays around my neck, when I am creamated - it goes with me. All of the backups are on offbrand DVD-R's so they will be unreadable after 6 months anyway
While terminally ill, Mr. Cochran, a programmer, left a full list of passwords for his work files with his employer, Mr. Purnell said. But he failed to do the same thing with the personal files, so they are now inaccessible.
Maybe he didn't want anyone reading his personal files? That seems like the most obvious explanation to me.
I think that as a culture, we need to learn how to let go of things. In the past, information was more ephemeral; books would decay or be lost over time. Just because we have the capacity virtually eternal data storage doesn't mean we should.
In a way, I think holding on to every minute detail of someone's life devalues the things of importance they left behind. Do you think they really want to be remembered by their tax returns? Would they have wanted their grandchildren to inherit their file of meeting notes? If someone wants to leave important digital information to posterity, they should put that intent in their will, and (*gasp*) maybe even make a hard copy of it.
Obviously if someone dies suddenly, that may not be an option. But my point is that we, the survivors, need to relearn how to distinguish between valuable data and stuff better left forgotten.
(complete with encrypted hints to be stored separately)
"Wait, i'll read it out loud!"
"TO UNCOVER ALL MY PASSWORDS LOVE,
LOOK UP INTO THE STARS ABOVE!
THE CHEERING CROWDS GAZE WITH FUN
FROM LOCATION THIRTY ONE!"
"Stars above? What does it mean!"
"I've got it! To the Planetarium! The next clue must be under seat thirty one!"
"Man, i'm so glad Bill died. I'm having the time of my life!"
Last year I gave my supervisor a sealed, labeled envelope containing the various usernames and passwords I use, and the various ways that I change them from time to time, just in case something happens to me.
When I first gave it to her, she immediately ripped it open, not fully comprehending what it was. I had to snatch it out of her hands, exclaiming, "I'm not dead yet!" I sealed it into another envelope and she put it in her drawer, where it has remained untouched to this day (I assume).
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
The reality is...
Nobody cares about your data. They just want your money, which is easy enough to find.
After reading through GiBs of your old mail, they will see that you have a secret swiss bank account with some cash????
Yeah sure...
Don't overestimate your importance in this world.
--
ee
Antiquated competence won't be a job skill forever.
Ever visited a website for a movie that had been released 3 or 4 years ago? The sites just sit there on a server somwhere, ignored largely.
I had a friend commit suicide rather suddenly a few years ago. His site is still up at AOL. I can still read messages he posted and see pictures of him here and there on the net. He left quite a digital legacy.
It's truely intersting, the things we leave behind and we don't realize it.
Think about it this way:
The computer is a container. It holds the information that is put into it; nothing more, nothing less. If I indicate that my bookshelves are going to my younger brother after my death, does that mean the books are too? If I bequeath him my dresser, does he get the clothes as well? I doubt it.
Information property is tricky business. It takes up little (no) physical space, so it's easy to forget. Instead of simply erasing disks or automatically passing along whatever they contain, computers need to be emptied just like the rooms of a house would be. Then everything needs to be sorted through--it doesn't all automatically go to whoever gets the house.
Everybody needs a porn buddy. Upon hearing about your death, said buddy goes to your house, ignores your wife, and proceeds to rip the harddrive out of your computer and leave.
Tools not necessary..
I have some good friends online that I value just as much as my real life friends. If I were to up and die today, I would never see them again (of course), and they would probably never know what became of me.
(Lawyer reading will:)
"And to Galadrian, my fine elvish friend, I leave you my crown of deception and my axe of slaughter. Don't weep at my passing. Try to rememeber the good times, like when we defeated the orcs during that GM event."
We have what's called the "Hit by a bus" file where I work. It's supposed to be a set of sealed envelopes to be opened in the event of an emergency.
Sadly, we had a server die while the Network Admin was on vacation, and we discovered his was blank. Seems he wants to take all our configuration, login and server data to his grave.
And it STILL hasn't been updated
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
according to yesterdays news. ;-)
I think I'd rather put plans into place to hide my death. Then I want my lawyer to keep track of how long it takes any of my "friends" to actually notice I'm gone. At a later date, he will get them all together (if they will even come) and berate them all with the information. My will shall award him a bonus for each person brought to tears. Then he is to kick them all out empty handed while laughing at them maniacally . He will then award everything to some reasonably intelligent (yet to be defined) low-income person who deserves (also yet to be defined) a break. He can then assume my online identity where it may benefit him as he so chooses.
More likely, it will all go to the government because I'll put off creating a will until I'm already dead.
"A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."
Saturday Night Live had a skit commercial on that years ago, featuring Will Farrell I believe. It was an insurance service that, upon your death, would swoop into your home and remove any and all "embarrassing" artifacts before your relatives arrived.
They showed the crew hauling out bongs, rather large marital aids, probably an inflatable goat or two from Farrell's apartment. Then a full cleanup to show that, even in death, you were a "good clean boy".
Actually this sounds like a rather lucrative business potential....
...is belonging to you.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Posted them on Kazaa, DC++, Emule, Limewire, Edonkey, Shareaze, Xolox, WinMX. Along with a picture of myself. WE WILL LIVE FOREVER!!!!!
I made a password list for a customer, that, over time, has grown to 3,849 words. (There is a lot of explanation about how accounts are configured.)
I encrypted that list with an unguessable password that includes punctuation and numbers, using the excellent GnuPG.
I sent the encrypted file by email to every responsible person who works for the customer, including the CEO. I demanded that everyone learn the master password, because otherwise, if something happened to me, they would have problems with their accounts and web site. I also copied the file to their hard drives.
Although I have made several demands in strong language, no one, NO ONE, has bothered to get the master password from me, even though I have suggested it in person to several people several times. So, they have the file, but have no access to it.
The fact is, the new world of computing (okay, not new to me or you) requires a huge cultural change, and the average person has mostly not gone very far in making that change.
Chickens. Hordes of disease-ridden road-crossing chickens are on the other side. Just waiting.
No thank you. Life is safer on this side of the road.
I thought about this years ago. I don't really have any important information to impart to my loved ones, but I'm sure it would be helpful for them if they were to know passwords to the home router/firewall, webspace, etc.
Directions to this information are in my safety deposit box at the bank, along with our wills, etc.
Some may laugh, but consider: Why leave hassles with your family (especially technically ignorant ones, like mine)? If they have easy access to these things then they can change or cancel services, modify settings, etc.
Proverbs 21:19
For the easiest method of transferring ownership of anything digital or otherwise I use a "Living Trust". A safe is used to store my documents in typed or witten format (a good locksmith can crack it when needed) and a trusted friend to manage the trust. This way I can die in peace knowing that my loved ones will not be ripped off by the greedy probate process.
Also, it is most offensive to have to send death certificates to total strangers, in order to document that the person you say is dead, really is dead, thereby enabling the company to cancel your whatever-it-is. Believe me, I went through this with dialups and credit card companies. It took months to finally get every branch of every company involved to accept that they were not getting any more money. I have never seen a dead person rack up so many late charges on a credit card. After the company was notified of the death. Go figure!
It is so much better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. Somebody has to clean up the wreckage after you die, and it is much easier to gove that person the tools they need to do the job.
If you are a slashdot editor, just leave behind a script that creates random duplicates of old postings. Nobody will notice that you died. :-)