Planning for Your Digital Legacy

These days, much of our lives are conducted online. So what happens to our photo archives, videos, Facebook pages, domain names, blogs, websites, Tweets, music libraries and the rest of it after we die? Policies vary from company to company regarding what is done with your account and who, if anyone, is allowed to access it. To make sure your accounts are not ultimately lost, deleted or accessed if you don’t want them to be, you need to plan ahead.

Start by making a list of your online accounts and your wishes regarding each one. Then decide who you want to be the administrator of each (or all) of the accounts when the time comes. Eventually, you’ll need to add usernames and passwords to your list, and choose how and where to store it until it’s needed. Learn more about passing on your digital assets in the book Your Digital Afterlife by Evan Carroll and John Romano.