Websites manage your online accounts after you die
There’s no shortage of differences between two-thousand-and-ten and, say, nineteen-hundred-and-ten.
In 1910, the Union of South Africa was created. In 2010, a 'We Are The World' remake starring Justin Bieber was created. In 1910, the first infrared photographs were published. In 2010, the first photos of Greg Oden’s, uh, manhood were published. In 1910, this was Jack Johnson. In 2010, this is Jack Johnson.
Yet this year, in this age, there's one thing more dissimilar (and more complicated) than anything else was one century ago: death.
After all, what to do with that Facebook account, those email addresses and that online banking profile once you perish?
The digital-savvy among us need not fret, though, for services that aim to manage our “digital remains” have come to the rescue.
According to Wired.com, at least three subscription websites now offer posthumous protection and insurance for your passwords, usernames, final messages or whatever in a “virtual safe-deposit box” online.
“After you’re gone, these companies carry out last wishes, alert friends, give account access to various designated beneficiaries, and generally parse out and pass on your online assets,” notes the magazine’s Scott Brown.
The three sites – AssetLock.net, Legacy Locker and DeathSwitch.com – offer this protection for an assortment of rates; for about $10-$30 per year or $60-$300 for a lifetime, depending on your service terms.
DeathSwitch, for example, works like this: after you’ve loaded up your online accounts and information, the site prompts you to enter a secure password on a pre-determined schedule to prove you’re still alive. If you fail to enter the code, DeathSwitch “deduces you are dead or critically disabled,” and any accounts you wish to be shuttered are closed … any messages you wish to be sent are passed on.
The other sites, perhaps more conveniently, only need your beneficiaries to notify the digital insurers you have passed. No repeated password entry needed.
Is this a perfect system? Of course not. But there is something to these sites, you can see it. We may scoff at the need to protect our online assets now, but as social networks become less social and more business-oriented, there’s a discernible value behind caring for our Internet likeness.
Call it a digital will, if you will.
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: iqb | Mar 6, 2022 4:25:22 PM
i really dont think that part in the beginning was needed.
Posted by: sean | Mar 6, 2022 6:58:50 PM
i am dead why shoudl i care about what happens to my online identify
Posted by: Richard Jowett | Mar 6, 2022 7:57:13 PM
Sean, it's a way to make sure that one of your beneficiaries would be given access to all your passwords and online accounts, be they social networking sites which would be a way of alerting all of your Facebook Friends of any funeral arrangements or financial sites such as bank accounts that may not even be mentioned in a will. Or even just a Hotmail account so someone could let all your contacts know that they will not be receiving any more replies!!! Regards...
Posted by: jdenishuggard | Mar 6, 2022 8:44:39 PM
hello frm age 73 former surety attorney/former trust fiduciary-at present i am setting up substancial ethanol plant for ethanol operation-as well-i have caribe hotel dev projects-why should should old pros like me be concerned about internet estate issues-when akll data on my activities is being handled by estate mgmt dept. of as solid bank/trust corp.......................would like some answers/this estate by internet is far too electronic
Posted by: EUGENE | Mar 6, 2022 9:15:03 PM
i am dead to so why the fAk should i care either. stupid faKs !!!!! oh by the way i love it being a ghost.. its so fun to watch people in random houses bang eachother. the best part about it is that they never know !!
Posted by: EugeneSucks | Mar 6, 2022 9:27:00 PM
Shh Eugene
Posted by: Still Alive | Mar 6, 2022 9:41:37 PM
Why not just have a document in you home sealed with this info on it for some one else to take care of if you are concerned. I can see that is you had an online busness runnning you would most likley have this set up like I do now with out paying some one that you do not know and cant be sure you can trust....
Posted by: eugeneisagoof | Mar 7, 2022 12:05:32 AM
Eugene...I am sure there are a few of us that are curious, your a high school dropout arent you?? It is not hard to tell you are not the sharpest tool in the shed...are you?? Hey dude, dont go away mad...just go away!! Leave the threads for people that actually have something worthwhile to say, nobody likes to read what a moron posts.
Posted by: eugeneisagoof | Mar 7, 2022 12:21:28 AM
Offshore services are the best way to protect any and all of ones assets...even after death. In a couple months, there will be a whole new range of asset protection services launching on the net. Not even a divorce court judge can touch it...so sad for that ex-wife! Finally, a guy can have total control over what she gets, when you split up. No more will a complete stranger decide on what your ex-wife desrves to get after she screws you over. No need to ever bring up a prenuptual, its already in place before you even meet her for the first time.
Posted by: DK | Mar 8, 2022 2:34:37 PM
Just wondering how do these online services know when someone dies and when to allert your friend or family? or is it one of those services ranned by a crime family, once you give them all the info and passwords to your online investments and everything else you are as good as dead?
Posted by: Don'tWasteYourMoney | Mar 8, 2022 5:42:23 PM
What a waste of money ..... just leave a letter for your Power or Attorney and/or Executor with the info. in it to allow them access to what you want. Costs you nothing. And, hopefully, you trust your Power or Attorney and Executor!! Go ahead, provide all of this info to an online company and watch what the hackers can do!
Posted by: sounds like a scam!!!! | Mar 8, 2022 8:48:24 PM
scam artists, it sounds like to me.....
Sadusta