Digital legacy: what happens to your accounts, photos and passwords when you are gone

Imagine a family, after losing a loved one, unable to unlock their smartphone, get to shared photos or cancel a subscription that keeps quietly draining the account month after month. This is not a rare situation, it is entirely common. Most of us now have part of our life stored online, yet almost no one has prepared what will happen to it when they are gone. Let us fix that, it is simpler than it seems.

What digital legacy actually covers

It is not just one account. It includes surprisingly many things:

• Email - often the master key used to recover access to everything else.
• Photos and videos in the cloud (Google Photos, iCloud) - the most sensitive and irreplaceable part.
• Social networks - Facebook, Instagram, their content and memories.
• Subscriptions and payments - streaming and apps that keep charging.
• Cryptocurrencies - without the access key they are lost for good.
• A company domain and website - tied to an account and a regular payment.
• Passwords - and therefore access to all of the above.

Why you should handle it in advance

Service providers do not hand out account access just like that, and for good reason. It protects your privacy, but it also means that without a password, unlocking someone’s account is almost impossible. The family then struggles needlessly at a hard time, photos can be lost for good and subscriptions simply keep running.

The good news is that the big providers already have tools ready for this situation. You only need to set them up once.

Google: Inactive Account Manager

Google has the Inactive Account Manager. In it you set:

• after how long of inactivity (for example 3, 6, 12 or 18 months) the account is considered inactive,
• whom the system should notify and what to share with them (for example Gmail, Photos, Drive),
• optionally whether the account should be deleted automatically afterwards.

You will find it in your Google account settings under Data and privacy. It takes a few minutes and the most important part is done.

Apple: Legacy Contact

Apple devices have the Legacy Contact. You add a trusted person who, after your death, gains access to your iCloud data including photos using a death certificate and a generated access key. You set it in your Apple ID settings under Legacy Contact, and it is wise to hand over or safely store the key right away.

Facebook and Instagram: memorialised account

Facebook lets you set a legacy contact who, after your death, can look after the profile turned into a memorial, or have the account removed. Without this setting the profile is harder and slower to resolve.

A password manager is the core of the whole plan

If you do only one thing properly, make it this. A password manager keeps all your access in one secure place, and good apps have an emergency access feature: you designate a trusted person who, after a set waiting period, gains access to your vault. It is far safer and more reliable than a list of passwords on paper in a drawer, which quickly goes out of date and can get lost.

Do not forget the domain, website and company

For companies, digital legacy matters even more. A domain and hosting are tied to an account and a regular payment. If no one else has access, after a missed payment the domain expires and the website and company email stop working overnight. The same goes for an e-shop, an invoicing system or company clouds. Keep the access documented and available to at least one other responsible person.

A practical minimum plan

You do not have to do it all at once. These five steps are enough:

1. Set up a password manager and configure emergency access for a close person.
2. Set up Google Inactive Account Manager.
3. Set up Apple Legacy Contact (if you use an iPhone or Mac).
4. Write a short list of important accounts and where the family should look for access.
5. Back up your photos following the 3-2-1 rule so they do not hang on a single account.

If something happens and an account is hacked while you are still around, our guide on what to do when your account is hacked will help too.

Digital legacy is not about fear, it is about consideration. A few minutes today will save your loved ones a lot of trouble later. If you are unsure how to set it up, get in touch and we will go through it together.

This article is part of our Cybersecurity overview.