Death in the digital age: a growing dilemma

When someone dies, they leave behind not just physical possessions but an average of 90 online accounts spanning email services, social media platforms, subscription services, digital financial assets, and cloud storage containing irreplaceable photos and documents. Most users never make arrangements for these accounts, creating complications for families who may need access to important information or who wish to preserve digital memories. The problem has grown exponentially as digital services have become more central to our lives, with an estimated 30 million Facebook accounts belonging to deceased users as of 2022, a number that grows by approximately 8,000 accounts daily.

The digital death space sits in a challenging regulatory environment. Laws governing digital assets after death vary dramatically by country and even by state within the United States. The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) has been adopted by most US states, giving executors limited rights to manage digital assets, but the legislation remains inconsistent globally. Meanwhile, each platform maintains its own policies, creating a fragmented landscape that grieving families must navigate during an already difficult time.

How major platforms handle digital death

Facebook offers perhaps the most developed approach to digital afterlife management with its “memorialization” option. When an account is memorialized, the word “Remembering” appears next to the person’s name, and the account becomes a space where friends and family can share memories. Users can proactively designate a “legacy contact”—someone who can manage limited aspects of their memorialized profile, including pinning posts, responding to friend requests, and updating profile pictures. Alternatively, users can choose to have their accounts permanently deleted upon notification of their death.

Google’s Inactive Account Manager takes a different approach by focusing on account inactivity rather than explicitly addressing death. Users can determine what happens if their account becomes inactive for a specified period (3-18 months). Options include notifying and sharing data with trusted contacts or having the account deleted. This time-based system provides flexibility but requires proactive setup by users.

Apple’s Digital Legacy program, introduced in 2021, allows users to designate up to five “Legacy Contacts” who can access their Apple ID account information after death. These designated individuals receive an access key that, when combined with a death certificate, grants them access to photos, documents, and other stored data—though certain sensitive information like payment methods and password keychain remain inaccessible.

The emotional weight of digital remains

Digital afterlife management extends beyond practical concerns into emotional territory. For many grieving families, a deceased loved one’s social media account or email archive represents one of the few remaining connections to that person. Messages can be revisited, photos rediscovered, and memories preserved in ways impossible before the digital age. However, this persistence of digital presence can also complicate the grieving process.

Psychologists have identified both benefits and drawbacks to this digital persistence. Some people find comfort in having continued access to a loved one’s digital footprint, which can serve as a lasting memorial. Others report that algorithmic features like birthday reminders or “memories” posts about deceased individuals can trigger unexpected grief. These experiences have prompted some platforms to develop more nuanced approaches to deceased users’ accounts, though many still lack robust features for handling digital death.

The emerging market for digital afterlife services

Where tech giants have left gaps in digital afterlife planning, startups have emerged to fill the void. Services like Cake, GoodTrust, and Everplans help users create comprehensive digital estate plans that go beyond what individual platforms offer. These services typically provide centralized dashboards for cataloging digital assets, storing access information, and documenting wishes for each account.

Some services take more creative approaches to digital immortality. Companies like Eternime and HereAfter AI use artificial intelligence to create interactive avatars based on a person’s digital footprint, allowing future generations to “converse” with deceased loved ones. Though still developing, these technologies raise profound questions about identity preservation and the nature of remembrance in the digital age.

Pricing for these services varies widely, from free basic account cataloging tools to subscription services costing $70-120 annually for more comprehensive digital estate planning platforms. Premium services offering AI memory preservation or advanced legal support can cost significantly more, creating a tiered marketplace catering to different needs and comfort levels with digital afterlife planning.

Planning your own digital legacy

Despite growing awareness of digital afterlife issues, surveys indicate that less than 30% of internet users have made any arrangements for their online accounts after death. The complexity of managing dozens of accounts with different policies discourages many from tackling the task, while others simply haven’t considered the issue.

Digital estate planning experts recommend starting with an inventory of all online accounts, documenting access information securely, and making explicit choices about what should happen to each account. Password managers can simplify this process by providing a single access point for authorized individuals while maintaining security during life. For particularly valuable or sentimental digital assets like family photos, experts suggest maintaining offline backups or printing physical copies of especially meaningful content.

The legal component remains crucial: including digital assets in wills and estate planning documents, designating digital executors where possible, and documenting wishes in legally recognized formats can prevent complications for survivors. As digital assets grow in both financial and sentimental value, treating them with the same care as physical possessions becomes increasingly important for comprehensive estate planning.

Digital afterlife management represents one of the most personal challenges of the internet era—balancing privacy, preservation, and practicality when planning for the inevitable. As our digital footprints continue to expand, the question of what happens to our data when we’re gone will only grow more significant, pushing platforms and legislators to develop clearer, more comprehensive approaches to digital estate planning.