You spend hours every day building a digital footprint. You upload photos, manage your money through apps, and store sensitive documents in the cloud. But what happens to that data when you are no longer around to log in?
Most people assume their online presence simply fades away. The reality is much messier. Without a clear plan, your accounts remain active in a state of digital limbo.
How major platforms handle your data
When you agree to a terms-of-service contract, you rarely read the rules about account access after death. Privacy laws often prevent tech companies from simply handing over your passwords to your next of kin. Each platform has its own protocol.
Apple offers a Legacy Contact feature that lets you designate someone to access your iCloud data after you pass away. They will need an access key and your death certificate.
Google uses an Inactive Account Manager. You set a timeline of inactivity, and if you do not sign in within that window, Google automatically alerts your trusted contacts and allows them to download specific data.
Social media platforms take a different approach. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn all allow an authorized representative to either memorialize or permanently delete an account upon providing proof of death. Memorializing freezes the profile, adds a “Remembering” label, and prevents anyone from logging in.
X (formerly Twitter) only allows an authorized representative to permanently deactivate the account.
The financial risk of doing nothing
Your digital legacy may be heavily tied to your money. If you handle your banking online or hold cryptocurrency, losing access to those accounts could be catastrophic for your estate. Cryptocurrency, for example, is secured by complex digital passwords known as private keys. If you die without sharing those keys, the digital funds might be inaccessible forever.
Subscription services are another hidden trap. Streaming platforms, software memberships, and app subscriptions may continue charging your credit cards until the financial institutions are officially notified of your death. Even when alive, we often lose money to subscriptions we should have canceled long ago. Rocket Money automatically finds and cancels unwanted subscriptions.
automatically finds and cancels unwanted subscriptions.Ideally, you should create a digital inventory of your financial accounts, online businesses, and subscriptions. Store this information, along with login credentials, in a secure password manager.
When comparing password managers, look for platforms that offer zero-knowledge encryption and emergency access features. These tools allow you to designate a trusted contact who can request access to your vault. You control the waiting period — such as 48 hours or a week — giving you time to deny the request if you are still alive, while ensuring your family can get in when necessary.
Services that keep you online after death
The technology industry is rapidly expanding into the death care space. Companies like GoodTrust and DGLegacy act as digital vaults, relying on trusted verifiers to release your stored digital assets and account credentials to your loved ones.
Some startups are even using artificial intelligence in memorialization. These “grief tech” services offer to build interactive chatbots or voice avatars trained on a person’s texts and audio recordings. While these tools aim to give families a way to converse with a digital version of their loved one, they remain in the early stages of development and raise complex ethical questions about the grieving process.
Plan now, spare your family later
A comprehensive approach involves weaving your digital assets into your broader estate plan.
Consider using an online will service or consulting an estate attorney to officially name a digital executor. This gives a specific person the legal authority to manage your online affairs alongside traditional tools like trusts or a standard will.
Create a separate document outlining your specific wishes for each account, specifying what should be deleted and what should be preserved. Keep this document stored securely with your traditional estate planning paperwork.
Taking a few minutes today to activate legacy tools and document your passwords ensures your memories are preserved for the right people and your family is spared an unnecessary administrative burden.
