Digital directives: Managing our life after death

Most of us don’t consider the impact our day-to-day data management decisions have on the world and the people around us after we die. I’ll discuss the ethical, ecological and economic aspects of our actions. I will share an idea of a protocol—a digital directive—that  could serve as the backbone for data management after death in line with a person's wishes. How can we put our digital remains to rest with the dignity they deserve?

In 1997, Young, Parkes and Laugani wrote “Despite all the advances of modern science one hundred per cent of all people still die." We've advanced since then and although science is still trying, digital has beaten biology in keeping people virtually immortal.

An average person has approximately ninety online accounts. Unless we invest a significant amount of effort into deleting them, our digital selves live, generate emissions and profit forever. As our data is uploaded and replicated across the Cloud its volume grows exponentially, while our ability to erase it approaches zero.

It is our right to control our data. We must be able to make a conscious choice about what happens to it—both while we are alive and when we are gone. Our digital tools must be able to respect and support our preferences. In death, our families need adequate mechanisms to enable our wishes.