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What happens to our online lives after we die?
Over the course of the next few decades, there will be more and more dead people on Facebook. In fact, according to some estimates, as early as 2060 the number of deceased users' accounts will exceed the number of accounts with a living person behind them.
But people's "digital afterlives" extend far beyond Facebook. When a 21st century citizen dies, they often leave behind a trove of posts, private messages, and personal information on everything from Twitter to online bank records. Who owns this data, and whose responsibility is it to protect the privacy of the deceased? Faheem Hussain, a social scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe, has spent the past few years peering into the murky waters of how people, platforms, and governments manage the digital lives we leave behind.
Hussain gave a presentation on our digital legacies today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes Science. We caught up with Hussain to talk about why online platforms should encourage people to plan ahead for their imminent deaths, whether you have a right to privacy after you die, and the strange new culture of digital mourning.
The article proceeds to investigate answers to these questions:
[...]Q: What does a typical 21st century digital legacy look like?
[...]Q: Why should people take this seriously?
[...]Q: Do deceased people still have a right to privacy?
[...]Q: Google has an opt-in setting that allows you to have your data deleted once you pass away. What do you suggest people do to set their digital accounts in order before they die?
[...]Q: How should we interact with the dead on social media?
[Ed. note: We here at SoylentNews have already experienced this with the passing of MichaelDavidCrawford who, with great foresight specified his wishes for his writings and publications. As a tribute to his active participation here, a collection of approximately twenty community-submitted statements of his have been immortalized as 'fortunes' on this site.--martyb]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday February 17 2020, @06:09PM (5 children)
Do dead people have rights? A fascinating question. Ask yourself, do dead people care? If you say yes to either one, you are certifiably nuts.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Dr Spin on Monday February 17 2020, @06:29PM (1 child)
Perhaps more relevant:
Do the Undead have rights? Or do they have wrongs?
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday February 17 2020, @08:06PM
Yes
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @06:40PM (1 child)
I have a friend, let's call her Jane*, a single parent of a young child. The kid's father, let's call him Rodney*, passed away around Christmas. They as parents had separated several years earlier but remained on speaking terms for the sake of the kid, let's call him Craig*. And Rodney had a hands-off no custody of Craig while sorting out major issues that ultimately lead to his death.
6 weeks on and on Facetagram, Jane now tags *every* post with the deceased Rodney. Evidently she still had feelings for him but I gotta say, it sounds obsessive - for someone she might have tagged in a post once every 3 months when Jane and Rodney actually did put aside their differences and do a family outing with Craig. Deceased Rodney has been at the beach, in the park, with the family pets etc. And this for a fellow that walked out on Craig before his second birthday.
'nuts'? I wouldn't go that far but eventually Jane needs to enter a new phase of grieving post-Rodney.
(* not their real names. posting as AC because of the sensitivity to said dead person)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @08:40PM
You've got a friend? What's that like?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @12:57AM
When I die *coughsplutter* delete my porn folder *wheeze*.