Your Digital Afterlife: When Facebook, Flickr and Twitter Are You Estate, What's Your Legacy?

by Evan Carroll, John Romano

Almost without realizing it, we have shifted toward an all-digital culture. Future heirlooms like family photos, home movies, and personal letters now exist only in digital form, and in many cases they are stored using popular services like Flickr, YouTube, and Gmail. These digital possessions form a rich collection that chronicles our lives and connects us to each other.

But have you considered what will happen to your treasured digital possessions when you die?

Unfortunately the answer isn't as certain as we might presume. There are numerous legal, cultural, and technical issues that could prevent access to these assets, and if you don't take steps to make them available to your heirs, your digital legacy could be lost forever.

Written by the creators of TheDigitalBeyond.com, this book helps you secure your valuable digital assets for your loved ones and perhaps posterity. Whether you're the casual email user or the hyper-connected digital dweller, you'll come away with peace of mind knowing that your digital heirlooms won't be lost in the shuffle.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Business

203 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2010

About the author

Evan Carroll is co-author of Your Digital Afterlife (New Riders, 2010), the first book dedicated to helping everyday people understand and prepare for death in the digital era. He is also the co-author and editor of The Digital Beyond (TheDigitalBeyond.com), an online resource digital death and legacy issues. Evan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Science and is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Information Science at UNC-Chapel Hills School of Information and Library Science. During working hours he is employed as a User Experience Designer in Raleigh, NC."

Reviews

[Dee Renee Chesnut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets 5 stars for encouraging consideration to topics I never thought about before. Just how many more devices do I have with passwords, and how much more do I now store on the internet than when I previously made my will and directed my legacy. I never gave any thought how much online banking has changed what information an executor might need to access the accounts, and how to pass on that information without it becoming part of the public record.
How much has changed about the artifacts that we might hope to become heirlooms? Will my survivors be comforted by archives of emails when there are no longer bundles of saved letters? Who would make such an archive? Who gets the digital pictures?
I never gave a thought that I might need a digital executor named in a legal document as a co-executor who might need access to subscription sites which makes withdrawals for payments. I had given some thought to whom I granted administrator access for a family blog site but never specified who pays the bill to maintain the site when I can't. I still have some questions that I will have to research for the answers. Who can inherit the ebooks I have been collecting? Will they have to read it on my devices that might still be linked to an account I set up?
The website for this book has a link for a spreadsheet for you to start making an inventory. You can order the eBook there too. www.yourdigitalafterlife.com/resources

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading this book, my main concern was what would happen to the genealogy research I had undertaken. I had 'acquired' several websites and wanted to put in place a plan as to what should be done with them after I was gone. It soon became apparent that the digital footprint I needed to consider went far beyond just my family history research.

"Your Digital Afterlife" provides the reader with much information about why you need to think about your digital assets and what will happen to them when you die. This book also covers planning and tools which can be useful.

This book is for everyone who has an online (digital) presence, be it just email or social media. Consider that if you blog, you could find that without the appropriate planning, your work might be lost forever.

[amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fine introduction to personal digital archiving and legacy. I completely believe that most people haven't thought about this before, much less taken steps to do something about it. Good checklists for getting a handle on your digital stuff.

But, this book only gives part of the picture. See for example the implied definition of "archive" (basically, save it to a hard drive and you're done!) and how the authors gloss over storage, privacy, security, and other ethical issues. Ownership is quite well-covered in terms of allowing executors access to material post mortem. But, how many of the digital legacy sites, services, and companies will be around long enough to support stable stewardship of more than just a one- or two-time file transfer? Loss of ownership and data never stop being threats and risks. This feels like a workbook for passing the buck - which, to be fair, is what a lot of digital preservation right now amounts to anyway. Not everyone needs to securely save everything forever, but why mislead people about the actual long-term impacts of the actions they're taking?

[Lobna · Rating 3 out of 5]

the issue of what is going to happen to your digital information, online accounts, and digital devices is interesting, however this book has a problem of over elaboration
first it listed a huge number of reasons why its important for you to think and plan for what will happen to your digital information when you die. this took chapters of the book that it got very boring and I had to skim through most of it
then came the part that guided you on how to actually plan for preserving your digital creations and it again got into the same habit of repeating the same damn thing over and over again
the book tackles and interesting and important issue, and t provides some good answers, however it could have been shortened a lot and made more interesting and helpful if we have cut the elaborated examples and just got to the point

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading this book, my main concern was what would happen to the genealogy research I had undertaken. I had 'acquired' several websites and wanted to put in place a plan as to what should be done with them after I was gone. It soon became apparent that the digital footprint I needed to consider went far beyond just my family history research. I needed to think about Bank accounts, credit card accounts, insurance policies, and much more.

This book is for everyone who has an online (digital) presence, be it just email or social media. Consider that if you blog, you could find that without the appropriate planning, your work might be lost forever.

"Your Digital Afterlife" provides the reader with much information about why you need to think about your digital assets and what will happen to them when you die. This book also covers planning and tools which can be useful.

[Bakari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to the subject of what do we do with the digital assets we develop online. If you’ve never thought about what happens to all Flickr.com photos, Facebook posts, archived email, etc, then you should consider reading this book. However, this book is not just about what we leave behind; it also makes you reflect upon what are you actually doing in the digital world. What legacy are you leaving behind? What are you doing with the digital tools available to you? How could you use them better, and to what end? There’s much more this subject that will be written in the years to come. “Your Digital Afterlife,” raises the right questions and helps us think about how digital technology is changing our lives.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is packed with information and a must read for anyone in the digital world or worried about all their digital artifacts. I really thought the book was going to be different, but still a good read.

[Hom Sack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something to think about, but in the end not all that interesting.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book

[Raymond W. Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will certainly make one think about social media and your privacy or public legacy. Very good read. Must read for all on the sites!