Digital legacy: what it is and how to manage it?
Nowadays we continuously provide our data in most apps and often do not consider what this entails. If you think about it, Gmail, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin or Whatsapp contain information and private data from your life that accumulates over time. What happens to our data when we pass away? From our Notary Office in Barcelona we want to explain to you what digital legacy is and how to manage it. At JLA Notarios we are experts in inheritances and wills and we can resolve your will or inheritance as long as you can come to sign physically at our notary office on Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona.
What is digital legacy or digital inheritance?
The digital legacy refers to the set of electronic data you leave on the Internet or on a hard drive (local storage) when you pass away. It includes images, audios or videos from platforms or social networks (Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok), files in your email accounts (Gmail, Hotmail), documents in digital media such as clouds (Drive, Icloud), accounts of public and/or banking services, password managers or shopping applications, licences, subscriptions or blogs, among others, which constitute your digital identity. How can you ensure that these assets are handled correctly after our death? Planning your digital legacy is extremely important for your privacy and security and will allow you to determine what will happen to your data.
How to manage your digital legacy? What is a digital will?
To manage your digital legacy, it is necessary to process a digital will, that is, a will that contains provisions specifying what will happen to the digital legacy. This document will determine your wishes regarding that set of data and information that has been digitally collected during your life. For this, you will need to make important decisions such as establishing the people who will have access to the accounts, deciding whether you want to keep or delete them, make copies, etc… We must bear in mind that, in some cases, this data contains sensitive information or, in others, we may find information that is not intended to be disclosed.
Furthermore, it is especially important to manage the digital legacy in people with businesses on the internet or accounts that monetise the activity. For example: Instagram or TikTok influencers, YouTube channels of streamers with income from advertising, buyers of cryptocurrencies or NFTs…
Which law regulates digital legacy?
The Organic Data Protection Law, in article 96, determines certain aspects related to the access to service providers:
- Relatives, heirs or persons for de facto reasons who can access the contents to process the deceased's decision.
- The executor or the person or institution to whom access to the contents has been granted.
- In minors, actions will be carried out by legal representatives or by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
- In persons with disabilities, their legal representatives or those designated in support functions.
These persons may be legitimised in a digital will to access digital services or social media accounts and follow the instructions of the deceased.
In Catalonia, article 411-10 of the Book IV of the Catalan Civil Code establishes that the person in charge in the digital will must:
- Notify the death to digital service providers.
- Request the cancellation of active accounts from these providers.
- Request the execution of policies established upon death and the delivery of a copy of digital files on the servers of the digital service providers.
It is worth mentioning that many platforms already have digital legacy management tools such as Facebook, Instagram, Google or Apple. In the case of Facebook or Instagram, they allow choosing a person to manage the account when the person dies, opting to delete it or keep it as a memorial account.
How to make a digital will?
To express your digital will, you must grant it in your will. Wills nowadays must be signed in person at the notary of your choice. In your will, you can include a clause to determine the persons authorised to maintain or delete the profile, follow the instructions regarding your digital accounts (maintenance of networks, deletion, continue publishing content), or even establish who can obtain a copy of the digital legacy.
If you want to know more information about the importance of making a will, we invite you to the following reading:
JLA Notaries for the digital legacy
At JLA Notarios, we practise our profession by providing you with personalised advice on your enquiries. We are experts in wills and inheritances in Barcelona and, if you need to manage your digital legacy or digital inheritance, do not hesitate to contact us. It will be necessary for you to come and sign the will physically at our offices in Barcelona.
Likewise, we remind you of the different channels we have available, either through our email bcn@jlanotarios.com or the contact form on our website. We hope this article about what digital legacy is and how to manage it has been helpful to you.
