A Digital Legacy is the data we have created and collected in a digital format that provides personal information and tells the story of our lives. We create an extensive amount of personal digital data throughout our life. This data can be created actively by taking photos and recording videos, but other critical information we collect can include medical histories, financial details, family history and so much more.
Most people haven’t planned how they should organize and protect this information for the future. This site will provide you with information and tools needed to help manage your personal digital data so that you can ensure that your family and loved ones have the information they need upon your death. You will also learn ways to organize your data so it can be passed on to future generations.
How to Create Your Digital Legacy
Here’s a breakdown of how this site will help you with these two methods to protect and pass on your digital legacy:
- How to make sure your family and loved ones are prepared to manage your digital accounts and data in the event of your death:
- Provide access to devices such as phones and computers.
- Provide passwords to access critical accounts such as financial, photo, crypto and email sites.
- Provide your wishes regarding whether to memorialize, delete or have a family member manage social media accounts.
- How to preserve personal data you want passed on to your family for future generations:
- Organize all your photos and videos and methods to share them.
- Establish a data backup plan.
- Back up data created on third party services.
- Collect autobiographical stories and memories which could also serve as a memorial.
Below are details regarding some of the areas that need to be considered when coming up with a digital legacy management plan to get you started. There are also many articles and other resources that expand on each of these available on this site. This site is a work in progress and will continue to evolve as new information is gathered and organized so be sure to visit back for updates or signup for the newsletter at the bottom of this page.
Backup Management
Creating a backup plan is the first step towards protecting your personal data.
- Start by backing up your data at home. Here’s several articles to help you do this.
- How to backup your computer – Lifehacker
- What’s your backup plan – The 99 Percent
- Set up an automated bulletproof file backup solution – Lifehacker
- Bulletproof backup: How to make sure your desktop, mobile & web data are safe – The Next Web
- You also want to backup your data to the cloud in case of a burglary of fire in which case the backup data at your home won’t do you any good. Currently there are 3 companies that lead the way in offering this service in a simple way at a reasonable price.
- For the data you are creating on other services you may want to find ways to back that up as well. Here are some online and social data Backup services to help.
- Here are details to export your data directly from a few services
- There are also a few companies that can import your data from multiple services at once.
Password Management
Using a password management app is crucial for many reasons. The first is for reducing the ability for hackers to access your account. But additionally it’s important to provide access to your family if something should happen to you.
- Password Management Guides
- No More Excuses. You Need a Password Management App. (My guide)
- Password Managers Are for Everyone – Including You. (Wirecutter)
- Password Services and Software
Photo Management
You should have a process to scan your photos as well as software to organize it on your computer. Your photos should be part of your backup plan. You can also use software to store your photos privately to share with family and friends in the cloud.
To learn more you can visit the dedicated Photo Management Guide
Video Management
- Library of Congress archiving tips
Digital Legacy Social Media Management
There are several aspects related to managing your social media accounts for the future. You may want to back up or export your data for personal archiving. Most services now have options for determining your wishes for how your presence should be maintained (or deleted) after you die. Facebook and Google allow you to designate someone and what they can access or options for managing your account after you die.
- Facebook information for: Memorializing or deleting the profile and downloading account data using their legacy contact feature
- Google Inactive Account Manager: Configure your Google account to grant access to data for trusted contacts
Estate Planning and Will Management
There are a few legal aspects to creating a digital estate plan and Will that are specific with regards to digital legacy. You should designate your digital estate and wishes for them separately. This can be an addendum to your normal will. You should also designate a digital executor for those assets.
- I wrote an article that details the need for this along with a template to create a document for someone to access all of your data. Below are some of the keys to creating this:
- Provide information for password services / software with the master password to access
- Designate and train a digital trustee on accessing your data and passwords to help out
- Provide information for all on-going subscriptions to services related to digital data
- Over at Trust & Will you can read a comprehensive guide on last will and testaments which is very helpful
- Another good place to learn is at the Get Your Shit Together website and read their resources.
- They recommend 3 online legal services to create your own Digital Will which include:
- You can also learn about the legal aspects of a digital legacy at the NOLO website. They are the authors of Quicken WillMaker
software which I’ve used. After creating the Will you then need to get it notarized.
software which I’ve used. After creating the Will you then need to get it notarized.My Inspiration to create and teach others about Digital Legacy
If you’re curious about the origin story behind why I was inspired to research and help others to create a digital legacy, you can read the origin story in an article here. I also did this presentation back in 2013 but the overall concepts still hold up.