What is a Digital Legacy?

A digital legacy is the digital information that is available about someone following their death. Someone’s digital legacy is often shaped by interactions the person made and information that they created before they died. This might include their social media profiles, online conversations, photos, videos, gaming profiles and their website or blog.
The Digital Legacy Association believe that only once someone understands the value of their own digital legacy will they be motivated and therefore make suitable plans to address this area.
Digital legacy Planning
There are a number of ways in which we can make plans for our digital legacy and the digital assets that are contained within online accounts and digital devices. This might include granting access to devices (computers, mobile phones etc) to one or more trusted person(s). Granting access might help ensure that photos, videos and important files remain accessible and are not locked behind a password in perpetuity.
Plans for photos and videos saved ‘in the cloud’ on social media and other online accounts can also be made. Planning might involve downloading a copy of your uploaded media and passing on a backup of the media contained within them to someone you trust. It may also involve curating your favourite media, printing a selection of photos, documenting your wishes within a social media will and granting account access to a third party.
Making plans for your online accounts and digital legacy shouldn’t be undertaken by a third party… plans should be made by you. You own the online accounts and devices where your personal photos, videos and other digital assets are held. You also know the password for these accounts. You might also own the photos, videos, money and credit held within them. Some solicitors and for profit organisations will charge a fee to ‘manage’ your digital accounts however this can cause confusion, financial loss and the loss of sentimental photos and videos. If you wouldn’t trust a stranger to organise your personal photos and your possessions of monetary value you might not want to trust a stranger or third party organisation when making plans for your personal photos, videos and digital assets of monetary value.
To learn how to make plans for your own online accounts and devices visit our tutorial hub.
Digital legacy App
There are a small number of apps that can help the general public make plans for their online accounts. Some of them charge a fee for use. The MyWishes app is free to use and allows users to document all of their accounts and print out an exhaustive list in a ‘Social Media Will‘ document.