Why end-of-life care should include digital assets management
The article discusses the growing importance of managing digital assets and social media identities as part of end-of-life planning. It highlights that digital legacies remain unmanaged after death, creating challenges for families and potential issues with privacy and grief.
Why it matters
As digital footprints become central to personal identity, the lack of legal and practical frameworks for digital inheritance creates significant emotional and administrative burdens for survivors.
With 535 million WhatsApp, 515 million Instagram, 500 million YouTube, 405 million Facebook, 250 million Snapchat, 120 million LinkedIn and 30 million X users, social media and digital footprints, are now an integral part of life.
What happens to these digital identities, however, when the user dies? Most people in India do not have end-of-life-care plans, but even if they do have formal plans in place, there is generally no thought given to the management of digital assets, including not just social media profiles, but also email accounts, cloud photographs, messaging histories, cryptocurrency wallets, monetised channels, online subscriptions, and gaming identities. With 9.75 million deaths occurring every year in India alone, we are talking of immense continuing storage of information, perhaps perpetually.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in