Passing and Passing on in the Digital World : Issues and Solutions for the Digital Estate

What happens to the great amount of information on social media and other Internet platforms after our death? Even while alive it is hardly possible for anyone to control the storage and dissemination of personal data on the Internet. How and for what reasons should we therefore try to make arrangements regarding what happens to this data when we pass away? Our next of kin do not usually know much about our various online activities, nor do they have access to the passwords necessary to deactivate profiles or delete or move information. At the same time, platform providers follow different practices and their terms and conditions vary considerably. This paper summarizes the results of an interdisciplinary research project1 aimed at clarifying the many open questions that arise in connection with this topic and proposes an extended perspective on how the many facets of this subject matter might be approached.