Q: What does a typical 21st century digital legacy look like?
A: When we die, we leave our social media behind: our pictures, memories, messages, whatever you use that for. This is just not about Facebook. This is about any services that are using our data. There’s Google, there is LinkedIn, there is Twitter. Our Google accounts are huge in terms of our likes and dislikes, what we do, what we say, what we search. When you go beyond the first world, there’s a huge issue with online banking in different parts of the world where there are emerging economies. There’s a lot of personal data there, and people are willingly giving it out without realizing what happens to that data down the road.
Q: Why should people take this seriously?
A: Hardly anybody is talking about what happens to these data after we die. It affects everybody, but there have been no guidelines. Whatever companies or individuals are doing, they’re doing in their own ways. If we don’t have standards, there is no legal safety net and it’s a wild west.
Read the full article on Science Mag.